88procraft
Recruit
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
- Messages
- 2
Let me start by saying I'm new to the forum and very new to boating in general. I was lucky enough to get a great promotion this year and decided to finally get myself a used bass boat to get into tournament fishing with my little brother. I decided against a new boat for several reasons, mainly making sure the hobby was one I would be sticking with for a while before investing too much money into it.
I've been in forums for all sorts of other things, so I'm aware that this initial post will likely draw some criticism from a few people. I'll make it easy and get most of the bashing out of the way so hopefully I can start finding good places to research and organize my upcoming project. Before it has to be pointed out, the situation I'm in is my own fault because of my lack of knowledge and for not taking the boat to a mechanic to have it tested first. I know absolutely nothing about boats, but it's time to start learning.
About 3 weeks ago, after looking on Craigslist for a few weeks and narrowing down my list of potential used boats I bought an 88 model Procraft bass boat with a v6 150hp Mercury XR2 motor. I met with the guy twice and he ran it for me in a tub of water and it seemed to run fine. We also went out on the local lake twice and aside from the foot throttle coming loose from the floor, everything went great. I went out fishing a total of 4 times. The first two trips went well. The boat seemed to run strong (ran at about 50-55 mph with me and my brother in the boat). On the 4th trip, the boat had an extremely hard time getting on plane (not sure if that's the right way to say it) after the first hour and for the rest of the day. When we pulled it out of the water, there was quite a bit of water coming out from a drain in the bottom of the boat that wasn't plugged and I attributed this to all the extra water weight going to the back of the boat. I looked into the drain and learned it was for the live well and bought a plug that fit into it.
The next time out we didn't have the same trouble getting up to speed, but it still took longer than the first two trips and was maxing out at around 45mph. This was Friday, as we were pre-fishing for a tournament we had signed up for yesterday. We tried to fill the live well up for the first time and couldn't get water into the wells. We docked it and pulled the plug I had put in and we were able to fill the live wells with the controls on board the boat.
We put in the water the next day (yesterday) and filled the live well and put about 4 lbs of fish in it after the first two hours. When we began running to the next fishing spot, it literally would not get on plane so I had my brother step over to the front of the boat, which got the nose down and got us up to 45mph. The next time we tried to move on the water I had my brother move to the front again to get up to speed and about the time the nose came down, we heard a pretty disgusting noise from the motor and it shut down and wouldn't start. I had to be towed in to the marina and after getting the boat back to the house I found two decent sized holes and some metal pieces in what I assume is the engine block.
From what I've been able to research in the past day, rebuilding a motor is usually a pain and can often lead up to a lot more repair time and costs than the initial 2-3k you'll spend rebuilding the motor (if that can even be done with the holes I mentioned above). I had already planned on putting new flooring in the boat, redoing the carpeting, putting a new fish finder on it, and putting new paint and gel coat on it.
I've seen a few places that try to sell you kits to rebuild the motor yourself, but I'm extremely wary of going this route because I don't want to be ripped off again. I don't know anything about small engines or boats, but I consider myself fairly intelligent and willing/able to learn how to do things myself. I've also found a couple of places that sell rebuilt motors and one place has the exact same year/model motor that I blew for around 3k.
I'm pretty disgusted right now and I'm kicking myself pretty hard. I'm not going to rush out to spend another 3k and I plan on putting the boat in my garage and slowly doing all the work I can myself to have it ready for next spring. Any advice on good places for information and/or recommendations as to what route I should take with the motor would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Aaron.
I've been in forums for all sorts of other things, so I'm aware that this initial post will likely draw some criticism from a few people. I'll make it easy and get most of the bashing out of the way so hopefully I can start finding good places to research and organize my upcoming project. Before it has to be pointed out, the situation I'm in is my own fault because of my lack of knowledge and for not taking the boat to a mechanic to have it tested first. I know absolutely nothing about boats, but it's time to start learning.
About 3 weeks ago, after looking on Craigslist for a few weeks and narrowing down my list of potential used boats I bought an 88 model Procraft bass boat with a v6 150hp Mercury XR2 motor. I met with the guy twice and he ran it for me in a tub of water and it seemed to run fine. We also went out on the local lake twice and aside from the foot throttle coming loose from the floor, everything went great. I went out fishing a total of 4 times. The first two trips went well. The boat seemed to run strong (ran at about 50-55 mph with me and my brother in the boat). On the 4th trip, the boat had an extremely hard time getting on plane (not sure if that's the right way to say it) after the first hour and for the rest of the day. When we pulled it out of the water, there was quite a bit of water coming out from a drain in the bottom of the boat that wasn't plugged and I attributed this to all the extra water weight going to the back of the boat. I looked into the drain and learned it was for the live well and bought a plug that fit into it.
The next time out we didn't have the same trouble getting up to speed, but it still took longer than the first two trips and was maxing out at around 45mph. This was Friday, as we were pre-fishing for a tournament we had signed up for yesterday. We tried to fill the live well up for the first time and couldn't get water into the wells. We docked it and pulled the plug I had put in and we were able to fill the live wells with the controls on board the boat.
We put in the water the next day (yesterday) and filled the live well and put about 4 lbs of fish in it after the first two hours. When we began running to the next fishing spot, it literally would not get on plane so I had my brother step over to the front of the boat, which got the nose down and got us up to 45mph. The next time we tried to move on the water I had my brother move to the front again to get up to speed and about the time the nose came down, we heard a pretty disgusting noise from the motor and it shut down and wouldn't start. I had to be towed in to the marina and after getting the boat back to the house I found two decent sized holes and some metal pieces in what I assume is the engine block.
From what I've been able to research in the past day, rebuilding a motor is usually a pain and can often lead up to a lot more repair time and costs than the initial 2-3k you'll spend rebuilding the motor (if that can even be done with the holes I mentioned above). I had already planned on putting new flooring in the boat, redoing the carpeting, putting a new fish finder on it, and putting new paint and gel coat on it.
I've seen a few places that try to sell you kits to rebuild the motor yourself, but I'm extremely wary of going this route because I don't want to be ripped off again. I don't know anything about small engines or boats, but I consider myself fairly intelligent and willing/able to learn how to do things myself. I've also found a couple of places that sell rebuilt motors and one place has the exact same year/model motor that I blew for around 3k.
I'm pretty disgusted right now and I'm kicking myself pretty hard. I'm not going to rush out to spend another 3k and I plan on putting the boat in my garage and slowly doing all the work I can myself to have it ready for next spring. Any advice on good places for information and/or recommendations as to what route I should take with the motor would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Aaron.