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Engine Rebuilt Nightmare

Old 09-06-2011, 08:36 PM
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Default Engine Rebuilt Nightmare

I was going to get into the entire chain of events from the engine builder that had our engine the first week of Feb that did not get it to me until the week of July 5th! To the two so-called friends in the marine business who I was willing to pay to help me install everything all the way down to having to pull the engine three times!!!! For advice the coupler was bad to it was never aligned from the factory correctly!!! Oh and the most important thing, the radio stopped working and our soft band new cooler has a hole in it!

Well, finally the boat was put together and in the water for the Shootout last weekend. Good news for the most part.

The boat is a Baja by Fountain 26OL with the stringer hull, you remember the one Reggie got 69MPH out of for the Powerboat article. The engine is a 496 that was rebuilt from the crank out with Dart Heads. The best dyno was 560HP/544TQ @ 5400RPM. I was hoping for a little more, 575HP would have been cool but I guess I can strap on my Briggs & Stratton for the extra 15HP.

I also put on an IMCO neutral extension box with IMCO 2" shorty. Measured the distance from the keel to the prop shaft centerline and it is 4 7/8"

The first day on the water with her I was spinning a Bravo1 26P Merc labbed prop. It was only giving me 4900RPM and a top speed of 66MPH. (Before all the up grades and tons of $$$$ I was getting 61MPH) This past weekend I put the old 23P prop back on and was getting 5400RPM and still only 66MPH. So the fun of getting the right prop begins. Any suggestions would be great and I haven't had the chance to call any of the professional prop guys yet. Surely I can get more out of this boat than just 5MPH.

Another issue I am having is the idle. It idles like crAAp and I am thinking it has something to do with the fuel pressure. The original dyno had a fuel pressure of 44.5PSI @ 2800 and 41PSI @ 5400. with an average of 42.5 PSI @ 4100 I was told this will damage the engine. So I installed an adjustable pressure regulator and at the 11th hours I threw my hands up and told the shop that was aligning it to install it and set it at 49PSI. They set it at 52PSI so they told me. What are some of the thoughts about the PSI and where should it be base lined? I know this all depends on the engine and spark plugs. Can someone share or point me in the direction of a good reference for spark plug inspection? So I know what to look for while I fine tune it some more.

Sorry for the long winded post and I hope my ranting makes sense. And if you are reading this and love your boat but you are thinking about doing this one day I would suggest you don't if you do not want to start hating the very sight of it.
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Old 09-06-2011, 08:45 PM
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Originally Posted by TW720HVY
I was going to get into the entire chain of events from the engine builder that had our engine the first week of Feb that did not get it to me until the week of July 5th! To the two so-called friends in the marine business who I was willing to pay to help me install everything all the way down to having to pull the engine three times!!!! For advice the coupler was bad to it was never aligned from the factory correctly!!! Oh and the most important thing, the radio stopped working and our soft band new cooler has a hole in it!

Well, finally the boat was put together and in the water for the Shootout last weekend. Good news for the most part.

The boat is a Baja by Fountain 26OL with the stringer hull, you remember the one Reggie got 69MPH out of for the Powerboat article. The engine is a 496 that was rebuilt from the crank out with Dart Heads. The best dyno was 560HP/544TQ @ 5400RPM. I was hoping for a little more, 575HP would have been cool but I guess I can strap on my Briggs & Stratton for the extra 15HP.

I also put on an IMCO neutral extension box with IMCO 2" shorty. Measured the distance from the keel to the prop shaft centerline and it is 4 7/8"

The first day on the water with her I was spinning a Bravo1 26P Merc labbed prop. It was only giving me 4900RPM and a top speed of 66MPH. (Before all the up grades and tons of $$$$ I was getting 61MPH) This past weekend I put the old 23P prop back on and was getting 5400RPM and still only 66MPH. So the fun of getting the right prop begins. Any suggestions would be great and I haven't had the chance to call any of the professional prop guys yet. Surely I can get more out of this boat than just 5MPH.

Another issue I am having is the idle. It idles like crAAp and I am thinking it has something to do with the fuel pressure. The original dyno had a fuel pressure of 44.5PSI @ 2800 and 41PSI @ 5400. with an average of 42.5 PSI @ 4100 I was told this will damage the engine. So I installed an adjustable pressure regulator and at the 11th hours I threw my hands up and told the shop that was aligning it to install it and set it at 49PSI. They set it at 52PSI so they told me. What are some of the thoughts about the PSI and where should it be base lined? I know this all depends on the engine and spark plugs. Can someone share or point me in the direction of a good reference for spark plug inspection? So I know what to look for while I fine tune it some more.

