New life in to the old girl!

J

JVM225

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The install is complete, both motors are brand new (not rebuilts) forward of the bellhousings except for pulleys, alternator brackets and power steering pump and bracket. All pulleys and brackets were sand blasted and repainted though. The motors came with their own harnesses so the wiring on them is new too. I took the opportunty to add fresh water cooling half systems to them, and a couple of new hourmeters to keep track. I wound up spending way more than I planned but I hope to keep the boat for a long time so having everything new now is probably better in the long run.
Now I have to wait for Spring to take her for a blast. I can't wait!
I changed my mind about painting the bilge while the motors were out because I didn't want the paint flaking or peeling down the line. It doesn't look like it in the photos, but I spent a couple of afternoons scrubbing 24 years worth of crud out of there. It's a little stained in there, but it really is spotless now. I hope it stays that way for a while.

"Out with the old"
IMG_0325.jpg


"In with the new"
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WOW...............Looks GREAT !!

That was the way to go John.....
 
Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best of luck, gonna be a long winter for you :)
Bet you can't wait to get out on the water and run them, looks great!!!
 
That's GRAND! You'll indeed have a hard time sitting still this winter.
Did you do any of the work, beyond the cleaning?
Who was the engine supplier?
 
Good move.

been there and dun that !

RWS
 
Very nice, hope the winter flies by for you! (and us too)
 
Thanks guys! It's going to be a long winter for me. I would have loved to take her out for a blast yesterday but the fun will have to wait.
It was a lot of money to put in to a boat of this age, but I do really like the boat and I couldn't have bought anything in as good a shape with two brand new motors for that money.

quote:
Originally posted by j-d

That's GRAND! You'll indeed have a hard time sitting still this winter.
Did you do any of the work, beyond the cleaning?
Who was the engine supplier?

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The plan was for me to have the boat trailered to a friends shop in the Spring where he and I would do the work, but that changed.
Don and others recommended a fantastic local mechanic who happens to be a certified Mercruiser guy. It wound up being much easier to just have him do the swap right where it is rather than move the boat back and forth and I'm glad I did. Swapping these motors isn't very hard and I'm very comfortable working with motors since I've been playing with them for many years. But there is no substitute for the decades of everyday experience with boats and resources that this mechanic has.
Not only did he provide valuable insight in to some of the decisions I made and the ability to source things locally, but one of the motors had a problem from the start and if it weren't for his experience and contacts at Mercruiser I would have had major headaches trying to figure it out.
The carb on the starboard motor kept flooding out, exhibiting classic signs of improperly adjusted floats. Even he thought that the carb was defective. When he saw there was a problem he called one of his contacts at Mercruiser who told him that the Carter fuel pump design changed slightly and that they've been having problems with some of the new ones they are putting on these motors. A fuel pressure gauge showed that the pressure was twice what it should have been (12PSI). A new fuel pump was installed and the motor runs great with the pressure now at 6.5 PSI. Knowing who to call and getting the right answer saved a ton of grief.
I bought the motors, manifolds, risers, and FWC kits from Michigan Motorz. The owner himself was great to deal with. His product knowledge and technical experience were fantastic and the prices were good, but I was very disappointed in their salesman and shipping department. Several things were wrong with the order, slow shipping, and a salesman with little product knowledge that was real bad about returning calls. This became more of an issue when we realized there was a problem with one of the motors. It all worked out in the end, especially because of the mechanic I used, but I had a lot of stress that I shouldn't have had with all of the money I spent.
I would only deal with them again if I could do everything directly with the owner.
 
John

Is the HP rating of the new engines the same a the old?
 
quote:
Originally posted by abalmuth

John

Is the HP rating of the new engines the same a the old?

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No, the old ones were 260 and the new ones are 275.
I have Alpha drives and the max recommended HP for them is 300.
I could have gotten closer to that number but would have had to go with an aftermarket engine manufacturer or re-manufactured and I really wanted to get brand new from Mercruiser instead. Not that there is anything wrong with a new one from one of the smaller outfits, most of them start out with the same base motor as Mercruiser and build it from there, but I didn't think the relatively few extra HP was worth it. Who really knows how they arrive at their HP ratings anyway?
Remanufactured was quickly eliminated as an option when I saw that by the time I paid the core charges there was essentially very little price difference from new.
One of my old motors is still a strong runner so I'm either going to sell it, or my friend and I will find a smaller boat that needs a motor next season, put it in that, and sell it. The lower end of the other old motor is mostly junk. So I would have had to pay core charges.
 
