Baja 36OL 525EFI Rebuilds and Upgrades
 

Hi, my 36OL now has 200 hours total on the 525EFI's. Like most 525's they suffered numerous header failures in the early days so each has at least 3 rebuilds on it. The latest was one last year with a thrown valve. So, I figured this winter would be the perfect time to freshen them up and do a few upgrades as they are officially 10 years old now. Quite a sad state of affairs that I only put on 200 hours in 10 years. As part of this thread I am going to post a ton of pics and info on the various upgrades I am including for thos who are interested. Here is a quick run-down of the upgrades I am hoping to do:

1. AFR CNC work on heads - larger & lighter valves, springs, etc.
2. Camshaft swap
3. ECU flash
4. Carbon fiber valve covers
5. Fresh paint and powder coat
6. Updated ECU/Coil mouting plate
7. Updated Power Steering Reservoir
8. New alternators / relocate to top left like new 8.2
9. New serp belt tensioner like new 8.2
10. Relocate oil fiter to right rear off of cylinder head
11. New aluminum catch can
12. Relocate mercathode to transom - use Red dual feed one
13. New double bilge pumps
14. Improved fuel and water lines
15. Relocate fuel filer from under engine to top
16. New better starters
17. Clean up wiring harness

I'm ears open for anyone who has played with any of these ideas of has any other suggestions. I am starting with one engine and once that is 100%, I'll do the other. So off we go....

Here is the engine before... it has not been running right for the past few years and no one can figure out why. It scans fine and everything checks out fine, but it is way down on power.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine01.jpg

Ok, the engine is stripped down, no smoking gun yet. All of the pistons and valves are intact. It is going off to the machine shop to dissasemble. They are going to check the cam timing, a possible cause of the lack of power, and blueprint it. Plus new bearings and rings.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine02.jpg

Here is one of the heads being disassembled. The new LSM valve tool is SOOOOO nice to use.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine03.jpg

The heads after disassebly and degreasing. There is a fair amount of carbon buildup in the combustion chamber, probably from the factory tuning which is a bit rich, even on 87 octane.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine04.jpg

Enjoying the pix and your experience.

Close up of the chanber. You can see the heavy carbon and some rust. The new valves will be stainless which will help. I upgraded the other motor to Manley Extreme SS valves last year, too bad they are going for the new bigger ones. The rust around the valve seat may be part of the slight revesion problem. You can see some salt in the exhaust runner.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine05.jpg

Pistons look pretty good.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine06.jpg

Worst of the exhaust ports. Not actually as bas as it looks as there is still a lot of gasket material on here. Definitely some erosion from reversion and header leaks over the years.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine07.jpg

Did find this problem... one of the intake runners has lost part of the o-ring and had a little bleed by. Doubt this really effected it too much. Thoughts???
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine08.jpg

The coils don't look bad. One pin was a bit rusty. I am going to repalce all of them as I found what I believe to be a match in the Isuzu Amigo and Rodeo early 2000's. Stay tuned on this one.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine09.jpg

Cleaing up the raw water hoses so I can make some decisions on what needs to get replaced.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine10.jpg

That's it for this weekend. Stay tuned for more....

Love a detailed pic build.

work
 

Ed, do you actually do any real work, while your working?
-Harry

ps go take off my flywheel so we can separate the ring gear lol

Do you want to sell closed cooling parts? I also need alternator PS pump and oil cooler.
Thanks
Steve

I will sell the closed cooling tank, not the exchanger, if my plan for an alternate at the back of the engine works. Alternators I am going to replace, they were rebuilt last year. PS and oil cooler are staying. PM me.

More work coming this weekend.

what do you mean by running poorly?

Started and idled perfectly, ran great up to about 3500 then started to take more throttle than the other engine. At full throttle it was about 500-600 rpm short. It I ran it at full, I could run the other at maybe 2/3 and they would be even. I was down about 7 mph for most of the last 3 years, unable to diagnose the problem. Neither could the local Merc Platinum dealer. Last plan was to send it back to Merc for them to figure out. Towards the end of this season it started to give me a little more of a hunt hn it would start stumbling while cruising at 4000. It would drop to 3600 or so for a few seconds then surge back. Screams electronics to me. No codes, nothing on data logs, just a ghost. On this weekends list is to pull the intake apart so I can send out the injectors to be blueprinted.

2004 engine?

2003

Ok, this past weekend I did not get a lot accomplished, but here it is...

Cleaning the heads to be send out for AFR CNC, they had a lot of carbon in the cyclinders
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine11.jpg

The throttle body was a bear to take apart, ended up having to drill out the screws. I know this will come back to be a problem later on.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine12.jpg

The upper and lower intake ready to out out to be boiled.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine13.jpg

A view inside the intake, lots of oil from the valve cover breathers and PCV. I may try and switch to a catch can instead.
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine14.jpg

And my new rear plate for the ECU, relays, coils, etc. This is the style on the new 525's. Will definitely clean up the mess at the back of the engine a bit
http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine15.jpg

very nice. I hope the new TB plate screws are not to much trouble... but that could be a BAD problem if they back out later.

I would also pressure check your exhaust manifolds,,,,,my guess is you have a leak

Ok, now that I have my Sandy rebuilding under control, back to engine rebuilding...

