I have been lurking watching your progress over the past few years. Fantastic job sir !!!

I was especially impressed with your separating the hull, deck and inner liner. I am also considering switching over to hydraulic steering on my '79 Formula Liberator...I think I would just nfeel better about it running over 60 MPH. Any pics of how you set the hydraulic steering up at the helm and in the bilge?

Where in North Alabama are you ? I am an Alabama Alumni and grew up in Birmingham...came to South Florida in '76. I have fond memories of boating on the Tennessee, Guntersville and Smith Lake as a kid !!

Love your thread.

Thank you sprink58! We are in the process of installing the steering. We have the external mocked up but do not have the internal installed yet. Looks like the internals are going to be pretty straightforward. We have found that the position of the cylinders is the most crucial. They need to expand/contract all the way and hit their limit at the same time. And do this while being in the centerline of the gimbal horizontal pivot point. All this while clearing your k planes. Not very simple. I had some cylinder ends made at a local machine shop that are about 2" longer than original to make this work.
The helm should be pretty straightforward. Not to that yet.
Here's the piece I had made compared to original piece...

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...psibm7aggk.jpg

I am about an hour east of Lake Guntersville, in Gadsden. We have the Coosa river here. I boat on it a lot with this boat. People think I'm crazy for running this boat on the coosa. I havent been to Guntersville with this boat yet but plan on it. Been to Smith Lake with it once. Nice Lake. It's about 2 hours from here with the boat in tow.

I know that area well. My family is from Etowah County...Albertville/Boaz area. Last names Culpepper, Medlock and Farabee. Small world.

If you get that Scarab together think about bringing it down here...we have some SERIOUS water to wring that bad boy out on !!! LOL

I went to school with some Farabees. I'd like to take the boat to south florida at some point. Looks like fun down there.
I sat a blower on the port motor last night just to see how far thru the hatches I'm gonna be. Looks like the blowers will clear but the carbs and spark arrestors will be sticking thru. (the carbs are just sitting on the chargers, theyll be higher with the plates installed) I went ahead and ordered some cp performance scoops last week...

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...psgnjbw2zm.png

Good words for sure...keep plugging along with it...plenty of guys on OSO with MUCHO experience and ideas. I know they have helped me a bunch with my old '79 255 Formula Liberator.

If you decide to head down talk it up...plenty to see and do here. My friend Tommy Hoffstetter over at Chief Engines would love to see your rig...he gets into the Old School stuff because he grew up with it.

Keep the updates coming.

John

Looks like you're gonna have to rename it!!! Peace and Quiet won't work anymore!!! haha!

Heath could you have mounted the cylinders between the drives?
Also how hard is it to get the valve covers off with the Gil manifolds? I have the same valve covers and exhaust and wondering if I will have to loosen the exhaust manifold bolts to get them on and off (if I ever need to)

I hope it works out...if it does I'm using your set up as a guide.

There wasn't enough room between the drives. I looked into that to start with. I'm pretty sure this way is gonna work. The only quirky thing that I'm aware of is the cylinders will need to be bled unbolted from the transom so I can twist them to where the fittings are on top so the air will be able to leave the cylinder.