DanDud

Hi all, first post on here and could do with a bit of advice please.

My dad use to have a 1992 Formula 223 ls with the 7.4 454 magnum engine in and iv had a tinker with this in the past so im not a complete newbie. Im also a fairly good car mechanic. He sold that when the speed limit was imposed on lake Windermere in the lake district unfortunatly so we have been boatless since.

Moving on 8 years, a friend of mine has a 1989 206 ls with the 5.7 350 mag in and an alpha one drive. The boat hasnt ran in 8 years and has just been sat on a trailer outside his house under cover.
I went up to see it on wednesday night (pics attached). Our plan for this weekend is to get it running on muffs on the trailer, or fill his bin with water

The boat seems to have been looked after, the engine bay is spotless, even after 8 years and has only done 237 hours since new. Theres no rot in the boat at all. It was left with the bung out luckily. I have a new battery to go in.

Where im up to so far.

I took a rocker cover off to find a nice clean top end, no gunk, no rust etc so i poured 2 bottles of crankcase cleaner in and left a while.

I then drained the oil out and filled it back up with some 10/40 (for now) i also put 1 bottle of crank case cleaner in and some oil seal replenesher. That was wednesday.

Im going to start again on sat morning. Plugs are fine but i have got new ones to go in anyway. When i take them out again im going to spray a bit of WD40 down the plug holes.

Iv got a new oil filter and fuel filter to go on. Im also going to drain the fuel tank if theres any left in it and replace with new.

Im going to try and turn the engine manually on the crank pulley first and if successful then crank it over with the dizzy disconnected to get oil pressure. Once pressure has built up i was going to try and start it.

Throttle liinkages and sterring seem ok. Not had a battery in to test planes or leg yet.

So:

fresh oil
WD40 down bored
new plugs
new battery
new fuel
new oil and fuel filters
turn engine by hand
crank for pressure
dizzy on and hope it fires up with carb cleaner/engine starter being sprayed down carb

Have i missed anything out?

Having googled quite a bit, will i need to replace the raw water pump impeller? Is it deffinatly going to be knackered? If so i have obviously got to replace this before i fire it up havnt i? is it the 1 on the bottom left of all the ancileries?

Pics:

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000377.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000376.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000375.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000374.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000372.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000371.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000373.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/P1000369.jpg

Many thanks in advance!

Dan

firehawkcat

Change i raw water impeller for sure, man that looks pretty clean for sitting for 8 years. Might get lucky and she will fire right up, keep a close eye on the oil preasure gage just encase

firehawkcat

Hopefully he ran it out of fuel before parking it, that could be a real mess inside of fuel tanks

DanDud

I hope he did! If not il be sticking a vacuum pump or something in the tank and draining it out then hoping for the best! Iv got 2 fuel filters anyway, and 2 oil filters. If i get it running for a few hours on the 10/40 and its ok im going to drop that and put in the mercruiser 25/40 stuff with a new filter.

I will deffinatly be keepig an eye on the oil pressure! Thats my main concern.

Am i right in thinking if the raw water impellor is knackered theres no point in firing her up? Thats the main water pump isnt it?

Thanks

Dan

machloosy

Agreed, that raw water pumps needs to be replaced. While your at it, get a $10 quicksilver oil pump and about 2qts of drive lube will be a REAL good investment. Go with cheap stuff and then change in 1-3hrs because it will have picked up any corrosion and junk in the drive case.

DanDud

Iv just been out and managed to find a raw water impeller so iv got that.

Drive lube i will have to leave for another time, i havnt got any more time today to go out and get bits, the boat wont be going in the water anyway this weekend.

machloosy

Don't get discouraged! Nearly every guy on this board has been there and done that! So keep grinding ahead. sbc/alpha's are easier and cheaper than most. You'll get it in no time. This site is a GOLD MINE of knowledge so keep questions coming

DanDud

Your right this site is a gold mine! Thanks everyone. Got the thing running anyway and shes looking pretty clean.

1 thing that confused me though, there is no sea water pump on the engine. Mercruiser parts list it and i know where it should be: http://www.mercruiserparts.com/selec...doc_nbr=816596

But it physically wasnt there. Water was pumping out of the exhausts anyway though with the muffs on the leg.

To start off with the engine was locked solid, starter wouldnt turn it and the crank pully setup didnt have an option to turn it by hand which i thought was strange.
So i put it in gear and 2 of us basically jumped on the prop till it turned a bit, turned her over on the starter and she built 3 bar oil pressure in no time. Connected the dizzy up, had spark but no fuel, hmmm. After much head scratching i took the fuel filter off and filled it up, then poured a cap of fuel down the carb and bang! 1st turn of the key. bit smokey but ran her for 45mins and she didnt miss a beat! Ran her for another half hour today and again was faultless. Temp gauge doesnt work but thats either the sender or the gauge, easy fix.

Planes work, leg goes up and down, goes into gear and reverse fine. I found 3 greese nipples on the leg so used a greese gun and filled them up, is there anything else that i should do to it?

The fluid for the planes am i right in thinking thats ATF fluid?

Thanks

Dan

DanDud

Some clean pics, not too bad considering its been sat under a tree for 8 years!

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat6.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat5.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat4.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat3.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat2.jpg

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...20ls/boat1.jpg

Vid: http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u...boatfireup.mp4

FogduckerIII

iTrader: (-1)

You have an Alpha leg, the impeller is in the lower section of the leg, get an impeller kit, pull the lower leg, 6 bolts if I remeber correctly, make sure you remove the zinc plate and get the bolt up inside there and you might as well do the gear oil while your there, good luck with it.