looking good Scott!!! Love your new profile picture!

Thanks guys..

I plan on getting the trim pump for the drive mounted up tonight along with both of the batteries.. I can also start getting some ballpark measurments for my all my oil lines as well.. I now have enuff to do to keep me busy for a little while.. I'm doing as much of the rigging as possible at the house so there's a little bit of a trade off with time & occasional tool hauling, but its worth it to be at home with the family v/s spending every waking moment here at the shop.. It also puts the "grass roots" back in "grass roots" and I gotta say it feels great to be back at it on something of my own for a change !!

Got the drive pump installed along with the lines routed & plumbed in.. Also got both battery hold downs along with the batteries locked in place..

I have a good bit of wire sorting to do b/c for some reason I have twice the amount of wires I need...

Despite being captivated by the loto shootout this weekend, I"ve been able to spend a decent amount of time having some fun on the boat lately.. I now have all of the hydraulic steering system finished up.. I ended up replacing all the fittings on the existing helm due to the fact I changed out all the lines with some I had that I liked alittle better than what was in the boat.. It took some time to sort out all the fittings, cooler, filter , routing ect...ect.. Also will have all the lines nicely routed & tucked away.. Also got the throttles out, unstacked, re-stacked & ready to rock on in single mode.. I'm finishing up the fab work on a throttle plate now.. Last night I got all of my measurements for my water lines and also got all my oil line measurements & fittings I need sorted out..

Also managed to get 1600 gph worth of bilge pumps all gone through & mounted up which would have been allot easier before the engine was put in place, however so much of this stuff I really couldn't b/c I don't want to have issues such as having to take crap out of the way for regular maintenance, ect.. Here you go of all things anybody would want to see you get pics of some bilge pumps... Now that's some hot rodding baby !! Bilge pumps.. & No the zip ties aren't the only thing holding them together..

Btw: That's Jdubs jeep in the back ground I'm doing a "overhauling" on so please nobody tell him..

Looks good friday I cut out a section 1 x 15'' for blower pulleys, wish I just cut out the gas tank over last winter and put it under the rear seat I could have picked up 8'' in front and went from 90gals to 130 gals with a stepped tank I drew up, oh well should be glassed up by and pulleys on next week.

are you using an fittings on the water lines ,also what lines ss push lock? Iwas thinking only cause I will be in salt water to use push lock with ss or brass fittings and ss lines with an on fuel and oil lines.

The water lines will all be slip on hose with 1"npt to 1 1/4 barbed ends on the fittings.. All the oil lines will be -12 braided stainless with AN fittings.. Fuel lines will either be braided or push loc style with AN fittings as well.. Fuel sytem plumbing will most likely be towards the end of the project for me..

Finished up the "throttle/shifter plate" & he's a quick mock up shot I took earlier.. I would have went ahead & finished the install yesterday, but long story short I had to move the boat for a few days to have some work done here at home..

I also started hacking into my intercooler today for a few reasons.. One reason being best put in southern slang "that I can't leave well enough alone" Another being the fact that I have never completely liked the design being that they used the same cooler for the MPI engines as the carbed version so what they did was put a cheezy block off plate over the outlet of the cooler (inlet of MPI throttle body) Then cut a 3.5" hole in the end of it shove a piece of tubing a good 1/2-3/4" to far in to the hole & weld it up... Anyways as you can see by the photos as I was cutting that it was a pretty in-efficient design.. So leave it up to a redneck with some tools, experience using them and an imagination that won't quit and wallah !! I'm working on the plate to be welded to the side of it now.. This is the kind of work I love !! I also have to fab up some stringer brackets since it will be remote mounted instead of right in front & basically on top of the engine well in the way of allot of stuff that I didn't want it in the way of...

Here's a few "in process" shots after I made the first cut to give a better idea of what I'm talking about..

A few more after some more cutting, grinding & the first round of port work..