I was looking at a used boat with outboard & trailer, a bow rider set up for fishing, a live well and racks, pretty nice a good starter boat for me. Saw it on the side of the road. 20 ft 115 hp Evinrude.
Checked the compression (good) and ran it with muffs. It ran rough but it had been sitting for 2 years. The Bimini top was just a bit dirty and shows from a mildew that only is seen from the bottom. I might be able to wash that out.
So I bought it. Trailer needed small stuff, lights and bearing pack and a tire. It had an electric wench. The previous owner was an older fellow so I guess he needed it. I tried it out but it didn't work so I put on a new manual wench. Much better.
The owner was said to have had a heart attack and fell off the boat. They found him 2 days later. The son sold the boat through a friend since he was overseas for some time. So little mechanical was known about the boat and this creates a serious gamble to me and I couldn't test drive it without getting it transferred and legal so it was a bit of a dilemma. The asking price was well under blue book and I grew to like the thing over the weeks thinking about it and went ahead with it.
I was told to pump out the fuel and put fresh in it. Well, I went to do that and discovered through the sender hatch that the tank was a 63 gallon tank and the fuel gauge said 3/4's full. I didn't know what to do with it and realized that I was looking at $140 worth of gas right there.
Because it did run, I thought let's just take it out and stay close and I can check to see if it leaks or sinks or what. So I went to the closest marina public ramp. It was a nice one too which had two seasoned fellows sitting in the gazebo next to the ramp. It looked like they were well into enjoying their retirements. I walked over to them and told them I was a new owner to a used boat and might need some advice. That I did. I was hoping to grab someone who had the time to give me pointers. I asked them if they knew anything about boats. They looked at each other and said "not a thing really". They chuckled and then I knew they were old hands around boating.
He happened to be a coast guard aux member manning a little kiosk trailer and being armed with check sheets wrote me up for several violations. This was done in good will though not for legal reasons, just to show me what I needed to get safe, legal and seaworthy. Horn, throwable safety devise, bucket, radio, maybe another thing or two.
After that we went over the smallest things. When to take what strap off, install the plug, safety chain and assure the motor is tilted up, so it was time to ramp it out. It was awkward and I'm certain was funny to watch me trying to launch this for the very first time. Not being sure where to be and what rope to pull but I was responding to their every direction. We had some laughs but it was what I had hoped for, someone to be there to help me yet I was going to do it myself either way, regardless.
This all attracted the attention of the marina manager and he golf carted his way over. A real nice young man and he hopped out and helped with some of the physical stuff. Being so late there wasn't much launching and just a little boat retrieval going on. The parking lot was almost empty so I was allowed to leave my truck/trailer on the ramp.
Earlier, I had noticed that it needed a fuel filter. It didn't have one on it at all. I cut the line just after the bulb and installed it. I started the thing up and it ran rough and coughed with 2-3 backfires stalling it out. Finally I got it to run continuously.
It wasn't long till the hot light and a faint warning horn came on. It had come on with the muffs listening to the engine pre-sale and I had shut it down then too. I had thought that it might be hot because of inadequate hose flow so this bothered me to see this overheat now sitting fully in bay water.
The symptom, and why I post this to this thread.
I let it sit a few minutes till it cooled down. I remained roped to the dock and surrounded by all these guys. We were all pondering the possible causes. While sitting there they heard something bubbling. I took off the engine cover and we saw nothing. I then opened the bilge hatch and water was pouring in. I stuck my head down there and saw the cascade, it was coming in from the live well circ pump. It looked like the pump was not bayoneted together but I couldn't get it to affix like it should be. It looked like it might have been frozen and destroyed. Then I followed the piping to the well and saw a valve. That was nice. That stopped all the water coming in and I turned the bilge back on to get it out. The circ pump had melted down too. I might have left it on flipping switches but I think it was a freeze failure then a melt down.
By now, enough time had passed so I started it up again and it was cool and rev 'd it up quite a bit while in proper temp condition. Suddenly they all noticed it spitting more water out. We thought we had blew a mouse or dauber nest out of the waterways or something. That felt good to hear yet I was apprehensive because it had over heated before.
Anyway, the thing didn't overheat after the second start up and was beginning to sound smoother and running good. So I took it out and did a few circles. The bay was about a mile out a channel so I headed out at 6 knots carefully and excitedly trying to capture any sounds or feelings of mechanical trouble. Past the markers I ran it up and over the step and it was exciting. We turned around though, I was feeling nervous about being out so far and had not gotten a tow coverage yet.
One goal seemed achievable though, that I could run out the old fuel and not pump it out. I put in a highly touted blue gas additive in, "Star trek" or something. When I got back, I saw the crowd still there. I had not locked up the truck and it had valuables in it too. But they kept an eye on it telling me I had done that though. I'm sure they chalked that up to my excitement.
The next day or so I took it out to check the bilge pump again and for any leaks. On the previous run it seemed to have lots of water being pumped. I wasn't sure if that had been in there due to the live well pump rupture or not.
I started it up and not too long it over heated again. My heart sunk and I knew it was in need of something. Yet after a cool down it could be started and run wide open without over heating again. This was perplexing to me so I started calling around for what to do. I didn’t want to take it out until I solved this issue.
