worn valve stem

Yikes Joe, we're you able to save it?

Yeah, I was able to keep avoid that thankfully, but I had such images in my head

I'm a fair weather boater but I like a quick warmup for morning time trying to beat the Wally's and surfers.
But will likely delete the spacer due to height constraints..
Just don't want paint-scorching intake heat again because even the best carb complains after a shut down   

Pictures.
it may get bolted down tonight

We were in a holding pattern the last month waiting for the mini excavator to be available, but it was getting held up..

Quick story the engine is in the boat without incident, but not without fighting us much the day Sunday

My good friend had access to equipment but this unit wasn’t as robust as the mini excavator we used in February when taking the shortblock out and putting it in the basement

This JD loader/hoe not only was shy the hydraulic power to raise its boom when loaded with the engine, , it would also creep down when raised with the arm, so even using a higher starting elevation by putting the unit higher on my wall above the boat, we would only get one, somewhat uncontrolled decent chance to align. Not an option

Then we decided to use the bucket to install the engine. This had the power, but not best three-axis maneuverability. It was also yet undetermined if it would have enough reach over the boat and still hit centerline.

We decided to move the cast engine mounts left on the boat to the engine and, and as it got closer, yank the lags out of the tranny mounts, and place the transmission with its mounts on the block before lowering it all in as a unit.

This worked out without incident but we were four hours into it at that point, having creating many plans to work around the machine limitations.



However, no people or boats were injured in the making of this saga, so that is a victory itself

With remaining day closing, most critical umbilical’s , gazintas and gazzoutas were connected, modified and improvised in effort to hear some life and confirm it doesn’t frag, oil stays where it should, etc…

Engine is not aligned, nor is raw water pump active, running it straight from hose



First checked cranking - that sounded entirely normal.

Next we applied water and checked for any water where it shouldn’t be for a good while

With water still running, turned it by hand 2 revolutions without it hydrolocking

Then It puffed quickly with helper 2-stroke gas, FO appears correct (old LH 302 order) and base timing was surprisingly correct enough for first start by mark1 eyeball upon assembly.
One shut down occurred to snug the fuel bowls, and secure this and that.

Some shuddering and roughness at first. We soon got it 2000+rpm for 20 minutes while checking for any oils in the bilge, no water in the oil, no oil in the water.

It was a mad dash with nary a time for a picture, nor any funny videos like one would suppose.

After 20 minutes running high rpm , with a few shut downs to check things , no irregular noises, clunks nor clicks except from an angry vbelt alignment. Some celebratory beers and raw cleanup of the disaster of tools and such about.
It was all supposed to be an operating room precision operation with tools laid out like surgical instruments but looked more like typical boat yard daily work . Kept it real.

During the 20 minutes, on some throttle-ups, blue smoke was observed puffing one exhaust runner, as well as the rear of the boat, one exhaust side.   Manifolds will be retorqued, and may get red silicon rtv if torqueing doesn’t cure.

We pulled the pvc, and the oil spray was quite dramatic off the rockers and out the hole. No doubt the pvc is sucking copious oil in the absence of the baffles. It cleared enough to confirm it is causal to the PVC. The oil is water-free. Bilge is oil free. Camshaft survived. That was a big relief.   I did a trick I made up on the pushrods upon assembly that I think increases chances of survival of a new flat cam, ill share sometime

Now proper height valve covers are on order, with baffles I need. Will have them tomorrow night. Found some black stamped steel ones, cheapest tall covers I could find, proform. Looks like the covers will go back to black color.
Huh, and blank wasn’t a choice, needed to pick from Mustang, no. Ford Racing, no, I only have about 20 bucks of Ford racing parts on it.
Last choice was, cobra.. meh, ok.

So… it will be a cobra..





Maybe not all that different theme than Corvette Indmars did.


Next, water pump, aligning, more tuning, throttle bracket has to be modified to reach.
I get some buzzing from the Primary needle after shutdown, and post shut-down drips. Primary bowl will have to come off

When warmed up, its throttle response and quick revving with very modest throttle sounded quite… exhilarating.

Last night did some more tuning, rough alignment, retorqued exhaust manifolds

Videos from last night available on this channel as well as other related stuff


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGNXkgBcHTaGHlViysRo2JA

Our blessed mother of acceleration awaits her newborn. That’s really nice throttle response. Hope you can do a few lake run ups for us soon on YouTube

Glad you have it running again. It is early June so you still have a large part of the season to enjoy. You mentioned some blue smoke. I don't remember if you installed new piston rings on this job.   Rings will need to be loaded to seat in the cylinder.
Once the boat is on the water and you accelerate they should seat in quickly.
Was there a lot of blow by in the PVC? That would be a sure sign the rings are not seated.
Modern Rings will seat in the first or second dyno pull normally. It happens quickly.
A boat accerating on the water does a great job of loading the engine for ring break in.

