My new project - 86 - 272 LS
04-05-2013, 08:04 PM
#241
Billy, I shipped a set out once and just wrapped each one separately in corrugated cardboard. Cut some for the ends first and taped them up. Then I roll it like a burrito in another piece so it is covered by 2 to 3 layers and ship them.
04-26-2013, 04:05 PM
#242
3 weeks since I posted, yikes! Things have not been going great on getting stuff done on the boat, but been making some progress.
Todays topic is the lanyard connection. I know, you can just buy these, but I was not impressed. I need a double for twin motors, do not want two single lanyards. The double that I saw I was not impressed with what you got for the $$$ spent, so as usual my cheap self made one.
Decided to put it where the old clock went that stopped working 4 days after the boat left the factory I think. Started with a high quality (not even made in china!) weather proof double pole single throw switch. I mounted this in the middle of a 2.25" square piece of 16 gauge steel. Made a little hood from thinner sheet metal to go over it and then fitted everything (first pic shows paper template, not steel hood). I sanded and rounded all the edges and then welded the hood onto the base plate. Some quick primer and satin black paint and it was ready to assemble and mount with four little stainless cap screws. Yeah, dash is a "bit" dusty and the new lanyard mount is dirty in these pics, it actually looks pretty good.
The purple ignition wire from each ignition switch goes through the double poles so if the switch is down, the motor ignition is dead. The thing I like about this style is anything that is over 3/16" diameter could be used as a lanyard base. When on, the top of the switch almost touches the hood. When you pull the loop out, the switch clicks to off. This way if you loose your lanyard, you can still turn the boat on. Or if you forget it, you can make a lanyard out of a piece of 1/4" rope and string. Or anything that is about a 1/4" in diameter - I will have to come up with some creative lanyard ends now!
The new steering wheel height also helps. That couple of extra inches really does make a difference, just like my wife commented!
OK, my other question: The finish is worn off on my drive trailer buttons. I figure they used to say Port and Stbd, but what was the wording at the top? Did it just say "Trailer"? Need to fix that.
Also need to post about my motor issue I had. I am back on track now, but had an oh crap moment that delayed me about a month.
Peace, Brian
Todays topic is the lanyard connection. I know, you can just buy these, but I was not impressed. I need a double for twin motors, do not want two single lanyards. The double that I saw I was not impressed with what you got for the $$$ spent, so as usual my cheap self made one.
Decided to put it where the old clock went that stopped working 4 days after the boat left the factory I think. Started with a high quality (not even made in china!) weather proof double pole single throw switch. I mounted this in the middle of a 2.25" square piece of 16 gauge steel. Made a little hood from thinner sheet metal to go over it and then fitted everything (first pic shows paper template, not steel hood). I sanded and rounded all the edges and then welded the hood onto the base plate. Some quick primer and satin black paint and it was ready to assemble and mount with four little stainless cap screws. Yeah, dash is a "bit" dusty and the new lanyard mount is dirty in these pics, it actually looks pretty good.
The purple ignition wire from each ignition switch goes through the double poles so if the switch is down, the motor ignition is dead. The thing I like about this style is anything that is over 3/16" diameter could be used as a lanyard base. When on, the top of the switch almost touches the hood. When you pull the loop out, the switch clicks to off. This way if you loose your lanyard, you can still turn the boat on. Or if you forget it, you can make a lanyard out of a piece of 1/4" rope and string. Or anything that is about a 1/4" in diameter - I will have to come up with some creative lanyard ends now!
The new steering wheel height also helps. That couple of extra inches really does make a difference, just like my wife commented!
OK, my other question: The finish is worn off on my drive trailer buttons. I figure they used to say Port and Stbd, but what was the wording at the top? Did it just say "Trailer"? Need to fix that.
Also need to post about my motor issue I had. I am back on track now, but had an oh crap moment that delayed me about a month.
Peace, Brian
04-26-2013, 06:38 PM
#245
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I need a new steering wheel!! The sewing has come apart on mine!! I had my nurse girlfriend try to sew it together but no luck it just kept pulling through the imitation leather!! Lol any suggestions?
Sorry to hijack your thread lol
Sorry to hijack your thread lol
04-26-2013, 07:25 PM
#248
ICU, what is CP?
My wheel is just a basic aluminum spoke with a soft rubber dipped coating on it like you buy at auto store. Has a taper fit on it for mounting. Real basic, but I actually like it. Well, all three times I have used it.
Ok, thanks for letting me know it is supposed to say.
Brian
My wheel is just a basic aluminum spoke with a soft rubber dipped coating on it like you buy at auto store. Has a taper fit on it for mounting. Real basic, but I actually like it. Well, all three times I have used it.
