Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

[Gibbles]

I have a early 60's Starcraft Jet star, And I picked up a Merc 650 65 hp (3 cyl) local yesterday, with controls and wiring for a song...
it looks like it just needs some work with the internal plug connector, and a good carb cleaning.

The boat is rated HP is about 50 or 55hp if I remember correctly...
How close do I need to stick to the rated HP on this boat?

I'm thinking I should be ok once I get a new transom in there this fall/winter.

Think I'll get away with this engine, or will it sink me?


Currently I have been trolling along with a merc 200 20hp, that works great when I'm by my self, but with another adult in there... :facepalm:

Right now I'm just hoping this engine does not need a dist cap or rotor, apparently they are a little rare and $$$

I have happy thoughts of my little jet star rocket with this 65hp, getting it up on a plane quickly and having some speed and power.

 

[starcrafter65]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Your good


Seriously - when is more power not good? I had a Nassau - 16' rated for 70 - I put the Merc 4 cyl 80 on it - went fast - but I was fine.

Post some pics~!!

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Thanks for the input

I think this will rock with the bigger engine.


I will get some pictures of my current redneck setup and share the details once I start work on the boat.

 

[tgp***]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Ya better hold on@WOT. I have the 4 cyl. 650 on my 66' Nassau. More than enough engine for my boat, and Nassau is rated for 75hp.

Now we need pictures. We like pictures.

 

[starcrafter65]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Paint flames on it!!

Those 4 cylinder mercs are sweet!

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?



The more I work with the engine the more I get excited about it.

Flames, I think I could get that to work into the current color scheme

The people I bought the engine from, they had this great welded steel engine stand made out of square pipe.

I made a comment about how nice it was to his wife, and she told me "Oh I think he is selling that too"

I enquired how much they were planning on selling it for, she went inside to talk with him and came out saying $25!

So I told her I want it, I will be back tomorrow with a trailer.
I picked it up yesterday and added some caster wheels to the bottom.
It looks like someone paid alot of money for this thing, or was a skilled welder/fabricator


I managed to get the engine out of my suv yesterday by my self, it was heavy, but not to bad... (the last engine I helped move was an evinrude 85...)

I did alot of swearing, and cussing... but finally managed to get it on the stand. :redface:

The stand is nice and wide, I was able to get the 65 and my other 20 on there with plenty of working space in between, and the wheels make it easy to wheel the engines around.

This weekend I will get the boat uncovered and cleaned up for some pictures.

It's rough, and I rushed it onto the lake last year when I bought it and did not do anything other than make my own controls, and my own bracket for the steering...

I will have to get some before and after shots of the current controls, I think some of you might get a laugh, others may scold me.

 

[Vtstar]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Dont worry, I have a 1965 Merc 650 on a 1970 Jet Star and it works fine for me. For that boat a 50 would be plenty but this is how the boat was set up when I acquired it. The motor runs well so I am not going to bother to mess with it. I will say that it is rare that I am at WOT for any extended period of time, just a little bit faster than I want to go in that boat.




Another pic, seems to float about right

 

[starcrafter65]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Dont worry, I have a 1965 Merc 650 on a 1970 Jet Star and it works fine for me. For that boat a 50 would be plenty but this is how the boat was set up when I acquired it. The motor runs well so I am not going to bother to mess with it. I will say that it is rare that I am at WOT for any extended period of time, just a little bit faster than I want to go in that boat.

View attachment 106804




Another pic, seems to float about right

View attachment 106803

You went so fast your face blurred!

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Now your just trying to get me excited.


I started cleaning up the engine, and I found one issue the guy had talked about with the engine...

He said that the dist cap carbon contact had a weak spring and that was causing the engine to have issues running.

I pulled the dist cap off and found the cap first off looks great, as does the rotor (great because this is the 3cyl model) and the spring was indeed weak... someone installed the spring backwards and it was stuck in the dist cap.

I sprayed everything down with seafoam oil and took a quetip to the dist cap and extracted the spring, and put it back together right (also ordered a new carbon contact + spring).

Another issue was the lower unit looked like someone had tried to touch up with paint and did a really bad job... while dropping the lower I also noticed a small crack...

I sprayed down the lower with carb cleaner and all of the old paint (3 layers!) melted off, and even showed #2 layer was fluorescent orange :facepalm: (for diving/swiming maybe?)

The lower cleaned up very well and looks almost brand new.

The crack looks like someone removed the output shaft and hit the lower a little to hard with a mallet getting it apart.

The crack is only in the exaust housing and should not cause any issues.

Lower it self looks to have recent bearings and seems to operate smootly.
Someone had used black RTV to seal up the lower water pump housing to the lower...
that was a pain to remove in one piece...

The guy I bought it from said he had changed the oil in the lower and replaced the impeller...
Oil in the lower looked to be half water, half oil...
And the impeller looks like it was changed about 5 years ago...

So right now I have the lower soaking seafoam & oil mix (no signs of rust inside the lower that I can see short of doing a tear down).

And I have an impeller kit/w gasket set on order, carb rebuild kit (x2), and a fuel pump rebuild kit.

The dist belt line up mark also does not line up with TDC, and the flywheel is missing the timing marks, but it looks like someone made a new mark on the front of the engine, lining up with a straight line on the engine block.

I will try and fire it up as she sits before messing with anything...

And I had picked up a mercury manual from ebay for my 20hp merc 200 off of ebay, that also covers this engine, its a huge help.

