Offshoreonly.com - 1978 Sleekcraft Aristocrat Budget Build Thread

Offshoreonly.com (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/)

- Classic Offshore (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/classic-offshore-199/)

- - 1978 Sleekcraft Aristocrat Budget Build Thread (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/classic-offshore/234666-1978-sleekcraft-aristocrat-budget-build-thread.html)

That's a great idea, but this is a BUDGET build, remember? I'm broke so new parts are a last resort. Took the pump apart tonight, and found CLUMPY TAN CRAP. Water got into the fluid, and made a huge mess. Cleaned everything with brake clean, and retested the motor... sounds pretty good! :) Will reassemble tomorrow with fresh RTV sealant. Hopefully she'll work again just fine, I think I'm sucking in water through one of my rams. Will order a cylinder seal kit tomorrow.

Well that worked. I cleaned everything out, spit out the old oil, and put in some new stuff. Everything is gravy again, but apparently I need new seals for my trim cylinders.

In other news, my fuel pump died and left me stranded. But here's a video of the boat in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7AwtiEfRSM

Last night put her in at about 6pm, and hit a GPS verified 58.9mph with four people on board. I think I'm running too much prop. It's a stainless mirage and the pitch is 26". At WOT, my engine is only turning 4300rpms or so. Am I right? 26" seems to be pretty steep, especially for a mild small block.

Yes a 26 is a bit steep for that set up. i would guess 22 or 24 inch range.

New top speed!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BooZC8BISA[/YOUTUBE]

you are one lucky guy gorgeous boat and lady :drink:

Sweet stuff bro! Glad things are coming along!

was out to our local island hangout this weekend and a guy had this baby out there. Turned out he knew my friend Jon (lightning Jet on here) and he tossed us the keys and said have fun. What a cool boat in person. I really gotta say i think its the nicest lookin jet type boat i have ever seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cash68 (Post 3429058)

AWESOME! I had a few hiccups; my temp gauges wasn't working (it came unplugged, figured it out after a few minutes), and it really does NOT like the river. The oversized prop = even at idle, the thing is moving at 5-7mph or more, so I'll have to figure out a way to make it so I don't rearend other boats in the river.

Once I was on the lake though.. HELL YES!!!!!!!!!! I've driven a lot of fast boats, but I really like how she rides! Very smooth over light chop, and really "grippy" handling. Not used to it yet. The strangest thing is having the throttle on your left hand... bizarre. I'd say she'll do over 60mph, no problem. I drove for about 20 minutes between 2 and 3 thousand RPMs to help gentely break in the engine... but at 3800, she's really, really, REALLY going pretty fast. I'll bring my GPS unit with me next time to see how fast she'll go.

Great work on the resto job. I used to run a 20 SST outboard, but we used the gunwale mounted control box just for shifting....the throttle was controlled by a "HOT FOOT" pedal. You can probably fine one on e-bay (I sold mine there) , but many of the west coast Boat parts suppliers would have them. Its nice to keep both hands on the wheel at speed...we even had wheel mounted trim buttons. Have fun...brings back memories!
TH Marine carries the Hot Foot, and REX Marine has the Big Foot style jet boat pedal
I now what you mean when you say the boat is "grippy" They were very popular in the Mod VP class type of racing, where the ability to make 90deg turns at speed was important.

Update: Creaking coming from the gimbal bearing whenever I am turning. WTF. Going to grease the hell out of it and hope that it shuts up. Really don't want to put a new one in.

Also, trim pump died again. Really need to fix the trim, and figure out the wiring for the shift interrupt, because not having nuetral sucks.