Here are some updated pics of the heads back from Teague / Air Flor Reserach with the larger valves, new springs, retainers, etc. and the CNC porting job. They also fixed up some of the saltwater damage to the aluminum on the exhaust flange.



http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine16.jpeg


http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine17.jpeg



http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine18.jpeg



http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine19.jpeg

The block is also back from the machine shop with a clean bill of health (the 150 missing HP is still a ghost) and the new camshaft installed. I've got the carbon fiber valve covers, head gaskets and other goodies on order. This weekends order of business is media blasting the intake and pulleys to prep for paint.

what was your engine oil temp in that engine? In once had one 525 running higher temps than 2 other that was also 500-600 rpm lower than the other... came out great after rebuilt but never found any real problem before either...

I want to say one ran a little hotter than the other, but not much, maybe 10-20 degrees and I don't recall which was which. I also had all the injectors rebuilt and blueprinted. They said they were all in decent shape for their age (10 years) but now they will all be like new.

I would swap the p/s pump over and run the engines reverse from where you had them before. See if the other one does it after rebuilds. Maybe it is a boat bottom issue that developed over time? I know it is a long shot.

Also, did someone monitor the timing on the "slow" engine? You could have a low fuel volume issue that is enough for the knock sensor to cue a reduction in timing, but still enough fuel to run the boat at a reduced power level.

Between myself and the local Merc Platinum dealer we have probably a lot of hours watching live and datalogging both engines. No discernable differences. The problem is that the ECU's on these do very little in terms of logging and trouble codes. They just kind of keep it running. The only red flag I found on the engine is a rusty knock sensor on one side.

Ok, had a busy day today. I media blasted all of the brackets, pulleys, intake, etc. The steel components were then sprayed with a rust converter / primer and the aluminum with aluminum primer. Tomorrow is Easter so not sure how much time Ill have but maybe sneak away for a few to get the other sides primed. Every step I take, I get more excited about seeing them all done up in Bright Red and Carbon Fiber !!!

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine20.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine21.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine22.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine23.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine24.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine25.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine26.jpg

Black epoxy on the brackets and mounts.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine27.jpg

Ferrari Red enamel on the intake, pulleys, etc.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine28.jpg

Carbon fiber valve covers !!!

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine29.jpg

Nice looking covers. Everything is coming out great. Keep up with the pics. Good luck with the build.
Eddie

Another busy weekend media blasting, painting and now starting to reassemble.

One engine back together and on the new engine cradle I built out of U-channel

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine30.jpg

More parts in primer

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine31.jpg

And even more parts in primer

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine32.jpg

New toy from Harbor Freight, a vibrating tumbler to clean the paint and rust off of bolts and other little parts

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine33.jpg

Starting to come together... the painted intake manifold

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine34.jpg

Awesome thread lots of cool pics, I have always wanted to build my own engines

Very cool. Did you paint the block or machine shop? Is this paint your using just a high temp engine enamel or a specialty product?

Did all the media blasting, primer and paint myself. The actual paint paint is just rustoleum professional. Very good stuff to work with.

Pretty boring weekend. Spent some time ordering parts and working towards finishing paint.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine35.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine36.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine37.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine38.jpg

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine39.jpg

Updates from the last two weekends... they are slowing going back together. Lots of little details to work our as I reassemble them.

Starboard Engine (waiting on heads)

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine40.jpg

Heads assembled and on the port engine

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine41.jpg

Intake and valve covers on

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine45.jpg

New coolant temp sensors from Merc, better than the plastic crap that was on the engine originally

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine42.jpg

Hand painting the Merc logo on the air cleaner

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine43.jpg

Port engine most assembled. Carbon fiber valve covers are SO SEXY! Note the "rear" lifting eye on the front. I replaced the big ugly front one as there is no longer a cheap plastic coolant resevoir to mount to it. The new resevoir will be in back.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine44.jpg

Port engine almost ready to go back in the boat. Just some electrical, fuel line and coolant resevoir to finish up.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine46.jpg

Looks good man!

very nice!

July 15th Update
 

Sorry, its been a crazy few months but here is an update. I've made some good progress and she is almost ready to go back in the water. Sorry about the crappy pics, most are from my iphone.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine47.jpg

Prepping the port engine for install

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine48.jpg

New billet cam position sensors. A nice upgrade over the cheap platic ones used by Merc (one of mine was cracked)

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine49.jpg

Updated tail end. I installed the new style ECU mount, new coils (had to extend the coil trigger wires). You can also see the new coolant resivoir.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine50.jpg

Port engine installed!

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine51.jpg

New style power steering resivoir, which required new oil filter base, which required new oil hoses, you can see how this project has grown.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine52.jpg

Port drive in place (XR/Imco) with new mercathode, new trim hoses and trim rams plus upgraded poly bushings.

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine53.jpg

Both engines back in the boat!

http://www.univsystems.com/ejn/engine54.jpg

Close up of the new poly trim ram bushings

what advantages do the poly bushings offer?

Same as in a car, less wear and firmer material mean less movement. Probably overkill unless you are running 100+ mph but I had to replace the old rubber ones anyway and they were not much more money.

Ok, they are in and running! The cam definitely added some additional volume to the sound levels. I think you can hear it in the next state, lol. I picked up about 5mph with the upgrades. Unfortunely, I still have the uneven power issue. Not many things left to check. Next weekend I am going to swap the ECU's. Once I get that figured out and fixed I will start tweaking the prop and hoping to crack 80!

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Cool thread! Any updates?

Looks great..

check the props, and swap the drives around, gimbal bearing getting bad, a lot of outdrive issues will cause these power issues, also make sure the tach is accurate. but on another note, those look great,

great job !!! good luck on the rest of the tuning !