I wasn't going to tell anyone but...

[Michael Meyer]

Sort of a long story but I thought it was timely with winter setting in and everyone talking about winterizing their boats.

This past year I started looking into buying a crusier. I saw a Regal and fell in love. I looked all over my area and found one that I'd like to buy. I asked the owner if we could take it for a test ride/drive. The owner of the boat sort of inherited it, from his son in-law who he cosigned for, after his daughter and him divorced. He had very little knowledge of the boat in general.

We put the boat in the water and started her up...it ran very good, I was impressed with the smoothness of the motor which only had 210 hours on it. Then the bilge pump kick on and started pumping water out onto the dock before we even got underway. So we opened the engine cover and found water coming from the block. I imediately became un-interested. I told him that I was no longer interested in buying the boat as it would probably cost me about $10K to fix. About two weeks later he offered me the boat for $10K less than we was asking and I bought it for $22K.

What you see in the picuture below is the hole in the block caused from not winterizing the motor the year before.

I decided that I had nothing to loose if I tried to first have it repaired. I also have a good friend that knows how to weld cast iron ( I actually talked to him about this before I bought it). The subsequent pictures are the repair. As an additional measure I put several coats of JB Weld over the area to cover any pin hole leaks that may be present.

Since the repair I've put about 50 hours on the motor and aside from replacing a few of the normal stuff (impeller, water circulation pump, spark plugs, oil) she has run flawlessly. I plan to run it until the engine wears out...

Just thought I'd share.

 

[borst]

Nice touch with the JB weld. I would have ran at the thought of a broken block, looks like the repair will hold. You made a great purchase. If you dont mind how much was the repair job?

 

[Michael Meyer]

The guy who did the weld is a friend so he gave me the good-guy discount...$500. It took about a day because we had to remove the waste tank, batteries, and manifold to get in there. He normally repairs boat propellers for a living. He said for this type of repair he'd normally charge $1200-1500.

 

[WALSHIE]

Wow, he did it in place, without removing the engine, that's pretty good. Of course, re-sale would probably take a hit but saving $9,500 is pretty awesome...congrats. Oh, and for the record, it's not like you had to screw the seller to save this money. If I was him, I'd be happy too as most people would run from this purchase. Also, you took a pretty big risk!! Good for you!

 

[Michael Meyer]

The "back-of-the-napkin" quote from the dealer to have the long block replaced was $9,500. I just figured that I was either going to have it replaced OR try to have it welded and see what happends...

So far so good, but like you said I think my resell value may take a hit....although I don't plan to sell it anytime soon...

 

[blouderback]

Make sure your SeaTow or BoatUS membership is up-to-date.

 

[Michael Meyer]

quote:

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Originally posted by blouderback

Make sure your SeaTow or BoatUS membership is up-to-date.

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HaHa... yep. That was one of the main consideration when we looked for insurance. Also we primarily have been using it on inland lakes. This past weekend was the first time on the River. I think if we venture out to the SF Bay well have a Dinghy.

 

[walterv]

Ifyou already put 50 hours on it, I would say your out of the woods and all should be good.

Good thinking, I would of never of thought of doing what you did.

Walter

 

[Michael Meyer]

It was my $500 gamble. The first time I took it out after the fix, I took it easy on it... thinking that I didn't want to hurt it if there was an "internal crack". The second outing (boating with another couple who had a boat that could tow us if we needed to) I really hammered on it....I had the RPMs up around 4700 for several jaunts across the Lake...probably a total of one hour at higher RPMs...my thinking was that I really didn't want to have it blow up when I wasn't expecting it... out on the Sac River or in SF Bay...

Since then I've put about 50 normal operation hours on it and it seems to be just fine.... and by the way I did go to Vegas this past year and didn't have the same luck....guess I used all my luck on my boat

 

[Carver370]

More balls than I!!! I will tell you from experience and being a broker, that boat without the block replaced is virtually un-sellable, that is unless you give the next guy the same price cut!

 

[Michael Meyer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Carver370

More balls than I!!! I will tell you from experience and being a broker, that boat without the block replaced is virtually un-sellable, that is unless you give the next guy the same price cut!

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that's what I thought... if I sell it, it would have to be a smoking deal...

In this case I felt I couldn't really lose. The price was right.

One thing that I haven't really said... other than the hole in the block this boat is in excellent condition. Everything in it looks brand new.