And all of this while trying to get my boat ready to rock for the 20th, I still have to get the proper controls (borrowed from the 65hp for now) installed for my 20, and I need to lower the seats (orig owner put in a box that sits way to high, now that I have a windshield installed, it only goes up to my chest with the current seating :redface.

 

[Brenn]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

That should be a fun set up when youre done with it.Wheres the pics? Until I find a Starcraft in my area im living viariously through you guys,sigh.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Still working on pictures, I had planned to get alot done on the boat this last weekend, but my Dad came over with mud and paint, so I ended up working on my house instead...

I still have the pictures of when I first bought the boat...

It looks much the same, but the engine no longer has a tiller, and I now have a windshield.


I have been collecting parts slowly, and I also have a better trailer for it, but It needs new bunks, and rollers.

I also have a rotary steering setup available for it, but I need to first make sure I can fit it under the dash.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Dont worry, I have a 1965 Merc 650 on a 1970 Jet Star and it works fine for me. For that boat a 50 would be plenty but this is how the boat was set up when I acquired it. The motor runs well so I am not going to bother to mess with it. I will say that it is rare that I am at WOT for any extended period of time, just a little bit faster than I want to go in that boat.

View attachment 106804


Another pic, seems to float about right

View attachment 106803

Thanks, just what I was looking for

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

hopefully if I have time this weekend I plan on getting the other steering system from my FIL's part engine, but I'm pretty sure it will need a new cable, and it may end up being to large to fit under the dash...

I was looking around here http://www.iboats.com/Rack-Package-12-Teleflex-Marine/dm/*******.265787776--**********.507242469--view_id.169476

That steering setup looks good, and the price is not as bad as I had feared.

Anyone have experiance installing/converting a pully steering setup to something like this?

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Still working on current pictures, I signed up for OT this week and have not had a chance to even look at the boat.

Last thing I did was try and install the controlls just to find out I have a stuck throttle cable.
Its very hard trying to find a 600a cable in the 13ft range local.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

A little update

I ordered cables from iboats, and then found out they don't keep anything in stock local, so this week sometime they should come

And I found a flywheel on ebay and the seller gave me a great picture of the decal, I was able to confirm that the dist is set correct and I went ahead and ordered the flywheel with sticker from the seller for $30 shipped.

The sticker is worth $30 to me...
And a local boat shop that seems to specialize in old mercs had a big sheet of the timing stickers but none for the 650.

And while working on the boat I noticed that my bunks have some up and down movment...

I will look into it further but it's alot of movment, and the trailer is just falling apart...
so I have to get my alt trailer out of storage early and put together soon... then figure out the best way to swap trailers...

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Got some current pictures and a new boat dog (Cocker Spaniel)

I have it taken apart right now, and I removed the seat boxes that I bought with the boat, they did not work well with the windshield

Dog snuck into the picture (by wheel)
Wife talked me into her over the weekend, she was on her way to the pound @ 8months old

She loves water, rides in the car (sits and stays in the back seat!) and spent her puppy live in an apartment, she is slowly getting used to having her own yard.


I have slowly been working on that 65hp, I rebuilt the carbs, water pump, and I'm working on the fuel lines.
Not going to fully install the carbs until I can check float level... (pain to get back off)

I'm having to replace all of the fittings for the fuel lines due to the factory lines being fitted...
Here it is sitting next to my other 20hp on the engine stand I got with the 65

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Yesterday I ran into a little trolling motor

I guess he got it out of a barn, and soaked it in oil until it freed up...

I paid $10, has a good spark, and compression.

Missing the gas tank, and the engine cover...
Recoil starter is just out of the shot, but seems to work fine (once I oiled it)

looks to be a 1980 7.5hp clinton

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

I got the old clinton torn apart yesterday and I filled the engine with seafoam the day before.

the carb is currently soaking in carb cleaner.

And I drained the engine last night and changed the lower oil.

I put a little oil in the engine via spray can and put the pull starter back on and sprayed a little shot of brake cleaner in and gave it a good pull

compression is very good, and it fired up and gave about 4 good sounding pops before it ran out of fumes.

And it looks like the Clinton engine has an impeller even though its air cooled.

Best I can figure out is it cools the exaust housing only...

I found a source for the impeller, but I cannot get the slotted screw off so I can drop the lower to look at it...

I'm thinking that the only reason for the cooling of the leg is so grandpa won't burn him self when packing the engine up for the day...
and I plan on mounting it permently to the boat and tieing it to my steering...

 

[barato2]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Gib, that engine is very similar to the old air cooled Eskas (sold by Sears as Gamefishers for years), altho those use tecumseh powerheads instead of clinton. i have 2 of em, and the favctory shop manual says that engine will overheat if you don't have the impeller working. i know that at least on the smaller ones, it is possible to remove the impeller and do something so that the propwash is forced up in there for cooling instead, but not sure if this plan will work on the greater heat production of a 7.5

good luck with that slotted screw....mine snapped off even after pen-oil, heat, and hand impact driver plus lots of slow back n forth once it got moving. ended up buying spare lower unit on fleebay. try LOTS of heat and BFH on the hand impact driver

FWIW, those things want much "richer" oil-to-gas mixture than water cooled ones, i'm guessing due to the greater clearances on air cooled cylinder and hotter running.....instead of the 50:1 you're used to, factory and most owners recommend 36:1 or even 24:1. i think 24:1 is excessive and it sure makes em stink

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star?

Thanks for the warning

I'll have to get some heat and keep trying to get it free.

If not I'll make sure I get some water spray, and if that fails, I'll cut it off and break out the drill and tap...