GottaSki wrote: comon comon givitup givitup givitup

With the commander manifolds, it occurred to me while trailering that coming down the driveway, muffler water could slosh forward and get into a cylinder.
So I bumped the engine a couple revolutions with the coil wire off before starting, to make sure it didn’t hydrolock

It worked. No drama. No weird sounds. no vibration. no smells. no leaks. No adjustments.
It ran like a factory fresh boat.
Appears I had sorted out every detail in the driveway
Ran it two hours, and never opened my toolbox once. huh.

It snaps to plane smartly as predicted. the midrange pull is fierce and doesn’t wheeze out in the higher thirties like it used to.
No sustained top speed runs, but brought it up to 43 into the wind with authority before pulling back. Didn’t want to use up all the good ju ju in one day.
Its skiable by high margin, that’s the primary mission.

After couple hours of running, mostly on plane, and minimizing idling. Did two launches with my phone gps app active…
Got 0-20 in 1.8s, 0-40 in 6.2s.   and think I could have launched harder and tuning could net more, but it feels really great as is.

Its premature to speak of wake improvements until I have a passenger seated to flatten the boat better.
But, never seen this much of the platform bracket above the waterline, and bow is higher when idling back into my own wake, so that’s a good indicator

I can’t discuss RPMS competently yet
The MSD has always made the Tach wonky, and never found a good solution over the years, but, it would be good to solve it this season.

Thanks for the guidance men,
And big thanks to my friend John who arranged the heavy equipment and took the time to move it safe and sane

zwoobah wrote: Looks beautiful! Whereabouts are you in NE CT? I get out to Putnam/Pomfret occasionally on the bike. Beautiful country there.

Oh, you must stop at the Bean then for refreshments.?
Im a touch north of there in Thompson
Yeah its pleasant for cycle of any type, i pedal those towns, Pomfret, Eastford, Woodstock, good selection of eats in Putnam now.

zwoobah wrote: I'll keep an eye out for a nice Correct Craft next time I pass through.

And..............keep the other eye out for a Ski Supreme

GottaSki wrote:

Picture worth a thousand words. You have got to feel pretty good after all that work. Nice job and congrats. Its been great reading along thru the project.

Great progress! did your blue smoke clear up?

That is good news, sounding like you are good to go. Have fun.

Its still early to declare victory with the camshaft/lifter but its sounding good so far.

mentioned prior I made up a technique to promote proper lifter break in...
During the build, after setting preload but before placing the intake on, I recorded the location of the lifters snap ring, then gave it 20 spins, and verified that they each rotated.

However before that, it occurred to me that in order for a lifter to spin proper, there must be metal-to-metal rotation occurring at the rocker/pushrod interface, or at the lifter/pushrod interface in order for the lifter to rotate any.

So I took a length of paracord and gave it a wrap or two around a pushrod, one at a time. Then kept tension on the cord on each hand, and by pulling one side then the other about 10 times spinning each pushrod while it is preloaded, (but not on the active valves, then rotate the engine and did the others).
This spun each pushrod a couple hundred times in short order, seating and burnishing the dished metal interfaces, and suspect it promoted proper lifter rotation by letting these metal interfaces slide and rotate, especially at the pushrod cup in the rocker

I don't have any visuals to share quite yet but the boat performed terrific through the weekend;
friday night blub, morning ski sessions sat and sunday

My typical 28 off 34mph felt quite good, wake was even better than i remember, pull was solid af.

My ski friend who starts his session at 22 off let out an audible WOW what a great wake while sinking back into the water.
I didn't see much a hump at all, and his ski was staying well planted exiting the wakes, usually that length and speed is prone to the most launch on a boat.
Speed compensation was barely necessary, holding +/-1 with no throttle inputs

My gf skis at 25 mph, wake was similarly flat, and quite inconsequential. It was markedly similar to a malibu response at that speed, may even be as good or touch better now.

However if loaded with 4 aboard , the more modern boat will excel every day.

Side spray is somewhat reduced, but still present. it likes to go vertical as much as horizontal on these boats. just a function of the hull shape

For next season it will get a home made sanger-style wake-plate for more fine-tuning fun. Not nearly as involved a project