masi242

Good luck I hope all goes well you deserve it, I will be putting mine in tomorrow after work it was in for one weekend than high water made us take them out.
Ah ya Sprink is the Formula all done

Good luck

mark

sprink58

Mark,

It's running and running strong...Engines, Drives, new wiring, new gauges all done. I've put about 2 hrs on it in the past 2 weeks. Next phase is interior/electronics...all the important stuff is done.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/f...update-25.html

befu

Some good and some bad. Took it out today and splashed it. Good: Trailer worked fantastic with the new tilting bunks and electric winch. Put some slack in the winch, back it down the ramp nice and easy. Back out winch a bit more and remove hook and she slid right off the trailer with the rocking of the small waves at the dock. Really I was probably in just a bit too deep since it slid off on it's own, but it worked nice. Going back on was super easy also. I drifted into the trailer at a bit of an angle, the rear side boards caught the boat and straightened it out. By hand the boat drift/moved forward enough that I let out about 2' of cable from the winch and grabbed the bow eye with it. Just bumped it up and the bow came right into place and snugged forward. Pulled boat out and she sat right down where it is supposed to. Docking issues with trailer are taken care of! I think I have a spindle that is out of line on the trailer that we will work on, but that is just mechanical stuff on the trailer, nothing to do with the boat.

Shifting. With the HEI's just put on, I do not have anything tied into the shift interrupt mechanism. Just as people have said, it is really hard to shift OUT of gear. As in the starboard motor is impossible to shift, had to shut it off to get it out of gear. The port motor was difficult to shift, makes it rather difficult around the dock. I really want to figure out a way to have the negative interrupted when it is shifted out of gear only, no impact on going into gear. Right now the micro switch will work when the shift lever is moved in either direction. Somehow I will end up over engineering this simple feature, I am sure. yeah, no fun around the dock! But I didn't have to be towed in either!

Motors. The port motor seems really strong! It wanted to run and ran well. This is the motor that has the new national carb quadrajet on it. The starboard motor didn't do so well. It started well and sounded good, but when going to get on plane it would start pushing and climb to about 1900 - 2000 rpm. As I advanced the throttle it would touch 2100 and then lose power and drop back to 1900 as the other motor kept going to 2300. Not positive, but seems right when the secondaries were opening up it would lose power. My guess is lack of fuel flow as the secondaries kicked in, not sure. So I just ordered another carburetor to put on it next week.

Fuel pumps: This one is frustrating. Both pumps are running, the port one was only pushing 3 psi? Sounded like it was cavitating also. I am wondering if I have an air leak on the pickup side of the pump that is letting air bubbles in. Going to switch around the pickup lines and see if I have an issue there. Good thing was how I set it up. I could open the valve between the two systems and the fuel pressure equalized around 6 to 7 psi on both engines. If another Holley pump is acting up I think I will scream!

So we got the bow out of the water but never on plane. Shift interrupters need to be finished. Trailer is awesome. Boat worked well except for one with lack of power, new carb ordered for that motor. Between gas and new carb, about $500 today. Good thing is I still have about $240 of the gas in the boat and burb! At least the oil in both motors looks spotless, going to put a bore scope down each riser and look at the exhaust manifolds inside tonight.

Worse part of the day, watching all the bayliners with the tubes on the back speeding all around the lake....

and again, the rear seat is awesome! Had to install the sump pump today before we left. Piece of cake with the seat like this.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]504275[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]504276[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]504277[/ATTACH]

masi242

Well you have shown this much patience so far you are getting closer, remember at idle you still looked better than those Bayliners running around.

Look forward to your next report

Crude Intentions

If the shift interrupter is working properly it won't engage the switch going in gear. The mechanism it is on should only move under the strain of coming out and it will go hit the switch. That's my understanding of how they work.

befu

That is a good point and makes sense. When I was testing continuity of the switch in the interrupter, it was not connected to the cables and I was moving it slowly by hand. I will have to hook up the meter to it tomorrow and see what I find. Easy as it is sitting in my driveway right now instead of it's preferred place inside the shop.

I am getting closer, the boat is getting better. Next test will probably not be for another week, just looked at the delivery date from National. A week from tomorrow minimum! Oh-well. Supposed to be hot anyways......

Thanks for the moral support Masi!

Brian

sprink58

Well...at least that's an issue I don't have to worry about with upgrading to Bravos!! LOL

befu

Keep rubbing it in John, keep rubbing it in! :

Took it out again today and tried again, made some progress. Pro: Ran well, shift interrupts work "mostly" now, trailering was still a breeze, Actually got to run it around for the longest time yet, anchored at the sand bar.
Cons: port starter stopped working, starboard motor still dies when you reach the secondaries, port shift interrupt dwell is a bit too long, sometimes kills the motor.

After the last run, I thought the issue with the starboard motor might have been the carb gasket, I found the back bolts were loose. You see, I slipped in the engine compartment and broke the throttle cable bracket, so I had to remove it. Well, when we put it back on, it did not get tightened down all the way, so I thought the secondary's were sucking air past the gasket and killing the motor. Well, with the carb tight, it still did it today. I could get it to about 2100 - 2200 rpm and the starboard motor would then die if I opened the throttle any more.

So I tucked the drives in, put in some down tab and cruised around for 10 to 15 minutes at 19 to 23 mph on the speedo. The boat did really well right around 20 mph with the 4 blade - 21p props on it. Curved into sharp turns, would dog a bit to upper teens on the speedo and then pick back up going straight. Not bad for having to stay out of the secondary's on both motors! This thing will definitely fill the bill for pulling tubes around.

We then went to a sand bar, looked things over and cooled off a bit. Went to head out again and the port motor starter would not engage. Spins over freely, but not even trying to engage the flywheel. Will pull the starter tomorrow and see what is up with that. Before this, the port motor seemed to run strong.

Next week is supposed to be cooler, right around 80. So on port side we will fix starter, look to adjust the shift interrupt dwell, and I have to fix a contact for oil pressure in the engine harness plug as it comes and goes.
The starboard side we need to check the temp gauge, it is not working. Put the new carb on when it shows up and we need to check the rocker arms on it, couple sound a bit loose.

Going to check plugs in both motors and see what they look like and I have a slight drip of power steering fluid coming from the transom inside.

Quite a list still, but IT RUNS!!!!

Will have more to report, maybe a video next week.

Brian

befu

Well, how quickly life can change. I new the summer was too peaceful! We will see how interesting things get now around the house as I just found out we are getting a 1 and 2 year old tonight for an unspecified time..... So now the child line up will be 1, 2, 2, 7, 9, 11, 13, wife and me bringing up the rear! Good thing Walmart has $1 energy drinks and the Formula is rated for 9 people. Needs to be a mid cabin open bow..... Life is never dull as a foster parent.

Brian

masi242

God bless you Brian not everyone can do that very impressive