You deserve a hooker or two as well. :) Top notch! If I had a boat with this fit and finish I'd just sit at the dock with the hatch open.

Haha, thanks. Is kind of a shame to cover all the work up with the hatch.

Almost made it to the water today. Decided to hold off till a quieter weekday and get more little things done. As I type this my headache gets worse thinking of all the PIA stuff I did. Past 5 days, like ground hog day, same thing, wake up eat food, make coffee, start plugging away at the next step. I have at least 60hrs into it over the past of days. :mad: Anyways, it's very close to being 100%.

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Took the boat to the launch today, never left launch, but knew very well that was a potential outcome. The drive pickup allowed for enough water flow in neutral, 2.4ish psi in neutral per the smartcraft, but the real test will be while under way. Had water dripping from both headed/tailpipe clamps from either reversion at idle or condensation... Going to try spinning the clamp and retightening. Pretty sure I couldn't tighten them how they were anymore. Just before I was going to leave the dock I was bleeding the steering when the hose from the pump to the high pressure filter blew and made a bit of a mess. Didn't surprise me, the hose looked like it was over crimped/ pinched when I had a local place shorten the hose. They said it was no problem but I probably should've known better.

So im happy with the drive water pickup so far and all the info available through the Simrad with the smartcraft and am just happy the boat didn't sink. Every step for the last couple days has taken three tries to make it work, nmea2000 rigging, getting the shift cable in the drive correctly, brass prop hub adapter, the list goes on.

She Floats!

Yea I was surprised she didn't turn into a tail dragger with the the weight of the blower motor, ext box, big scx hanging way back there

Congratulations! I would "like" your post above but apparently we don't have that option anymore. At least none that I can see.

Dan

Thanks dan, and yea this new format blows the whistle...

Well i I got to run the boat today. This isn't the first boat I've ripped apart and put back together but all these expensive parts and this expensive motor make the first couple times out a little nerve racking.

Got the steering hose repaired asap this morning. Luckily I had enough length that I was just able to put a new jic fitting on the end the blew. First shift into reverse was very hard and couldn't get it into forward. So I had to shift it by hand a couple times, adjust the cable a bunch of times and got it to shift into forward nicely but reverse is still a little hard, coming out of reverse actually takes a bit of force so I gotta figure that out yet.

While idling I saw oil dripping from the rear stbd side of the engine. Took a little to figure out where from, ended up being a 7/16 threaded hole in the head where the mercathode bracket bolted to the head. Not sure if that is like that on a stock 525 head or if it was from resurfacing the heads... Here I was looking all over at oil lines and fittings and it was coming from a hole right in front of my face.

Oil pressure was 72+psi at idle then dropped after running, but I'd still see it climb up to 69ish while idling after running but it would come down to the upper 30s at times. All the info available with the smartcraft is awesome.

Man this new format sucks.

Like to show a picture of the Simrad but don't have time for the Photobucket bs. There goes my membership.

Anyways I was very happy to see water pressure was good while under way 11psi around 3000rpm and 20+ around 5000. So that should mean no need for thru transom pick up! Yay! Got her up to 72mph, was on a relatively small local lake, real small at those speeds Ungodly loud without hatch on.

Acceration is like a jet boat, even with high x. I've never felt that pull into the seat at 60mph before... couldn't really notice any trim response, going to try and do some prop testing soon, need to try and it WOT with this labbed 30p first. My guess is I'm going to run into the limiter

Congrats on getting her together and running! One of my favorite threads of the year!

Get er buttoned up and shake the bugs out. Can't wait to see it next weekend!