 

[DogDaze]

Hi Michael,

I can't see your pictures here at work, so I'll have to remember look at them from home.

Here's something to think about... years ago, while at one of the big 3 automakers.. they had a bunch of engine blocks that were cast so thin the coolant would seep through the side of the engine block.. did they scrap them all??? No way.. they actually welded plates to the sides of them to keep them sealed up.. the deal was that they would use these blocks in the rental car companies cars.. Seems to me they were fine.. just weighted a couple extra lbs.. but if it worked for them, I'm sure your repair should be okay - but I agree, it would be one I would keep an eye on.. and it would be one that would need to be revealed at time of sale down the road.

Great for you for being creative.. and good luck with the repair.
Regards,

 

[Michael Meyer]

Thanks Joe. A friend of mine had told me about a block he fixed with only JB Weld that was still being used today (three years after the fix) I figured that I'd take it one step further and had it tig-welded and then put the coat of JB weld over it. From what I understand the outer "shell" of the block is the non-structural portion and is only designed to hold the coolant/water.

...don't get me wrong. I agonized over this purchase for several days/weeks. I just kept telling myself to be patient and if this scheme didn't work I would just put a long block in it.

 

[DogDaze]

Mike,

Did you post some additional pics of the boat?? I'd like to see it from my home PC... and also will be sure to remember to take a look at your repair. Hey, based on your post, it sounds like you can't go wrong with things here..

 

[Michael Meyer]

I've only posted the one picture which is a side shot on the trailer that's kind of blurry. Here are some other I took when I first got it. Sorry that some are blurry (camera phone pics)

 

[DogDaze]

Hi Mike,

I checked out the pics tonight from home.. that's a pretty nice looking Regal.. I'm impressed..

Now you have me thinking.. my son has a Ford Ranger.. we replaced the radiator in it last summer.. shortly there after another leak.. this time from the freeze plugs.. the Ford dealer gave me an estimate - it didn't seem too bad.. so we took it in to have it done, they called me back and said it would cost much more on account that the exhaust header and would need to be R&R too. and it looked rusty, so it might break etc.. so we opted to let it drip..

I've wondered if one could seal them, without actually replacing them. The truck is getting older and we hate to put a lot more $$ in it.. so I wonder if I cleaned it up, if I went around the seam with JB Weld if it would cure up and hold? Does it take long to setup? I wonder if it would be worth a try? I also wonder if it would clean up should there ever come a time when we might make a permanent repair later...

Can you offer your thoughts having used the product?

 

[Hazzard]

I've used JB Weld before and it is really good stuff. It cures up pretty quickly. The last time I used it was about a year ago and I used it to repair a small hole in the radiator of an old POS. I let it cure overnight and it held perfectly. I don't know about the clean up, perhaps it would scrape off with a razor blade.

I kept it around for quite a while and used it to repair the kids tennis shoes. I could glue loose rubber pieces back on and it worked perfectly. In fact, I gave the rest of it to my mother to secure a piece of wood underneath her granite countertops so she could screw the dishwasher in to the wood.

Hope that made sense.

 

[Michael Meyer]

I see that you're in the mid-west...so I imagine that you're dealing with a fair amount of rust. If so you may be able to remove much of the rust with muratic acid. The problem is the metal you clean with it will rust very quickly after you use it. What I did was clean it with acid using a brush, then rinsed it with water and then I hit it with a heat gun to dry the surface and then applied the JB Weld. The heat will thin the JB Weld but just plan to put several coats on. I did this over three days...three coat. The main idea is to to make the JB weld adhere to the metal. JB Wled is an amazing product but just like any product the prep makes all the difference.

 

[DogDaze]

Hi Mike, Hazzard,

Thanks for the info guys.. his freeze plugs are not leaking badly, but enough to leave a spot on the driveway.. and a cause to have to keep adding anti-freeze.. in fact, when the engine warms up, it's usually enough to get them to seal.. they dry off and seem to be okay. Once he builds up a little pressure, he starts dripping again. I'm thinking that I should be able to get it warmed up and dried off enough without pressure - to apply.. and if I can get him to leave it sit long enough to cure, then add another application or two.. and see what happens. Don't seem like it would be much to loose. I should have tried it a year ago when we first noticed it.. they were barely a drip.

 

[NAWTICAL1]

Thanks for sharing. Great looking Regal. I would have never thought of this but I see no reason why it shoudn't hold.