1975 Skiier Stringer Replacement

Keegan,

Now that I look at it, the engine did not seem too bad compared to my recent problems that I never thought would be a problems. See my threads on my bilge pump, steering cable and now the exhaust hose.

I thought I had it made after the engine but I am more depressed about the whole thing now more than at any other time over the last two and a half months

scott

Now there's some attractive exhaust manifolds!!!

Great News!!

After about 6 hours of work, the engine is in and is virtually flush at the couplings.

I will give all the credit to my friend John who is the last owner of this boat 21 years ago. I just operated the engine hoist up and down. I almost screwed up and put the primaries too close. After all adjustments were done to their maximum adjustment, the coupling was still .010(ten thousandths) off on the passenger side. Their was no room whatsoever to make up this difference and we thought about just leaving it as it was or take the mounts to an machine shop and let them do a couple of things.

Well, John decided to take the mounts and the brackets off the boat, took them back to my workshop, put them on my bench grinder for over thirty minutes in about six locations and he found the .010 we were off. We put it back on the engine, checked everything and it was flush, perfect, sweet,..........or whatever you want to call it.

Will post this weekend. Hope to have it all done by monday or tuesday and three days to shine everything up.

scott

8122pbrainard wrote: srbranum wrote: I have had it up to 55mph if everything in the boat is perfectly balanced and there is no wind. I have two original props. I can't ever remember which one is for "top in" and which one is for "pulling". I will look at them and post a picture. Before you start making any speed claims, I'd like to warn you that there are members here that will want the claim certified with GPS, witnessed and probably notarized!! Do get some WOT RPM's when you're out there trying props. The prop with the lesser pitch (second number on prop - first will be dia.) will be your "pulling" prop. What are the props you have?

The prop in this picture reads "12RH15 Cupped Edge 1 74 NI BRAL Grand Rapids Michigan 30373". I can't read the other one because it's on the boat:


Here is the engine before we attept to mount it tomorrow:


My speedometer goes up to 55 and I have pegged it however that does not mean I am going that fast until a proven method to calculate the speed is done

srbranum wrote: I have had it up to 55mph if everything in the boat is perfectly balanced and there is no wind. I have two original props. I can't ever remember which one is for "top in" and which one is for "pulling". I will look at them and post a picture.

Before you start making any speed claims, I'd like to warn you that there are members here that will want the claim certified with GPS, witnessed and probably notarized!!

Do get some WOT RPM's when you're out there trying props. The prop with the lesser pitch (second number on prop - first will be dia.) will be your "pulling" prop. What are the props you have?

Scott,
You've got the OMC engine correct? No, they aren't really rare just less of then used. They were a premium option and thought to cost a extra $200 back then. BTW, they are slower out of the hole (not much) but real screamers top end compaired to the Fords.

Scott,
Going back to you using the full 2" thickness for the main straingers, did you keep the distance between them the same? IE: the extra 1/2" thickness on each side is outboard. I'm asking to make sure you'll have enough port to starboard engine adjustment with the mounts.

I blew past that figure months ago and am a lot further behind you! You are moving fast and everything looks really good. Let us know how the engine installation goes. Its all fun and games till then, but people do it all the time so I am sure you will get it right with a little help from the CCF crew.

Scott,
Take a look at your mounts again and notice the threaded section through the rubber isolators. Theses are for your up and down adjustment. Just like you noticed the in and out rods with their pinch bolts, the up and down threaded rod has it's pinch bolt on top. Before you and your friend drop it in the boat, I suggest lossening up all the mounts to make sure they aren't rusted up/stuck. Looks like from the pictures they could use some oil.

One more thing,

I am not worried too much about the front to back positioning of the engine as that will just involve placing it forward or backward on the primary stringers. There appears to be no great problem with the side to side adjustment either if you look at the pictures. I think you loosen a bolt and move the mounts side to side or in and out whatever you want to call it. It's the up and down that bothers me. There does not seem to be any small adjustments in the up or down movements...just the given space between the holes on the side of the mount. What if you only need a 1/16th" or whateverr other small amount?   

I may also say that for whatever reason, the passenger side stringer is about 3/16th's lower than the drivers side............don't ask me why or how because I thought they were level at one point. I thought about stainless steel shims for the passenger side if necessary.

Scott,

You're doing pretty good. You're making great progress.

It is not the stringer job itself. It's all the other things you have or will seal when you put the boat back together.

If the boat took on water simply sitting at the dock you were leaking somewhere. Could have been leaking around the exhaust ports, or speedo tubes. May have had loose exhaust hoses. May have been leaking around the fresh water intake. May have been leaking through the tracking fin, shaft log, or rudder packing.    Your vent hoses were also probably leaking causing water to get into the foam but that would not be an issue while just sitting at the dock. Don't know if you have a swim platform, but that is another source of leakage. Since presumably, you are sealing all of these items when you put them back, very, very little water should get into the boat. Of all the things that could leak, I would think the gap under the rubrail would be the least worrisome, although you might as well seal it while you've got the boat apart.

BKH

^^Agreed^^

bkhallpass wrote: I don't see the point in the plugs. If you get water under the floor, why trap it in all day. Better to let it drain into the bildge, and let the bilge pump get the water out of the boat promptly. My $.02. BKH

You may be correct. My thinking was that as my bilge gets water in it and before I can pump it out with the bilge pump(actually, I have an automatic bilge pump), I don't want water running from the bilge into the stringer area and back and forth all day. I was thinking I would just plug it up to block off the water from the bilge area and only the small amount from the stringer area would drain when I am done for the day.

I have not done it yet so it's still in question. Thanks for the input.

scott

Scott,

You're looking good.

A few things that might help you that worked well for me.

1. Get a box of shims and radius the thick end of one of them to smooth your fillets out with.

2. When trying to lay the thickened epoxy, mix it up then put it in a quart sized ziploc bag and cut the corner (duct tape the corner so it won't rip). Squeeze it out of that like icing a cake, then use the radiused shim to get the nice clean radius. I always had too much and I had to go back and clean the excess at the radius edge with a stir stick. I would either try to lay it down somewhere else or wipe it with a paper towel. That's the reason you always see the Keystone Light box in my pictures. I was constantly wiping stuff as I would go and throwing the trash in the box.

3. When wetting you glass, try laying it on a plywood "table" with some of the plastic painter's drop cloth. Then pour the epoxy out on the glass and spread it / thin it. Let the pieces lay there and soak the glass, then install them in the boat. I was using a 50" roll of biax for most of mine. If you're using tape and laying the entire length out then putting on the resin, my idea won't work. If that's the case, use Pete's idea...get it out of a cup anbd spread out more...it slows down the reaction process and gives you more time before it kicks.

On a side note to that, if you work too slowly with the thickened epoxy in the ziploc it kicks on ya and kicks pretty good. I had one section where I got to cleaning and forgot I still had some in the ziploc. I probably had a couple ounces. When I remembered and picked it up, it was so hot it felt like it could burn my hand, and the ziploc seemed like it was going to melt.