2001v-drive

The fresh air hoses run into the raised section in the bow and through a series of ports into the main hull through the stringers.I did this to save space and take advantage of the area under the floor.

at that pace you will have it ready for the st john river ride!!

keep them coming..I really like the room you get there w/o the dog house in the middle...

Dave,what gmc are you talking about,theres three of them in my shop?


Got my wheels done

First trailer you won't see the wheel nuts. Custom all the way. Nice

Resto,there is so much ballast in the boat I don't think weight placement is going to a big issue.The gas tank at 32 gallons is only about 190 pounds a skinny guy or a chunky lady in the front seat would be about the same.Just for the record I prefer the latter.
So lets say My nose is a little heavy,I would just flip the switch and dump a little out of the 400 pound front ballast.
The center ballast at 200 pounds is just to get that little extra when surfing and help even it out a bit.
My real concern is pushing all the weight out to the edges of the boat.I can't predict how bad the nose will dive but I will work through whatever I need to make the boat function properly.

On a different note I got the engine in and the front spacer ended up being 1.5 instead of 1 inch I don't know why.Pretty cool though,it cleared the upper cap without any cutting and fell right into the boat.

Took a while to get the hardware cleaned and ready to assemble.I torched the silicone then wirebrushed everything clean.





Then I assembled the transom hardware



and the underwater gear

Looks like a nice fit Ryan. Are you going to keep the exhaust manifolds like the other 2001 v-drive or can you save some space by turning them around?

Yeah that engine falls into place pretty easily.

Not sure im reading everythign correctly but taking a stab here. You used 1.5 inch tall spacers on the tranny mounts rather then the 1" i used.   THe higher the engine the further the prop shaft need to be pulled into the boat since it enters at an angle. Knock that .5 inch off the spacers or lower your adjustable engine mounts if you can and you should be able to push the engine back along with teh prop shaft and have it lined up. As long as the angles stay the same moving back and down or forward and up will keep them mated properly.

You'll need to raise that swim platform from the stock position. About the thickness of the platform itself.

If you look at my layout i have wrap around seating so the weight is pushed out to the sides.   I have gas tank in the belly,   350lbs of lead in the nose.   With no additional water ballast the boat handles great, can whip it aroudn turns like the stock boat its just not quite as quick through the turn.    Ive never really filled all the ballast and tried to whip a a tight turn at 30-35. But the boat handles fine driving at wakeboard speeds and driving responsibly with the weight.

If you have any other questions, or not sure which way to go on some aspect of the design let me know. Ill try to give you some insight to how the boat handles, reacts etc...


To answer the question about getting to the impeller. Maintenance is pretty easy on it. Obviously not as easy as the standard setup but there is plenty of room to work, you are just laying down next to the engine to do it.   

Chris,I am using the stock mufflers like resto because they sound good and under the floor they don't get in the way.

Resto,The half inch was me lowering the stringers for a half inch ply floor so my mount came up short.If I slide the engine back I will have to recut the stringer relief for the mount bolts to clear.Thats where I was off a touch.Just not worth the work for less than a quarter inch.

I did notice the air cleaner does not clear.I must have missed the post where you rectified yours.


Aka,the v drive I used was built for a ski boat and made the change a easy one.In reality the interior and sundeck are more difficult than the actual engine relocation.My project is tuff not because of the drive but the restoration.

Thanks, for all the support

akabulla wrote: He had an arch to his engine cover that followed the shape of the transom. Is your flame arrestor higher than the highest point on the transom or just if your run a straight board across the gunnels? They also sell low profile flame arrestors. Here is a thread with some good pictures: http://www.correctcraftfan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3748&KW=wakeboardin2k4

If this is still too low raise the center like the Python's decks!

So much usefull information on this site.You guys have saved me countless hours and effort.

No new pictures for 4 days.

At his current pace my bet is he has been boating for at least a day and a half.

Keep up the good work and the updates.

form&function---Ryan e-mail me

mtmabe@northstate.net

Are you going with a custom dash or what? Your old Ski Nautique 2001 Plaque--send it to me so I can replicate these and if you are gonna put these plaques back on, the personalized one too, e-mail me and I'll get these made up for you to complete this boat!

Thanks,Marty Mabe

not to critique the beautiful job, but thats alot of weight hanging off the aluminum bellhousing, and i would guess there would be some deflection because of it. correct me if im wrong, but id do remember on the v-drives the brackets go to the Walers gear box??? BTW im posting a pic of the Hurth 630v apart for future reference, its apart but you can see the precision, I like the Walters also, i just I had a problem with the people that run Walters

Eric, I thought the exact same thing the first time I saw 84resto's job because he has the same amount of unsupported weight but it sounds like his has been working flawlessly. Here is resto's pic from his rebuild.