So I picked up a 1996 Wellcraft Excel 19SX with the 3.0l/LX and Alpha One Gen II for $900 with a full storage cover, sun shade canvas top and various other boating items on a galvanized bunk trailer. The previous owner said it was overheating before he put it away last season. He was stingy with his money and tried performing his own maintenance on the boat over his ownership and did a rather poor job at maintaining it. He is rather up there in age and I don't think he winterized the boat correctly. We're up in Maine and have pretty cold winters. The interior however was kept spotless and looks great! So I'm thinking he was meticulous about it's appearance but wasn't very mechanically inclined so the maintenance fell to the way-side.
At the end of last season he said the boat was overheating on him and so he was throwing parts at it to chase the problem. That's when he replaced the exhaust riser and removed the t-stat. Those two things didn't fix the over heat issue so he gave up on it and put it away for the winter. He told me he had to replace the freeze plug at the front, exhaust side of the motor last season too since it was leaking. He bought the boat in Florida in 2005 and then trailered it up the coast to Maine in 2006. It has had some light salt water use but you wouldn't know it look at the parts and outdrive.
When I arrived at his house last week he was just taking it out of storage and hadn't started it yet since putting it away in September. The hull and interior are in great shape for the year and he had replaced the center section of the floor and did a pretty decent job at it. It was re-carpeted as well. So within 5-6 cranks of the motor it fires up and idles perfectly. Sounds like a purring kitten. The gear lube in the outdrive looks to be in great condition with no streaks or cloudiness. It shifts into gear beautifully and all is fine except for the large amount of water pouring out of the flywheel housing behind the motor and around the starter. He said he doesn't remember it doing that and was all concerned I wasn't going to buy the boat. With as much water coming out I was convinced it was the 2" plug behind the flywheel. That much water coudn't possibly be coming out of a crack in the block. Plus there are weaker spots on the engine that are prone to cracking as compared to the very back of the block. So I bought it.
I get it home and pull the drive off and the motor forward enough to pull the flywheel. As I remove the flywheel cover the plug falls out! Yippee! My assumption was correct! So I go to NAPA and pick up a $3 brass plug and replace it on the motor. While I had the drive off I checked the gimbal bearing which was pretty warn as well as the bellows so I bought and replaced those too. Knowing he hadn't maintained the boat very well I also replaced the water pump impeller. The impeller looked to be new but I replaced it anyhow.
After buttoning up the drive and the motor I threw in a t-stat since he hadn't put one back in. Well I get the boat to the launch and it fires up and we start to head out on the lake and when I shifted into forward the motor died. It started up with a bit of hesitation but idled okay. So I tried to go again and it died. So now I'm thinking it's the kill switch but my father was thinking old, bad gas. So I get the boat back home and siphon out the 15 gallons of ethonal "enriched" fuel that the previous owner claimed he treated with the red bottle of Iso-heet to "winterize" it. I put in 10 gallons of 93 octane and treated it with Sta-bil Marine formula. I replaced the fuel filters at the fuel pump and on the carb. The boat starts right up and is running great again.
So I go to water test it and get it out on plane and it starts to over heat. I let it get to 200 degrees and shut it down running the blower the whole time. After several minutes I fire it back up and slowly head back to the launch. I get it back home and decide I have nothing to lose but to start removing parts to investigate the issue. I tested the water pump by removing the long rubber hose that brings the water from the power steering cooler to the t-stat housing and there was plenty of water flowing there. The large hoses from the t-stat to the exhaust and to the water circulator were very hot so I was thinking that the water circulator wasn't moving the water well enough to cool everything. So I removed it to find this:
The fins on the old circulator were half gone so I bought a new one. Get it installed and get the boat to the launch only to find that it's still overheating!!! At this point I've given up. It's either a cracked block internally or a warped/cracked head. The engine oil is not milky and is in good shape. I suppose it could possibly be a bad head gasket due to it over heating before...
Ideas?
I've since bought a used replacement motor and have dropped it into the boat but haven't finished hooking everything back up yet. I'd like to start tearing down the original motor to find the over heating culprit. What do you guys think it is?
At the end of last season he said the boat was overheating on him and so he was throwing parts at it to chase the problem. That's when he replaced the exhaust riser and removed the t-stat. Those two things didn't fix the over heat issue so he gave up on it and put it away for the winter. He told me he had to replace the freeze plug at the front, exhaust side of the motor last season too since it was leaking. He bought the boat in Florida in 2005 and then trailered it up the coast to Maine in 2006. It has had some light salt water use but you wouldn't know it look at the parts and outdrive.
When I arrived at his house last week he was just taking it out of storage and hadn't started it yet since putting it away in September. The hull and interior are in great shape for the year and he had replaced the center section of the floor and did a pretty decent job at it. It was re-carpeted as well. So within 5-6 cranks of the motor it fires up and idles perfectly. Sounds like a purring kitten. The gear lube in the outdrive looks to be in great condition with no streaks or cloudiness. It shifts into gear beautifully and all is fine except for the large amount of water pouring out of the flywheel housing behind the motor and around the starter. He said he doesn't remember it doing that and was all concerned I wasn't going to buy the boat. With as much water coming out I was convinced it was the 2" plug behind the flywheel. That much water coudn't possibly be coming out of a crack in the block. Plus there are weaker spots on the engine that are prone to cracking as compared to the very back of the block. So I bought it.
I get it home and pull the drive off and the motor forward enough to pull the flywheel. As I remove the flywheel cover the plug falls out! Yippee! My assumption was correct! So I go to NAPA and pick up a $3 brass plug and replace it on the motor. While I had the drive off I checked the gimbal bearing which was pretty warn as well as the bellows so I bought and replaced those too. Knowing he hadn't maintained the boat very well I also replaced the water pump impeller. The impeller looked to be new but I replaced it anyhow.
After buttoning up the drive and the motor I threw in a t-stat since he hadn't put one back in. Well I get the boat to the launch and it fires up and we start to head out on the lake and when I shifted into forward the motor died. It started up with a bit of hesitation but idled okay. So I tried to go again and it died. So now I'm thinking it's the kill switch but my father was thinking old, bad gas. So I get the boat back home and siphon out the 15 gallons of ethonal "enriched" fuel that the previous owner claimed he treated with the red bottle of Iso-heet to "winterize" it. I put in 10 gallons of 93 octane and treated it with Sta-bil Marine formula. I replaced the fuel filters at the fuel pump and on the carb. The boat starts right up and is running great again.
So I go to water test it and get it out on plane and it starts to over heat. I let it get to 200 degrees and shut it down running the blower the whole time. After several minutes I fire it back up and slowly head back to the launch. I get it back home and decide I have nothing to lose but to start removing parts to investigate the issue. I tested the water pump by removing the long rubber hose that brings the water from the power steering cooler to the t-stat housing and there was plenty of water flowing there. The large hoses from the t-stat to the exhaust and to the water circulator were very hot so I was thinking that the water circulator wasn't moving the water well enough to cool everything. So I removed it to find this:
The fins on the old circulator were half gone so I bought a new one. Get it installed and get the boat to the launch only to find that it's still overheating!!! At this point I've given up. It's either a cracked block internally or a warped/cracked head. The engine oil is not milky and is in good shape. I suppose it could possibly be a bad head gasket due to it over heating before...
Ideas?
I've since bought a used replacement motor and have dropped it into the boat but haven't finished hooking everything back up yet. I'd like to start tearing down the original motor to find the over heating culprit. What do you guys think it is?
