Nuking & Rebuilding a 1989 18' Celebrity I/O...

[clm2112]

With Harvest time rolling around, Time for me to transition into the other projects around the farm.

The back-story first: When I moved back to Pennsylvania from Florida, A boat came home with me. Unfortunately, the trailer presented some problems, since it was registered as "home-made" in Florida, PA has put some extra hurdles that I have not overcome yet. To get around it, I bought a trailer that was already registered in PA. It was cheap, local, same size, but came with a boat already on it. My first thought was to just pull the extra boat off the trailer and cut it up. It had spent the past 10 years sitting in a local field, so I figured it was just a source of parts.



After stripping out the trashed interior and rotted out deck, I decided to rebuild the boat instead of simply cutting it up. The fiberglass hull is in better shape than my boat that I brought home from Florida. Transom feels pretty solid and the stringers are still in usable condition. Last year I started re-decking the boat, and convert it from a bow-rider to a center-console.

So, for the general amusement of y'all....



Over last winter, and off and on this summer I've been constructing the bow decking and center console.









Locked up Merc 350 engine stripped down and ready to lift out. The area around the fuel tank is in the worst shape and will need reconstructed before decking over the tank.





And that is where the project stands as of this morning. Lots of fiberglass work to be done, and a motor to pull. I do have a spare engine and drive leg in the basement. (A left-over from the last time I tried doing this, unsuccessfully, back in Florida) So, if I manage to get the hull rebuilt and straight, then this motor will go in.



But, I have a long way to go... Y'all can have a good laugh at my expense

[clm2112]

Time to lift the dead motor out of the hull...

After determining that the Cub's fast hitch couldn't lift the motor, I opted to cobble an "A" frame together off the back of a Ford F150 flatbed.

Cub is still in this act... acting as the "Ramp Rat" to move the boat and trailer around.



A-Frame attached to the bed of the pickup.



I tried it out using, did a few chin-ups on the end of the A-Frame. It took the 200lbs of me without complaint, it is time to release the motor mounts, chain up to the A-Frame, and try lifting the motor off the mounts. If anything breaks, well, I will not be under it. Might be a tremendous crunch, but I have nothing at risk here.

If this works, I'll use the Cub to pull the trailer and hull out from under the engine. At which point I can lower it onto some blocks on the ground and pick it up with a normal engine hoist.

[Don McCombs]

What does the lifting, Curt? Do you have a winch in the bed?

[clm2112]

Using a chain hoist off the end of the A-Frame. I haven't got there yet. Got the plate on the intake manifold, distributor out, and got hung up on the motor mounts. The nuts are huge, rusted, and below the deck level. They are soaking in PB Blaster right now. If I can't get them loose, the alternative is taking out the lag bolts between the bottom of the mounts and the stringers. Trying to avoid this, since it will cause a lot of work aligning the new engine.

[outdoors4evr]

Neat project!
Seems like you are making your trailer problem worse!

[clm2112]

Perhaps, but once the engine is out, I'll be blocking up the hull off the trailer. At which point I can possibly go through it, redo the bunks and hardware, before putting the other boat on it. Then I can attack the legal issues with the trailer from Florida. In order to haul it to one of the few "Enhanced" inspection stations, I need the boat off of it.

It is kinda crazy. The trailer from Florida was made by a company in North Carolina who supplied Pleasure Craft Marine in the 1980's. Both are out of business. (PCM exists, but as a new company with an old name, no support for products sold by it's predecessor, so no help there.) It never had any form of ID plate or Manufacturer Statement of Origin paperwork. This was never an issue in Florida. They don't issue titles for small trailers. If you pay the registration fee, they hand you the slip & license plate. If the trailer has no markings, they just list it as home-made on the registration.

PA wants to issue a title, and demands the manufacturers paperwork in order to do it. The only route opened up is to pretend to be the manufacturer and present the trailer for inspection as if I built it myself. At which point the inspector decides the weights and class of the trailer and where it fits in PA's fee structure.

