find this little guy while sanding the outdrives for paint. using tri-lux 2 on them. see how it holds up.

not sure as of yet what to do about this.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/a...0406101559.jpg

can't find my damn camera cord to hook up to the computer. transom core is going back in this weekend. refinish alot of the sundeck teak, someone glued carpet to it a decade ago. and managed to replace both bellows kits and gimbal bearing and trim limit switches on the gimbal housings. found that mercruiser tool isn't that great. stripped one out right away when trying to undo the hinge pins. ended up buying a 26 dollar impact ready hex set from harbor freight that was able to stand up to the torque of pulling them out. hah. my one friend told me to make a budget for this boat project. i told her no way. and so far i would have blown it outta the water. fix it right now before it floats

Formula 255 Liberator
 

Here's mine....

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...r/DSC04967.jpg

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...r/DSC04972.jpg

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...formula001.jpg

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...formula003.jpg

It's a '79 with 260 Mercs on No 1 drives. Motors were fresh with new Edelbrock Performer intakes in 2006...drives were gone through at that time.

I plan to re-work the interior and install current instrumentation and electronics. This "bird" is rock solid due in no small part to being a fresh water boat from Michigan...only been in salt water twice!!

Very sharp and classic lines...still turns heads after 31 years.

Haha sprink I figured I track down your liberator. Very nice bird. Man she's an inspiration for my little one! The lines are so similar to mine. Can I use a street style intake on my block? And how about relacing/rebuiling the carb?

Thanks for the good words...same family...can't miss the resemblance ;).

Yes you can use a street intake. Your carb is probably a Q-Jet which is fairly easy to re-build. The MerCruiser re-build kit runs about $40.

If you change intakes and plan on a future power upgrade (which I am sure you are), consider the Edelbrock Performer ESP that is a square bore dual plane that is strong up through 5000 RPM. An excellent Carb that my brother is running on his 355 SB Chevy in a '83 Formula F3 is the Holley 600 CFM mechanical secondary 4150 (aka "double pumper") The marine version is around $475 but makes a big difference in the way the boat handles and drives. YOU are in complete control as to when the secondaries tip in. You can always transfer this set up to a new long block in the future so its not a waste.

Yup rochester carb. I just so happen to have an sbc edlebrock rpm intake lying around that looks so pretty and a real nice carb spacer :drink: so I'm thinking that'll be the plan! I just so happen to have a holley 600cfm lying around as well. Just not the marine edition???

If the carb is not a double pumper you are just as well off with the Q-Jet unless it is totally shot. As far as the carb not being a marine version...very risk because of the fire potential. If you have a bowl flood and overflow all over the engine your sitting on a bomb...don't risk it.

Or you could buy the j-tubes to put in the main body from jegs forr 23.00 a pop, I have two extra laying around if your interested, never been used!!

86242ls, what are j-tubes? And spink thanks for the info that's kind of an important little detail to know... the whole bomb thing. Unfortunately it IS a double pumper

Here is the link to Jegs web site, http://www.jegs.com/i/Holley/510/14R1256/10002/-1