my first boat!

NEVER thought this day would come.
but here it is i own a ford. :(

joking aside i love it. a 1982 Ski Nautique 2001. cant wait to sack it out and get the wake even bigger.
found her in austin and brought her home last week. took her out today for the first time. runs great. LOVE IT. gonna be a blast. cant wait to start wakeboarding behind my own boat this summer instead of paying gas on others. shes not pretty, but i didnt buy her for that. :D

bringing her home










had a new motor put in, in 87.


besides the monster tower, and 4 blade prop, also came with these freebies. pretty much all the maintance parts ill need for awhile to come.


gonna be a great summer.

Congrats on getting your own SN..
Looks nice to me...

Great looking boat for what I assume is your first? Im not big on towers, but the 82 looks super in the water!

btw, your user name? / Im guessing your a "bowtie" guy,like me?

Congratulations! nice boat
With some time and some help from these guys on this site, you could have that thing looking like new.
In the meantime, take that Fram oil filter off and put a good one on, which would be about anything other than the Fram.

haha thanks guys, yeah she looks alot better in the pics than she really is. but im happy no matter what. manifolds are leaking like crazy with cracks/holes i assume. those are top on the ajenda. then id like to do something about the graphics.

Stang nice looking 2001. I really like the monster tower on the 2001. The curved line softens the angular screen.
That tower looks almost brand new.

Like the 3 colour accent stripe on the 82's. It's even Ford Blue to go with the Blue oval engine.

A wet sand and buff with new decals will have it looking like new.

A thought on the 3 colour stripe I think they are painted on. After you wet sand you could either repaint or replace with vinyl before new decals.

First of all FCK FORDS! What a nightmare.

Well the saga begins probly nearly 2 months ago.

Boat needed new manifolds, they were rusted bad, previous owners had tried to patch by painting on JB weld! They were leaking pretty bad. So mid 08 season I buy new manifolds, planning to put them on this winter. Risers and bolts were in good shape. So I just bought the manifolds and gaskets.
I was worred sick with all the rust removing the old would be a nightmare, not so, the previous owner installed stainless bolts, and they came out effortlessly like they were put on yesterday. Only had to dremel JB weld off two of them.
So I get the old ones removed, and go to put on the new manifolds. What the hell they hit the motor mounts! Some minutes passed and lots of cussing, then I just busted out laughing, all my years building cars I pointed the manifold DOWN instead of up like they do for boats. Haha frustration gone, had to laugh at myself .
Well this is when things started to get frustrating. The old manifolds were aftermarket, and I bought origonal equiptment PCM manifolds, the aftermarket ones used 4 LONG bolts going threw the hole thing, the OE PCM manifolds used short bolts on flanges like typical headers. So I was done for the day. Well after cleaning up I decided to check the old risers to the new manifolds SOB of course they didn�t fit, they were aftermartet as well. Bolt pattern, water holes, and bolts were ALL different.
So I order the risers, another $225 and start looking for bolts. I look up on skidim, they list the two sizes luckily. The riser bolts I could find at home depot, but were �� too long, bought them anyway. Hacksawing those grade 8 bolts was fun�.. and the PCM manifolds have NO clearance and required allen head cap screws! This is how they were designed and left the factory. After a few days of hunting no body had anything even close, had to special order them from Fasten-all. more waiting.
The Boat had been smoking terribly during the 08 season, so While im awaiting all these parts, I do a compression check and all the cylinders came back even, about 118, good news rings are in decent shape. decide to yank the valve covers off and put new valve seals in. got some ordered from o'rielly, well the day of the swap, I want to double check the seals because my buddy is coming over to help. Sure enough the damn seals o'reilly gave me require machining! WTF! I call everyone, they all need 3-7 days to get new ones, and most could only get the same seals. So I call my buddy, and he calls his machine shop, jack pot! They have my seals in stock and didn�t charge a dime. Postitive lock seals for the intake valves, and umbrella style for the exhaust. We get them changed in right at an hour that night. crisis averted.
Next day I get the new chrome valve covers and new seals on (hey the chrome was only $18 for the pair, I couldn�t pass that up)
A few days later I decide while access is good, ill do the oil change. God damn it. You have to suck the oil out threw the dip stick tube! Luckily I got the special vacuum hand pump with the boat from the previous owner. What a nightmare. After about 35 minutes in the rain and giving up 3 times, I finally was starting to get some oil out of it and figured out a system. Pulled out probly 3 quarts or so, rest had all burned off. Im sure there was some left in the pan though, your not gonna suck it all out. Well by this time the rain is pouring down, but im so pissed its pushing me to finish. Lightning getting thick now I get the new filter on and Valvoline VR-1 20W-50 in for this old flat tappet motor. Has the extra zinc and all that. Call it a day
Next I get the manifolds and risers bolted together to go on as one piece. Also put the 90* elbows in for the water inlet, and drain valve in the back ends for easy winterizing.
Few days later im ready for final assembly I go to put the new sub-assemblies on and some of the allen bolts wont go in. since the new ones are 8 bolt and the old ones were 4 bolt, the extra 4 holes in the block had been sitting there for a decade+ rusting with water leaking on them. They were toast. Done again. Next day I go hunt down a 3/8� tap. Get the holes taped in the rain, and spray with wd-40 so they wont rust before the next day.
Next day good to go. Bolts go right in, I get the drivers side sub assembly on, and the next day the pass side. Shes looking whole again. im excited to finish.
Next I go to change the plugs, mother sucker the spark plugs point up and right at the riser and exhaust port. Trying to tighten the first two not realizing as I was tightening them with the socket, it was binding the socket against the manifold cause there was no clearance even for the spark plug socket, the bind cracked the porcelin! Rrrr. Realizing the problem now, I get a wobble joint and im able to replace the other 6, and the next day replaced the broken two. Also install new 8mm wires.
Getting the old exhaust hoses hooked up to the now back to factory setup was fun. They are stiff mofos and with the old aftermarket risers, they had been jerry-rig adapted to work. So the bends, angles, and length was all off. Finally got them back on. Front water hoses put back and and shes ready to fire.
A couple test runs and and a couple new hose clamps and shes good to go. Sounds soooo smooth. And no sign of smoke yet. Well see how it goes on the lake. got her all scrubed down to get rid of the oil everywhere on everything lol. greasy prints etc.
Sounds like a short adventure but like I said took probly close to a month + of frustrations.