.... or I do the sneaky move and pop the serial number tag off the trailer that is titled and rivet it onto the trailer that isn't. Hang the tag on it and be on my way. The currently titled trailer is a bit rough and far heavier than the one from Florida, so it really isn't desirable. It's only redeeming qualities are that it is the large enough and has a PA title. It is actually over-kill for the boat that is on it, which is why it weighs so much. Were I to swap identities, the currently titled trailer would end up as the basis for a logging arch for use on the farm.

[clm2112]

Ok, a few white knuckle moments, but mission accomplished. Cub did great all day, moving trailers around... a few inches here, a few inches there. Only damage from lifting the engine was a busted spark plug when the motor twisted on the hoist. No big deal, they were just left in the motor to keep moisture out of the engine. They are all in the trash can now.



And at the end of the day, motor sitting on block on the garage floor. Post-mortem starts tomorrow when I put it up on an engine stand and remove the intake, heads, and oil pan. Just to see how bad the damage inside the engine is and if it needs an overbore.

[clm2112]

Welp, Post-Mortem of the dead motor pretty much went as I suspected. The motor died young through the neglect of the previous owner. Seems to be the trend for power boat owners.



Number 3 cylinder was rusted in place, which was why the motor wouldn't turn.



The previous owner was also the victim of a rip-off. While he believed his motor was the 5.7L Mercruiser specific engine, which is what the calibration tag on the Rochester carb is stamped with along with the covers. In reality, he got a regular late 1980's 5.0L Chevy automobile/truck motor with a coat of grey paint. The steel expansion plugs and block casting numbers don't lie. Curious to see what camshaft was stuck in it.



So, the engine is pretty much not worth the effort to rebuild. It clearly has a small number of hours on it, many of the engine parts are clean enough to pass for new. I'll finish stripping it down and save all of the good parts for spares.

But, for now, I need to get back into the hull and finish nuking out the rotten wood.

[Slim140]

You know what boat stands for don't you Curt? "Break Out Another Thousand", lol. Good luck with your project!

[clm2112]

Thanks... I know they are holes in the water that money gets tossed in

Anywho, project continues on. Stripped the motor down for parts. I'll start listing parts on eBay to make a little money off this one. What the PO did to this motor was downright criminal. Were it not for the screwed up cylinder, the motor would be in perfect condition. No wear at all on any of the bearings, even the oil pump coupler is still in place (these are usually broken on most Chevy V8's when the plastic gets brittle from the heat and oil.)

[clm2112]

Climbed into the hull today and made some more progress. I managed to remove the 30 gallon aluminum fuel tank, trim pump, exhaust bullhorn, and more of the wiring before it started to rain.

The best news was the transom and keyhole. Once the exhaust was removed, I could see and feel around the big hole in the hull where the I/O drive exits. Much to my surprise, it was solid and dry.

That is a major relief. A rotted transom would be the end of this project. Yes, they can be rebuilt, but it is a nightmare to get right. My first boat project came to a disastrous end for that reason a few years ago. I had paid a "professional" boat-builder in Florida to repair the transom of an I/O drive hull. Even provided the guy with the packet of instructions and full-size templates from Mercury Marine. $2,000 later I got the hull back and it looked nice. Six months later, when I was ready to install the engine, I discovered that the "pro" had botched the whole job. It was way too thick and cocked at an angle. He was nowhere to be found and his shop closed up. I spent a few weeks trying to get the transom corrected to the point where I could install the engine and failed. I ended up stripping that hull of everything usable. Then watched a bulldozer crush it flat at the Volusia County landfill. Never again will I attempt to fix a stern drive hull with a rotted out transom.

So, you can guess that I'm a pretty happy boy right now. As soon as I finish removing the gimble and last bits of the deck, I can roll right into creating a new deck for this boat.





Fuel tank was also a welcome surprise. I was concerned about the fact that it was a 25 year old welded aluminum tank. But then, there is no salt water in Western Pennsylvania! Tank is dirty and gummed up inside, but it is still solid and free of corrosion. Just needs rinsed out and it's ready to go.

