I'm learning slowly but surely 90viper, the expensive way.

Did you upgrade all your fuel hoses, fuel pump and water separator when you increased the horsepower. More horsepower more fuel the stock fittings, hoses and water separator filter fittings are too tiney and need to be replaced which will cause detonation. I may have asked this earlier.

No, I didn't upgrade any of that. I still have the holley 750 carbs too.I can only do so much at a time. :)

somebody had mentioned detonation in the first set of engines. if the engines cannot get enough fuel they will detonate as I am sure you already know this. but always forgotten to upgrade when more horsepower is added. meaning if you have 3/8 hoses you will probably need 1/2 inch hoses and fittings to allow more volume

Looks like a fuel line upgrade may be in order hull.

They say admitting you have a problem is a first step in getting help. Well maybe I have a pro...http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps6lmz1dvy.jpg

Woohoo!!!
That is some fun work ahead!!!

yup you definitely have the bug . you will make some excellent power with them. I had a 540 ci with that blower and 4 lbs of boost and made 825hp on the dyno.
I had the compression 9.5:1 compression small amount of boost and aluminum heads 2 750cfms carbs and no thermostat. never had a single issue in my single engine scarab.

Also in the process of installing hydraulic steering. Got this unit used from Gordon Demarco on the powerboat swap shop on Facebook. This is an older (late 80's unit) by Latham. I've been in touch with Tom Gongola at Latham marine. He's gonna rebuild and replate these cylinders for me. I'm gonna call him and ask him this question tomorrow but maybe one of you will know the answer to this question. See the way I have these bracketsmounted to the transom? I did it this way to get the cylinders down in line with the horizontal gimbal plane is. im concerned whether this will work or not. I think the way I have brackets on the transom (90* out of the way they normally are) may put excessive strain on the brackets. What do you guys think?

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I have a 38 Cigarette here that has them mounted the same way and has had no problems. and its an 89 model they are factory installed.

Good deal. Thanks for the info. Tom seems to think they'll be ok. Not ideal, but should work.

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...

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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.

As far as the valve covers, pretty sure the manifolds will need to be taken loose. Sorry for the bad news. ��

I had the same problem with my 85 Scarab III. I went back and forth with the guys at Hardin Marine to get a combination that would fit in between the drives in the proper line with the drives down. With my bennett tab cylinders there was no way to install the cylinders outside the drives and be inline with the drives in the down position.

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sometimes you can get lucky and snake them out. however when it is all said and done it will probably be just as quick to take the valve covers off.

Still messing with the hydraulic steering. Gonna have to have my machinist make a stainless plate to lay over the old holes in the dash to mount the hydraulic helm to.

On the engines, I've got the blowers in place. I've got two more Holley 750''s ordered as well as the carb plates and linkage. I have got to see about getting some thermostat housings coming that fit the blower intakes. I also have got to see what I'm gonna do about the pulleys. On the upper pulley I need about 4.3-4.5" to get somewhere between 3-4 psi. My engines are already 9.2:1 compression. Anyway I don't want to overdo it.
On the lower pulleys I've gotta find a way to make these 10 notch serpentine pulleys work with my v belt pulleys. Not a lot of info out there on these 256 blowers.

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I was planning on using these. Ebay item #131741681589

Remember when this was all you could hope for!!!! This BOATING THING is a bad addiction!!!!

It all looks fantastic by the way!

Remember: "If some is good..........more's better!"

Thanks for the info Scott. I'll check that out. Thanks CDShack. This is it. I don't see me doing anything else. Nothing major anyway.

Yeah let me know how that works out for you! These boats are a god damn disease! :). Coming along real nice BTW!! Keep it up!

We were able to get some stuff done today. It's kind of slow go right now. We got the Chargers set in place and the adapter plates and carbs with linkage. Gotta get two more spark arrestors, some fuel hoses, and two more fuel splitters for the port side. We have various ports and holes in the manifolds to stop up (apparently related to fuel injection). My hei ignition would not fit behind the blowers so I had to get these msd units.

Also gotta figure out what we're gonna do with the thermostat housing. Mines not gonna work, and the big kicker on the engines is getting the pulley situation rectified.

My machine shop guy is making some bushings for my Latham steering cylinders to fit my imco brackets, also he's making a plate to adapt my helm to the console. More to come soon...

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...psk3szuhml.jpg

I wish I had that much room, boat is looking great

Thanks guys. The machine shop guy was out today. Brought my dash adapter for the helm, and the shortened steering cylinder extensions. He took some measurements and will be making some thermostat housing adapters, as well as machining the lower pulleys to work. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

We got some more done today. We got the new plug wires run, and the distributors sat in place. I installed the helm plate on the console and ran the left and right steering hoses. I took the steering fluid reservoir apart and will have it painted as well as the steering wheel hub parts Monday. I like how the plate makes the steering sturdy as well as cleans up the holes that were in the console. My machine shop guy made some nylon bushings for the steering cylinder ends. The length they are now makes it possible to adjust them to where the expanding and retracting cylinders bottom out at exactly the same time.
I also sent the steering cylinders off to Latham marine yesterday. They will refurbish them as well as strip them and rechrome them.
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I'm really considering going ahead and redoing the gauges now. Although I need to get the engines going and the steering completed. I'm bad to bite off more than I can chew as you guys have observed. I think I'm gonna have a piece of 1/4" stainless plate bent and drilled out just like the original plastic piece. The plastic has cracked in a few places and generally looks rough. Some white face gauges I think would look great.

Mr. Blair...here is a link to my 79 Formula 255 Restoration

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/f...update-22.html

On page # 22, Post # 216 are a few pics of how I re-worked my instrument panel. Might give you some ideas.

I look forward to seeing your progress...keep the posts coming.

John

Steve at inotek did an incredible job on my Scarab Viper dash panels. They are carbon fiber with Scarab racing and the viper logo. I fortunately was able to find a very rare Viper with the Kevlar composite laminate option. I stripped everything out of it to bare fiberglass so I understand overwhelmed. Replaced stringers now rerigging. Wellcrafts rigging was not the best specially by today's standards. I will load photos in a little bit.

I called goodvibesracing.com this morning looking for info on some blower pulleys for my setup. He said the blower shop was more knowledgable on the marine stuff. Called them and talked with Ron. He's got me some hardware coming that will make it possible to use my v belt hardware and adapt to the serpentine setup my blowers have.

I measured and cut the hatches tonight. I will prolly wait til Saturday to play in the polyester resin. I was worried the scoops would look too modern on this boat but I guess they look ok...

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nice job !!