Ok, thanks for letting me know it is supposed to say.
Brian
04-26-2013, 08:27 PM
#249
So here is my story about motors. Tis a sad tale….. LOL.
So I bought the boat with motors 1 and 2, two piece rear main seals. Engine 1 was a mercruiser, looks like it may be the original one. Motor 2 was a Jasper reman at .040 and was damn near new I found out. Heads were rusted, no compression, tore into them and decided to remove them and build some new ones. Already decided to go with vortec heads, so started looking for used motors.
Motor #3 was a vortec truck motor with a spun main bearing (common I learned) that I paid $250 for I think. Cylinders looked really good, so I put some money into this one. Had it power honed out another .001”, line bored, tanked and checked for cracks. Crank turned down, all new bearings, timing chain and mercruiser roller cam, oil pump, etc. Motor seems to run decent, but had water go through it so I had to put new rod and main bearings this winter. Motor is currently back in boat waiting to be hooked up and aligned.
So far, not too bad.
Motor #4 was from Indianapolis area and was a pull out that had a lower end noise, selling for $199. Bought that, spun bearing again but the heads are good vortecs and that is what I bought it for. The mains are also messed up so it would have to be line bored before being used. Only a 2 bolt, so not really interested in doing that.
Motor #5 was a mercruiser take out. Had water go through it and a guy with a bunch of stuff was selling things cheap before he moved. For $300 I picked up 2 new flywheels, the roller mercruiser short block, some center bolt swirl port heads, and something else I forget about. Well, I sold the heads and tore into the block. Put new main and rod bearings in it and put it together with a set of vortec heads that I got from motor #4. This was my port motor last year and this winter I discovered I had a manifold gasket leak and had water sitting in cylinder #2. Rusted the wall pretty bad to the point that the motor will have to be bored if I want to save it. To make matters worse, the top oil ring got folded over on the outside of the piston before I ran it and it also grooved the heck out of the #2 cylinder. Unfortunately, we did not notice this and we also scrapped motor #6 due to this oil ring. Not good, time to scrap this block out. Still worth getting it, but onward.
Motor #6 was one I picked up for $225 south of Fort Wayne this winter. Another take out with a spun bearing, but the whole motor to include the intake system to pan. This motor was my third set of vortec heads, so I have a spare set now. The motor looked really good. This spring we stripped it down, cleaned it and inspected it. The bearing had spun but did not damage the block or caps. So I decided to move all the parts from the old mercruiser motor with the rust damaged sidewall to this block. We cleaned it up, tapped all the threaded holes and honed out the cylinders. I was really happy with this one until we went to put the pistons from motor #5 into this block. The guy putting them in did not catch the bent oil ring and scratched the cylinder! The block looks really good, and I tossed it to the side. This was about a month ago and the cause for the latest delay. Yeah, not real happy on that one. And it was a four bolt!
(continued....)
So I bought the boat with motors 1 and 2, two piece rear main seals. Engine 1 was a mercruiser, looks like it may be the original one. Motor 2 was a Jasper reman at .040 and was damn near new I found out. Heads were rusted, no compression, tore into them and decided to remove them and build some new ones. Already decided to go with vortec heads, so started looking for used motors.
Motor #3 was a vortec truck motor with a spun main bearing (common I learned) that I paid $250 for I think. Cylinders looked really good, so I put some money into this one. Had it power honed out another .001”, line bored, tanked and checked for cracks. Crank turned down, all new bearings, timing chain and mercruiser roller cam, oil pump, etc. Motor seems to run decent, but had water go through it so I had to put new rod and main bearings this winter. Motor is currently back in boat waiting to be hooked up and aligned.
So far, not too bad.
Motor #4 was from Indianapolis area and was a pull out that had a lower end noise, selling for $199. Bought that, spun bearing again but the heads are good vortecs and that is what I bought it for. The mains are also messed up so it would have to be line bored before being used. Only a 2 bolt, so not really interested in doing that.
Motor #5 was a mercruiser take out. Had water go through it and a guy with a bunch of stuff was selling things cheap before he moved. For $300 I picked up 2 new flywheels, the roller mercruiser short block, some center bolt swirl port heads, and something else I forget about. Well, I sold the heads and tore into the block. Put new main and rod bearings in it and put it together with a set of vortec heads that I got from motor #4. This was my port motor last year and this winter I discovered I had a manifold gasket leak and had water sitting in cylinder #2. Rusted the wall pretty bad to the point that the motor will have to be bored if I want to save it. To make matters worse, the top oil ring got folded over on the outside of the piston before I ran it and it also grooved the heck out of the #2 cylinder. Unfortunately, we did not notice this and we also scrapped motor #6 due to this oil ring. Not good, time to scrap this block out. Still worth getting it, but onward.