[clm2112]

More nukage... still removing buckets of rotten wood. It is messy, but it is also pretty easy work. Use a cut-off grinding wheel to rip through the fiberglass tabbing, then break up the rotted wood it a painter's putty knife. Sweep the mess into a bucket and into the burner barrel.



Did a little exploratory surgery on the stringers. While only the tops are rotten, they are water logged all the way down to the hull. Going to replace them before doing the new deck. Again, pretty easy. Make a "L" shaped beam out of 1"x3" pine, painted in epoxy resin to seal it up. Install them in place of the tops of the old stringers. Then cut away the old stringer a little at a time and replace with new plywood. It is easier that trying to make an entire 14' long stringer, and less risk of hull changing shape (which can happen if you remove an entire stringer at one time.)



Had company all day. The flock was out in the yard today. A few of them hopped up on the boat to see what I was doing, but they mostly chased down stink-bugs all day.

[clm2112]

Last of the nukage today. Gimble fought me the whole way, but finally came out. Idiot used adhesive on the rubber O-ring. I wish he would have used grease on the pins and bearings. That might have actually been helpful Time to pause for a little while and get stringer & deck wood cut to fit. Gimble that came out will need taken down and rebuilt over the winter. I already have a spare ready to go, so no hurry there.

[clm2112]

Been a week or so, and the weather is cool and rainy. Not much that can be done outdoors.

I had a little change of heart about the dead engine. After taking the pistons out and cleaning them, I took a hone to the dead cylinder to knock the rust off. It would probably need at least a 0.010 overbore to restore the cylinder wall to perfect condition. But since I already have a rebuilt engine with zero hours on it for actual use in the boat, I decided to reassemble the dead engine and see if I could kill it some more. With a cheap ($35 from Rock Auto) head gasket kit and a coat of rustoleum grey, I'm going to use the engine to test out a few other item I have around the house. If the engine dies in the process, no great loss... it is a throw-away motor already.



In one of the boxes in the basement was most of an aftermarket fuel injection system. The ECM was made in the mid 1990's by an Australian company HalTech for use in Holden Commodore V8 automobiles. It is similar to what GM used in the late 1980's on the 305 & 350 Tuned Port Injected motor (Corvette/Camaro/Firebird) but has a pin-out like the GM 1227747 ecm used in TBI cars and Trucks of that era.



Made up a backing plate and made up a wiring harness to test it all out a sensor and function at a time. Had to scrounge up an old computer that could run DOS programs with a real serial port for communications. After a day of screwing around with it, between taking care of the chickens and cutting trees, I was able to get the ECM up and running to the point of being able to test out sensors.



So, in the coming weeks, I'll set up the dead engine on the garage floor, next to the Cub, and see if I can get it to run on fuel injection. If it works, I'll transfer everything over the good engine so it is ready to install in the boat as soon as the hull work is done.

The things we do on the farm for grins and giggles.

[clm2112]

Brrrr... it got cold!

That brings an end to work outside on the boat hull. Resins just do not want to cure when the temps fall below 70. Still have plenty to do that can be done inside the house and garage. Been selling the good excess parts on eBay and doing well at it. (Serves the purpose of cleaning out the garage, as well as paying for glass & resin.)

The dead engine is mostly re-assembled. Still cleaning parts and testing them out to see if they are scrap/eBay material or if they should be kept as spares. The iron exhaust manifolds where a pleasant surprise. After a couple hours of tapping on the iron and removing the rust scale, there is still plenty of them left to be usable.

Getting closer to the moment of truth for the motor... perhaps another week or so and I can set it up on the driveway and see if it will run. Finished up last night by putting new spark plugs in, 4 quarts of oil, and pumping up the engines oiling system to see if I had any leaks. Just used an electric drill and fake distributor to spin up the pump. Then turn the engine over by hand to fill up the lifters, push-rods, and bearings. One more item crossed off the checklist.