Nice, good decisions all around. I'm curious what was wrong with the lower end of the old engine? Lower end failure is rare without water in the oil.
 
quote:
Originally posted by pdecat

Nice, good decisions all around. I'm curious what was wrong with the lower end of the old engine? Lower end failure is rare without water in the oil.

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Bad compression overall. Just tired I guess. It was raw water cooled so the core is pretty much worthless.
I changed the heads on it last year. I did the job myself so there was no labor cost, but it wasn't worth the price of the heads and gasket set after all is said and done.
I had water in the oil last year because one of the heads cracked. I got it all out and did 4 oil changes in one day to make sure it was all clear once I replaced the heads, but although the engine ran ok with the new heads for a while, I'm sure the whole ordeal wasn't good for
the old rings. The oil pressure was ok, but had fallen off from where it had been before the head cracked so I guess the milkshake in there didn't help the bearing clearances too much either.
 
John.......glad to hear you had a good experience with Chuck......HE is the top of his class......good....honest ....knowledgeable guy too. Even though Im boatless.....he has taken over the maintenance of my motorhome.......he's doing my Diesel service next week and puttin my motor to sleep for the winter.
 
Nice job John, looking good.

Good luck

Billy K.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Double D

John.......glad to hear you had a good experience with Chuck......HE is the top of his class......good....honest ....knowledgeable guy too. Even though Im boatless.....he has taken over the maintenance of my motorhome.......he's doing my Diesel service next week and puttin my motor to sleep for the winter.

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He certainly is all that. Thanks again for recommending him. It looks like he is going to be my new shrinkwrap guy too.
I started out just wanting him to do something small for me and the plan was for me to move the boat in late winter or early spring and do the motors myself at my friends shop. The way my friend usually does it there is to back a boat in on a trailer under the chainblock after it is all ready to go, lift the motor and pull the boat and trailer out. A boat is inside the shop for minutes. The same is done when it's time to put a motor back in. It gets dropped in place and the boat gets pulled out to the side where we can hook everthing up and get it running.
None of that was an option for me without a trailer and his 10 foot wide garage doors. We would have had to rent a forklift, backhoe, or something. All of which can be tricky to use for people that don't do that, but we were willing to give it a try.
After I met Chuck and he did some work for me it became clear that the better way to go was to leave the boat in place and have him do the job.
In the end it cost me a bit more than I would have paid to have the boat hauled back and forth to Farmingdale and either renting equipment or paying someone to come and lift the motors in and out, but there was a lot less headaches and the job came out absolutely perfect. His price for the job was very fair too.
All that's left is for him to come back in the Spring after I put the drive back on to make the final adjustments to the shift cables and I should be good to go.
 
You seem to have a good mechanic, based on others' experience and what you see from his work. Still, please go over every clamp, connection, bolt and nut involved in the installation. A friend had his good mechanic work on a major preventive maintenance on his Volvo diesels. Mechanic missed tightening a hose clamp and the engine got doused in salt water. Minor problems ever since. There is SO much to do on a job like installing two engines that another set of eyes and hands just can't hurt.
 
JVM225,

I'm looking for a mechanic who makes house calls, if yours does can you give his name and contact info.

Thanks
 
JVM225,

I'm looking for a mechanic who makes house calls, if yours does can you give his name and contact info.

Thanks
 
quote:
Originally posted by jnova1111

JVM225,

I'm looking for a mechanic who makes house calls, if yours does can you give his name and contact info.

Thanks

Click to expand...


Call Chuck at 631-697-0101.
 
John,
You should check with chuck before posting his info. I asked him when he was my mechanic and he said he had too much work and didn't want more. Not sure of his status now, but if you post it here, he may get alot of calls.
 
Well......Dave .....he lost you and me.....and perhaps some other customers got out of boating with this economy. I'm sure he could always use a few more good cu$tomer$.
 
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