Motor #6 was one I picked up for $225 south of Fort Wayne this winter. Another take out with a spun bearing, but the whole motor to include the intake system to pan. This motor was my third set of vortec heads, so I have a spare set now. The motor looked really good. This spring we stripped it down, cleaned it and inspected it. The bearing had spun but did not damage the block or caps. So I decided to move all the parts from the old mercruiser motor with the rust damaged sidewall to this block. We cleaned it up, tapped all the threaded holes and honed out the cylinders. I was really happy with this one until we went to put the pistons from motor #5 into this block. The guy putting them in did not catch the bent oil ring and scratched the cylinder! The block looks really good, and I tossed it to the side. This was about a month ago and the cause for the latest delay. Yeah, not real happy on that one. And it was a four bolt!
(continued....)
04-26-2013, 08:30 PM
#250
motor story continued
Motor #7 I got from Warsaw, the town 20 minutes away. It is a reman motor at .040 over, complete from pan to injectors. Had a blown head gasket, but that was it. So getting desperate, I laid out $300 for the motor and brought it home. It has a TBI system on it with after market injectors, an MSD ignition and an aftermarket cam. So I will see what I can sell on CL to get some cash back. The swirl port heads will go on one motor #6 to be sold. I will let people know what happened, but for someone repowering a truck or some high school kids looking for a 350, it would work really well. I would run it no problem, just not in the boat. So motor #7 got cleaned up, tapped, pressure washed, and honed. Looks good now. The crank is moved over from motor #6 along with the marine cam. The pistons look fine, put in new moly rings and new gaskets. Vortecs going on and should be good. There was one flaw I could find in the block, a slight scratch in cylinder 3. Starts 1.25” from the top of the bore and goes down the cylinder. Pretty dang small, about the same as a ring end gap. Plus with it not starting until over an inch down, I doubt I will lose more than a few HP from it. At this point I need a motor to run for the next 2 or 3 years I figure, that would make me happy.
So motor #7 is being assembled and hopefully it will go back in the boat at the end of next week or the week after at the latest.
This brings us to motor #8, hopefully the second to last for awhile. This is a 355 short block. Professionally machined and assembled from an Eagle Specialties balanced rotating assembly. No cam yet, just pan and rotating assembly. This I plan to build slowly. It really does look beautiful with the freshly bored cylinders, the decked tops and brand new shiny pistons that will give this motor a CR of 9.4 I believe. I plan on copying Sprinks build specs and will run this on a dyno to tune it in and set everything. All in due time, this will be after the boat is running now.
Motor #9 is my future dream right now. I have time, so I will watch for a 350-355 to match motor #8. No hurry, but when it comes along I will jump on it.
My shop is starting to look like a motor graveyard now. Have to clean up some.
The original Jasper motor is being assembled now to go back into another boat.
The original merc motor will be sold for scrap basically. 700 salt water hours on it, I wouldn’t dump any money in it at all!
Motor #4 is just sitting, not sure what to do with it. Most likely scrap or keep around if I need a core exchange.
Motor 5 will be scrapped out.
Motor 6 will be assembled and sold as a running replacement. Easily make 260HP or more from that block for a car, nothing wrong there.
So I will be back to 2 in the boat, and my future 355 build. Hmm, no spare. Maybe I will keep motor #6 for a bit until the others are tested….
So motor #7 is being assembled and hopefully it will go back in the boat at the end of next week or the week after at the latest.
This brings us to motor #8, hopefully the second to last for awhile. This is a 355 short block. Professionally machined and assembled from an Eagle Specialties balanced rotating assembly. No cam yet, just pan and rotating assembly. This I plan to build slowly. It really does look beautiful with the freshly bored cylinders, the decked tops and brand new shiny pistons that will give this motor a CR of 9.4 I believe. I plan on copying Sprinks build specs and will run this on a dyno to tune it in and set everything. All in due time, this will be after the boat is running now.
Motor #9 is my future dream right now. I have time, so I will watch for a 350-355 to match motor #8. No hurry, but when it comes along I will jump on it.
My shop is starting to look like a motor graveyard now. Have to clean up some.
The original Jasper motor is being assembled now to go back into another boat.
The original merc motor will be sold for scrap basically. 700 salt water hours on it, I wouldn’t dump any money in it at all!
Motor #4 is just sitting, not sure what to do with it. Most likely scrap or keep around if I need a core exchange.
Motor 5 will be scrapped out.
Motor 6 will be assembled and sold as a running replacement. Easily make 260HP or more from that block for a car, nothing wrong there.
So I will be back to 2 in the boat, and my future 355 build. Hmm, no spare. Maybe I will keep motor #6 for a bit until the others are tested….
