25thmustang
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2008
- Messages
- 1,849
As you can see in my signature, I purchased a Cruiser Inc 297 Elegante. When I purchased the boat I did so without a sea trial. My reasons had to do with knowing the PO, the cost to float the boat for a sea trial, the time limits to get the boat and get it to the marina. For the price, I wasn't concerned.
I have been working on the boat to get it into the water this weekend. Got up around 5:30 Saturday, with hopes of installing my new parts and splashing it early afternoon.
First step was gas. PO mentioned the tanks were emptied prior to storing the boat. I grabbed two 30 gallon rolling cart tanks, filled them and headed to the boat. One tank in, then about halfway through the second, fuel started coming out of the breather. Kept trying, and sure enough, fuel was still coming out. Open the access hatch in the aft cabin, and the 250 gallon tank is full. Good and bad news. The fuel I purchased ended up being some of a loss, and the gas in there is a bit old, but saved me a good amount of money.
Hook up the hose, ignition on, crank the port engine and boom she fires right up. About 10-15 seconds water starts out the exhaust and all looks good. Great idle, oil pressure etc. Let her warm up. Around 8:00 motor one is set to go.
Time to check the starboard motor. Swap the hose over, ignition on, crank... crank... crank, dead battery. Go to swap one of the new ones on and find the terminals for some reason weren't cleaned. I did all the others, missed these. Clean them, different battery and try it out again. Cranks a bit and then fires. About 5 seconds into running it, there is "oil" spraying out everywhere. Look at a very wet area where it appeared to be coming from. Oil pressure sensor. Get new parts, swap them over and hit the ignition. Crank, motor starts and then see oil spraying all over. Upon inspecting, it appeared red, not oil... tranny fluid. Trace it to a bad tranny cooler line. Back out, get a new one made, put it in. Fire the motor up, starts fine, high idle but running well and then... right side riser is POURING water. Shut it down, riser is trashed. Cracked in about 6 places, the worst being the bottom, split to about 1/4" or more wide.
Off to the marine store and get a new riser. Put that in, crank the motor, she starts perfect, after a warm period the idle drops down (a little too low, but the idle screw will fix that) but the leaks are gone, motor sounds good, revs well, but the tach is off.
In the mean time, everytime I get down into the bilge area I smell a strong gas odor. With having no hatches on the back, I kept investigating it and getting nowhere. In a stroke of luck, I was laying in the bilge putting the water intake on the good, ready to go port motor and see the fuel filter is wet. Quick wipe with a rag and its clear there is a crack in it. I undo the feed line, and all h*** breaks loose. In my efforts of filling the tank, it turns out I filled the whole tank, up to the breather area. Well this fuel line happened to be above the tank, but below this line. Sure enough, I spent a good 20 minutes dealing with this full fuel line, and not having anyway to stop the fuel flow within my reach in the bilge. My father was off on a parts run so I was stuck plugging it with my finger for close to a half hour. In the end it was emptied down into a container so I could keep the line suspended in the bilge, clamped off waiting to install the new screw type fuel filters. The issue here is the area given is fine for the old style, but not the larger screw type. Time to create a bracket to hold that, as well as the solinoid.
Add to this the guy who brought the parts didn't have one float switch, one blower and came a few hours later than I expected. Not an issue, as I planned to make it work out anyway.
My dreams of spending today on the boat are being spent at home. Due to the rules of the marina, without my father I can't be there. He went golfing today, and it looks like at best I can get back to the boat tomorrow.
All in all this isn't the end of the world, and once I get the issues sorted out, should be good to go with some maintenance work done. It's my fault for no sea trial, but the reasons above made that nearly impossible. For what I paid for the boat, I'm still about $10,000 shy of what fair market value is.
Sorry for the long winded post, I guess I needed to vent. It's mid 80s out, sunny, absolutely the BEST boating weather one can imagine... and I'm sitting on the computer in the office waisting the day away.
I have been working on the boat to get it into the water this weekend. Got up around 5:30 Saturday, with hopes of installing my new parts and splashing it early afternoon.
First step was gas. PO mentioned the tanks were emptied prior to storing the boat. I grabbed two 30 gallon rolling cart tanks, filled them and headed to the boat. One tank in, then about halfway through the second, fuel started coming out of the breather. Kept trying, and sure enough, fuel was still coming out. Open the access hatch in the aft cabin, and the 250 gallon tank is full. Good and bad news. The fuel I purchased ended up being some of a loss, and the gas in there is a bit old, but saved me a good amount of money.
Hook up the hose, ignition on, crank the port engine and boom she fires right up. About 10-15 seconds water starts out the exhaust and all looks good. Great idle, oil pressure etc. Let her warm up. Around 8:00 motor one is set to go.
Time to check the starboard motor. Swap the hose over, ignition on, crank... crank... crank, dead battery. Go to swap one of the new ones on and find the terminals for some reason weren't cleaned. I did all the others, missed these. Clean them, different battery and try it out again. Cranks a bit and then fires. About 5 seconds into running it, there is "oil" spraying out everywhere. Look at a very wet area where it appeared to be coming from. Oil pressure sensor. Get new parts, swap them over and hit the ignition. Crank, motor starts and then see oil spraying all over. Upon inspecting, it appeared red, not oil... tranny fluid. Trace it to a bad tranny cooler line. Back out, get a new one made, put it in. Fire the motor up, starts fine, high idle but running well and then... right side riser is POURING water. Shut it down, riser is trashed. Cracked in about 6 places, the worst being the bottom, split to about 1/4" or more wide.
Off to the marine store and get a new riser. Put that in, crank the motor, she starts perfect, after a warm period the idle drops down (a little too low, but the idle screw will fix that) but the leaks are gone, motor sounds good, revs well, but the tach is off.
In the mean time, everytime I get down into the bilge area I smell a strong gas odor. With having no hatches on the back, I kept investigating it and getting nowhere. In a stroke of luck, I was laying in the bilge putting the water intake on the good, ready to go port motor and see the fuel filter is wet. Quick wipe with a rag and its clear there is a crack in it. I undo the feed line, and all h*** breaks loose. In my efforts of filling the tank, it turns out I filled the whole tank, up to the breather area. Well this fuel line happened to be above the tank, but below this line. Sure enough, I spent a good 20 minutes dealing with this full fuel line, and not having anyway to stop the fuel flow within my reach in the bilge. My father was off on a parts run so I was stuck plugging it with my finger for close to a half hour. In the end it was emptied down into a container so I could keep the line suspended in the bilge, clamped off waiting to install the new screw type fuel filters. The issue here is the area given is fine for the old style, but not the larger screw type. Time to create a bracket to hold that, as well as the solinoid.
Add to this the guy who brought the parts didn't have one float switch, one blower and came a few hours later than I expected. Not an issue, as I planned to make it work out anyway.
My dreams of spending today on the boat are being spent at home. Due to the rules of the marina, without my father I can't be there. He went golfing today, and it looks like at best I can get back to the boat tomorrow.
All in all this isn't the end of the world, and once I get the issues sorted out, should be good to go with some maintenance work done. It's my fault for no sea trial, but the reasons above made that nearly impossible. For what I paid for the boat, I'm still about $10,000 shy of what fair market value is.
Sorry for the long winded post, I guess I needed to vent. It's mid 80s out, sunny, absolutely the BEST boating weather one can imagine... and I'm sitting on the computer in the office waisting the day away.