(To be continued)
Checked the compression (good) and ran it with muffs. It ran rough but it had been sitting for 2 years. The Bimini top was just a bit dirty and shows from a mildew that only is seen from the bottom. I might be able to wash that out.
So I bought it. Trailer needed small stuff, lights and bearing pack and a tire. It had an electric wench. The previous owner was an older fellow so I guess he needed it. I tried it out but it didn't work so I put on a new manual wench. Much better.
The owner was said to have had a heart attack and fell off the boat. They found him 2 days later. The son sold the boat through a friend since he was overseas for some time. So little mechanical was known about the boat and this creates a serious gamble to me and I couldn't test drive it without getting it transferred and legal so it was a bit of a dilemma. The asking price was well under blue book and I grew to like the thing over the weeks thinking about it and went ahead with it.
I was told to pump out the fuel and put fresh in it. Well, I went to do that and discovered through the sender hatch that the tank was a 63 gallon tank and the fuel gauge said 3/4's full. I didn't know what to do with it and realized that I was looking at $140 worth of gas right there.
Because it did run, I thought let's just take it out and stay close and I can check to see if it leaks or sinks or what. So I went to the closest marina public ramp. It was a nice one too which had two seasoned fellows sitting in the gazebo next to the ramp. It looked like they were well into enjoying their retirements. I walked over to them and told them I was a new owner to a used boat and might need some advice. That I did. I was hoping to grab someone who had the time to give me pointers. I asked them if they knew anything about boats. They looked at each other and said "not a thing really". They chuckled and then I knew they were old hands around boating.
He happened to be a coast guard aux member manning a little kiosk trailer and being armed with check sheets wrote me up for several violations. This was done in good will though not for legal reasons, just to show me what I needed to get safe, legal and seaworthy. Horn, throwable safety devise, bucket, radio, maybe another thing or two.
After that we went over the smallest things. When to take what strap off, install the plug, safety chain and assure the motor is tilted up, so it was time to ramp it out. It was awkward and I'm certain was funny to watch me trying to launch this for the very first time. Not being sure where to be and what rope to pull but I was responding to their every direction. We had some laughs but it was what I had hoped for, someone to be there to help me yet I was going to do it myself either way, regardless.
This all attracted the attention of the marina manager and he golf carted his way over. A real nice young man and he hopped out and helped with some of the physical stuff. Being so late there wasn't much launching and just a little boat retrieval going on. The parking lot was almost empty so I was allowed to leave my truck/trailer on the ramp.
Earlier, I had noticed that it needed a fuel filter. It didn't have one on it at all. I cut the line just after the bulb and installed it. I started the thing up and it ran rough and coughed with 2-3 backfires stalling it out. Finally I got it to run continuously.
It wasn't long till the hot light and a faint warning horn came on. It had come on with the muffs listening to the engine pre-sale and I had shut it down then too. I had thought that it might be hot because of inadequate hose flow so this bothered me to see this overheat now sitting fully in bay water.
The symptom, and why I post this to this thread.
I let it sit a few minutes till it cooled down. I remained roped to the dock and surrounded by all these guys. We were all pondering the possible causes. While sitting there they heard something bubbling. I took off the engine cover and we saw nothing. I then opened the bilge hatch and water was pouring in. I stuck my head down there and saw the cascade, it was coming in from the live well circ pump. It looked like the pump was not bayoneted together but I couldn't get it to affix like it should be. It looked like it might have been frozen and destroyed. Then I followed the piping to the well and saw a valve. That was nice. That stopped all the water coming in and I turned the bilge back on to get it out. The circ pump had melted down too. I might have left it on flipping switches but I think it was a freeze failure then a melt down.
By now, enough time had passed so I started it up again and it was cool and rev 'd it up quite a bit while in proper temp condition. Suddenly they all noticed it spitting more water out. We thought we had blew a mouse or dauber nest out of the waterways or something. That felt good to hear yet I was apprehensive because it had over heated before.
Anyway, the thing didn't overheat after the second start up and was beginning to sound smoother and running good. So I took it out and did a few circles. The bay was about a mile out a channel so I headed out at 6 knots carefully and excitedly trying to capture any sounds or feelings of mechanical trouble. Past the markers I ran it up and over the step and it was exciting. We turned around though, I was feeling nervous about being out so far and had not gotten a tow coverage yet.
One goal seemed achievable though, that I could run out the old fuel and not pump it out. I put in a highly touted blue gas additive in, "Star trek" or something. When I got back, I saw the crowd still there. I had not locked up the truck and it had valuables in it too. But they kept an eye on it telling me I had done that though. I'm sure they chalked that up to my excitement.
The next day or so I took it out to check the bilge pump again and for any leaks. On the previous run it seemed to have lots of water being pumped. I wasn't sure if that had been in there due to the live well pump rupture or not.
I started it up and not too long it over heated again. My heart sunk and I knew it was in need of something. Yet after a cool down it could be started and run wide open without over heating again. This was perplexing to me so I started calling around for what to do. I didn’t want to take it out until I solved this issue.
(To be continued)
