Another BFN Rebuild

It was pretty cool to hear it roar away from us at WL..... then the secondaries cut in! It was AWESOME!

Looks and sounds quite tame until 0.14 when you give it WOT.

Sounds like the prop is having trouble gripping, the rpms jump instantly.

oh my, that thing sounds wicked.

Damned ole big block!

Scott Monahan was ready to do a full speed doubles run with me at WL... not sure if those guys are coming to GL or not, but I'd probably be up for trying it- at least once.

Heck, with a good load off the Fly High, the nose runs higher than normal- so maybe it'll run 70!

The faster you go, the easier it is, lol.

Does not look like you are porpoising at all, not sure if the high pull would change that?? Me and Brian Harlen did some high speed runs behind Reids orange Mustang, we (I) needed to move the ropes to the lift ring because the porpoising was so bad the rope on the pylon was pulling/slacking to the point of causing butt checks.

With just 1 guy and the right setup you probably won't lose that much speed, think 60 may be attainable??

Cottonelle, last time I checked 70 was faster than 60.

Tim,

Beautiful water for a "short" barefoot run and WOW! I've never seen that whole side of the lake go by so fast. I also was thinking that a footer on the fly-high would help lift the bow q little and increase the speed, too!   A footer or two will not slow that machine!! I've footed in the high 40's, but at 60+, there ain't much of your heels left in the water.

Anyway, testing always helps, and I'd start a $100 donation to the Tyler Lake Ski Club if you could get Hollywood and Gregg on a full throttle run!!

UT

Resurrecting this thread with some of the more recent updates on our '79.

We ran the boat in the '15 Buckethead barefoot race and it ran well, but developed an engine tick... so last winter I rebuilt a spare 454 block to transplant. Found some scuffed pistons and questionable bearings when the bottom end finally came apart- it was due. Huge thanks to Joe for helping with the shortblock assembly last summer. Upgraded oiling, cooling, and oil cooling will be some of the improvements when it is finally back together. Still some plumbing and wiring left to do, but the engine is back in the boat and aligned now. Trans was swapped out for a newer 10-18 that hopefully won't pop out of gear on hard launches.



I already documented last winter's hull mod project in this thread: notched keel. Haven't splashed it yet so the jury is still out on the exact effects.

In addition, I rewired the boat front to back... including hooking up the heater (new hidden switch), installing the 12v aux ports in the pockets, under gunnel lighting, etc. The smoke test went well a few months ago. New amber LED's in the gauges, and I built a second 80mph GPS Airguide.













This winter and spring, I made some changes to the seating... shout out to Andy at Leftfield Engineering for the custom fab work. I lowered the driver's seat 2" so I will actually look through the windshield now. I also had a bracket made up to gullwing the observer seat and gain easier access to the cavernous under-bow storage space (no holes drilled in dash).

Before:


After:






Next up are the aforementioned finishing touches on the engine and to get the boat back in the water. Then a pylon swap and some trailer work. Zach helped me get a period-correct tandem (#4DV-T) from OK that is currently in resto-mode.

Sorry, guess I didn't read the post close enough to see you had it fabricated. Do you have any pictures of how it mounts? Can Leftfield Engineering build some more of theses?   

Subtle yet major changes, nice work

TRBenj wrote: Scott Monahan was ready to do a full speed doubles run with me at WL...

"still crazy after all these years"

I propose a number of high speed multiple runs at lake x.....



john

edit: can I drive?

Speed runs at Lake Zohar mini that we need to start planning.

Some more fine work by TRB and Gang. Cant wait to get into / behind this beast

No bling here, just functional upgrades. Trying to keep the outward appearance stock, look more closely and it's anything but... This boat gets used as intended, and used hard. We do enough skiing at dusk (and the occasional midnight cruise) to justify the lighting. No more unloading in the dark. Got a pair of lights to add to the Skier also.    Dad had them in the '92 from the factory (I believe) and they were handy.