Sorry for the long winded post and I hope my ranting makes sense. And if you are reading this and love your boat but you are thinking about doing this one day I would suggest you don't if you do not want to start hating the very sight of it.
Call Reggies new company...they can get it right....RF Powerboats. We have our 42ft Fountain Ex up there now...so far they have got 15MPH more out of it...and more is left. Very good people..they can dial it it. Trust me...over the last 5 years we have tried every avenue from self rigging..to "self professed" riggers. Take it to RF Powerboats over the winter...you wont be sorry.
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Old 09-06-2011, 08:58 PM
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Thanks for the reply, I will give them a call and see what they have to say.
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Old 09-06-2011, 09:11 PM
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Originally Posted by TW720HVY
Thanks for the reply, I will give them a call and see what they have to say.
They are just getting set up and are getting phone installed this week....website to be launched this week too. PM me if you want Lil R's cell number.
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Old 09-06-2011, 09:27 PM
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you're missing a good 7-8 mph somewhere....time to fire up the briggs...
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Old 09-06-2011, 09:48 PM
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Originally Posted by TW720HVY
I was going to get into the entire chain of events from the engine builder that had our engine the first week of Feb that did not get it to me until the week of July 5th! To the two so-called friends in the marine business who I was willing to pay to help me install everything all the way down to having to pull the engine three times!!!! For advice the coupler was bad to it was never aligned from the factory correctly!!! Oh and the most important thing, the radio stopped working and our soft band new cooler has a hole in it!

Well, finally the boat was put together and in the water for the Shootout last weekend. Good news for the most part.

The boat is a Baja by Fountain 26OL with the stringer hull, you remember the one Reggie got 69MPH out of for the Powerboat article. The engine is a 496 that was rebuilt from the crank out with Dart Heads. The best dyno was 560HP/544TQ @ 5400RPM. I was hoping for a little more, 575HP would have been cool but I guess I can strap on my Briggs & Stratton for the extra 15HP.

I also put on an IMCO neutral extension box with IMCO 2" shorty. Measured the distance from the keel to the prop shaft centerline and it is 4 7/8"

The first day on the water with her I was spinning a Bravo1 26P Merc labbed prop. It was only giving me 4900RPM and a top speed of 66MPH. (Before all the up grades and tons of $$$$ I was getting 61MPH) This past weekend I put the old 23P prop back on and was getting 5400RPM and still only 66MPH. So the fun of getting the right prop begins. Any suggestions would be great and I haven't had the chance to call any of the professional prop guys yet. Surely I can get more out of this boat than just 5MPH.

Another issue I am having is the idle. It idles like crAAp and I am thinking it has something to do with the fuel pressure. The original dyno had a fuel pressure of 44.5PSI @ 2800 and 41PSI @ 5400. with an average of 42.5 PSI @ 4100 I was told this will damage the engine. So I installed an adjustable pressure regulator and at the 11th hours I threw my hands up and told the shop that was aligning it to install it and set it at 49PSI. They set it at 52PSI so they told me. What are some of the thoughts about the PSI and where should it be base lined? I know this all depends on the engine and spark plugs. Can someone share or point me in the direction of a good reference for spark plug inspection? So I know what to look for while I fine tune it some more.

Sorry for the long winded post and I hope my ranting makes sense. And if you are reading this and love your boat but you are thinking about doing this one day I would suggest you don't if you do not want to start hating the very sight of it.
Rick, I would have thought you would be in the low 70's. Sounds like you are down on power. To get your fuel mix correct you will have to duplicate the fuel pressure when they did the tuning. A wideband O2 is the best way to tune it. Your plugs should be light brown color, black is rich, peppered is real bad
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Old 09-06-2011, 10:46 PM
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Definitely should be faster than that, message me your number & I will call you in the morning.
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Old 09-07-2011, 12:04 AM
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Questions-was your 555 ecu re-programmed or did you switch everything over to mefi-4? If your motor was tuned at 45 psi at part throttle and 42 psi at wot, what were your afr's?? If you now have it set at 52 psi that is a good 10% richer than before, could be at 11.5-1 afr vs 12.5 on dyno at wot, not suggesting that you turn the press down and see what happens but it really sounds like your engine builder needs to ride in your boat with a 02 meter installed in your exhaust to see where you are at. Motors seem to richen up in the boat vs the dyno too, mine always has. I would expect to see you in the low 70's/high 60's depending on load. once you have afrs set right in the boat/fuel pressure right you then need to see where your at with the prop, a 26 might end up being too big, my 272 normally aspirated made 650 gross hp and it can only turn a 26 labbed 5400 at 75 mph or so, a 24 labbed might be in your future. Get your fuel correct and see where you are, Smitty
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Old 09-07-2011, 01:36 AM
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Originally Posted by articfriends
Questions-was your 555 ecu re-programmed or did you switch everything over to mefi-4? If your motor was tuned at 45 psi at part throttle and 42 psi at wot, what were your afr's?? If you now have it set at 52 psi that is a good 10% richer than before, could be at 11.5-1 afr vs 12.5 on dyno at wot, not suggesting that you turn the press down and see what happens but it really sounds like your engine builder needs to ride in your boat with a 02 meter installed in your exhaust to see where you are at. Motors seem to richen up in the boat vs the dyno too, mine always has. I would expect to see you in the low 70's/high 60's depending on load. once you have afrs set right in the boat/fuel pressure right you then need to see where your at with the prop, a 26 might end up being too big, my 272 normally aspirated made 650 gross hp and it can only turn a 26 labbed 5400 at 75 mph or so, a 24 labbed might be in your future. Get your fuel correct and see where you are, Smitty
Artic is right - 52 is way too rich. I have a 496/600 package and it was set at 47 on the dyno. This doesnt mean to set yours at 47 it just means you need an AFR to get it right.

What else changed during the engine swap?
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Old 09-07-2011, 08:08 AM
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So, it's fuel injected and performance mods have been done. You did not mention it, thus I'm begging to ask........did you have someone program the computer for your motor ?
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