before:



yeah thats JB weld shilacked on!




during:

doing new valve stem seals


got rust? yeah you can see right threw a hole in one place.


old vs new



here you can see the no clearance, and require allen bolts, and although the angle is diseaving, the plugs point right up at the manifolds cant even get the wrench or extention even in there hits manifold. a line drawn straight out from the spark plugs passes right threw the middle of the manifolds!



Done!
the new chrome, shiny paint, and bright wires really sharpened this thing up! plus she should run alot better too.

Dude, could have happened on a chevy or mopar as well. Makes for a funny story though - if you're not the guy living it.

What else you gonna do in the off season.

Spring is here. Makes all things good again.

BKH

It's just a big hole where you throw your money anyway.

Nice boat.

Welcome to boat ownership!
We own an 82-2001 Nautique also. Love that boat. When all is said and done, with a little bit of time and sweat and sometimes with alot of money, it's yours. And it will be just the way you want it to be. Beautiful boat.
Sanity

Cory,
When I bought my first CC,a 76 Ski Tique, it was powered by a Phord 302. Being a hard-core "Bowtie boy", I took a lot of ribbing from my buddies.
My common comeback was, "They found out they run better backwards than forward". Of coarse,I never told them all the inboards did that.

Every time I approach the boat with a tool in my hand I end up with a story like your, Killa.

And mine is a AMC block, hahaha.

Thanks, even if you just let me know the name of the shop & town it is in, I can give them a call & take it from there.

Glad to hear your oil burning was solved, the repair frustration will be forgotten when you are getting big air.

That JB weld application should be in a hall of shame somewhere. LOL

I used to cuss and fuss anytime I needed to pull an exhaust manifold. That was before I had a system to manage that miserable hose and before I learned the stud trick as a helping hand on the manifolds. The stud trick is extra useful with the BB iron!

he did show a pic of the oil drain vacuum he recieved with the boat, thats what its used for, anymore i dont even put my car on the lift to drain oil, i slide the tube down the dipstick hole, pump it a few times and walk away and it does the work, sometimes if you cant get a socket in there a good box end with a bend works well also, or use a wrench on the hex on top of the spark plug socket