1985 Starcraft SS 160 with 75HP Mercury Outboard restoration and upgrades

[EchoNovember]

Been looking at doing something similar in mine.

Look at your intake and plan for some kind of high speed pickup when on plane. They do sell plastic covers that help getting water to your intake
Bubblers are great, but hot air being brought in must be accounted for and replace your water sooner/add ice
For your drainage, I would want something that didn't dump into my bilge. I think you should be able to drain through your intake line but someone else would have to comment. I like the below setup, just got to figure out a cheaper way to do it as I want to be able to run two livewells.

Mine came with what appears to be a custom aluminum tank with an inlet in the side and a drain in the bottom. There were holes and fittings at the transom. Didn't think about high speed pick up... Maybe just count it as extra aeration? Or turn off the livewell pump while underway and keep an aerator going.

For keeping the water cold I was going to build a custom tank cooler. Look up DIY aquarium chillers and you'll see what I'm thinking about doing. I figure something like that will keep them cool, and I'll hook the chiller up to a separate battery. Either an alarm system battery, a golf cart battery, or group 25 deep cycle marine. Something separate... Since it's an aluminum livewell, I may even surround it with a thin layer of foam for insulation and scavenge the cooling unit from my old 12v electric cooler and attach it directly to the aluminum livewell, with a large heatsink directly on the inside of the livewell from the cooling unit. Or set up something similar, but inline with the livewell pump.

I'll figure out something...

 

[EchoNovember]

Oh yeah, and I'd love to add a small bait well. Boat is too small for a second livewell and you make it convertible between fish and ski like I want to.

 

[Watermann]

The livewell set up I put in my SS has a drain on the side near the bottom on the aft end that goes out the transom and I use a regular bilge plug in it since the drain fitting is 1-1/8" dia. On the same aft end but opposite side near the top I have the overflow drain 1-1/8" drain fitting that goes out the side of the hull above the waterline. The aerator pump 3/4" line goes to a nozzle on the fore end of the livewell so the water has to travel the length of the 30" well to exit. To add another pump and the plumbing to recirculate water would be quite a bit of hassle and cost over just adding a bubbler.

 

[SHSU]

For keeping the water cold I was going to build a custom tank cooler. Look up DIY aquarium chillers and you'll see what I'm thinking about doing. .

Very interesting, would be interested to see what you come up with for a chiller, that would definitely help in keeping it cool.

 

[EchoNovember]

Really leaning towards scrapping the 12v cooler, though no matter what I do it will suck a lot of power. I'd rather use that power for the trolling motor, so I may go low tech and use a metal coffee can filled with ice, or just old fashioned ice packs.

 

[EchoNovember]

Ideally, I'd love to cram the smallest generator I can find under the splashwell to charge the deep cycles and maybe to run the trolling motor and everything else.

In case I ever drain the main battery too far, I can either troll my way back to shore or use it to charge up the starter battery.

 

[SHSU]

Ideally, I'd love to cram the smallest generator I can find under the splashwell to charge the deep cycles and maybe to run the trolling motor and everything else.

In case I ever drain the main battery too far, I can either troll my way back to shore or use it to charge up the starter battery.

What is the time frame you plan on being out on the water? How much power to you plan on consuming? Maybe better to invest in bigger batteries upfront. Don't think i would like to have a generator on board to add its noise to my peaceful fishing and such.

 

[EchoNovember]

Looking to be able to be out all day, with trips to shore for restroom breaks. The lake we go fishing on has a boat dock right in front of the restroom building.

I am on a budget for everything, especially since the boat is turning into a money pit already, so I get my batteries at Interstate Batteries. They have "blemish" batteries for $40/ea that were batteries warrantied out by dealerships by mistake that tested fine and are like new. I'm not going to be too picky right now about batteries, especially since they are that cheap. I'd love to find some bad batteries for free so I can save on the core charge, though...

I need new trailer tires right now more than I need new batteries, and trailer tires are going to run me almost $200... Plus I need to fix a bunk bracket. I found an ad on Craigslist for a trailer for $180, as long as you take the boat that is on it. Lol. Thought about buying it, swapping trailers, then selling my current trailer and the crappy boat for $150-200 and essentially get a free tire change and trailer repair. Lol.

 

[Watermann]

Boats are expensive as everyone knows and it's a hole in the water you throw money into. :blah:

Being an effective bottom feeder is an art form, I always end up having more work in on the low ball scavenged junk.

 

[EchoNovember]

Lol. My dad and best friend said the same about the hole in the water.

 

[EchoNovember]

If it's not one thing it's another... The carbs were leaking fuel out of the bowls, so I bought new gaskets, took the carbs off, took them apart, cleaned them, and put it all back together. After realizing I forgot to hook the main fuel line back up to the T connector between the carbs and sprayed gas all over the inside of the engine, I fired it up...or at least tried to. It didn't want to start, and when it finally did, it didn't want to run well or very long. I didn't adjust any screws, and the only thing I can think of that I did was when I pulled out the carb bowl drain plugs, which contain the main jet, and put them back in I tightened them just past finger tight with a wrench. I didn't adjust the main jets, though. I didn't want to mess with any of that... So now I have to figure out what I messed up.

Before I took it apart I had fogged it with Seafoam and it ran beautifully. Now it won't... I think I have should have just dealt with leaking carbs, but I didn't want to waste fuel or pollute the lakes more than I already am with that old thing. I try to be environmentally conscious as much as possible, and I know that a finely tuned engine uses less fuel and has lower emissions. Right now, though, my priority is just to get the dang thing running again. We're going out on a lake fishing this weekend, so it needs to be running, or we will putting around the lake on the trolling motor, if I can get that installed in time, too.

Sigh. Yay, boats....

 

[Watermann]

Float bowl overflowing is normally the float needle valve that has something stuck in it and there's an overflow at the top of the bowl that spills out fuel since the needle isn't seating off the intake of fuel.

I just got done this morning putting new gaskets in my Merc's 3 carbs and all I did was Chem dip them and replace gaskets after ward I blew compressed air through and the idle and main jets were clear.

 

[SHSU]

Did you install them in the correct order? Sometimes there are slightly different carbs for each cylinder even though they look the same.

 

[EchoNovember]

Huh. It just needed to sit for a day. I fired it up yesterday afternoon and after the normal "I'm cold and I don't want to start!" it ran beautifully. I used Seafoam to fog the carbs after it struggled a bit and fired it up. Then after turning it off and letting it sit for a bit I was able to fire it up with no issues.

 

[SHSU]

Huh. It just needed to sit for a day. I fired it up yesterday afternoon and after the normal "I'm cold and I don't want to start!" it ran beautifully. I used Seafoam to fog the carbs after it struggled a bit and fired it up. Then after turning it off and letting it sit for a bit I was able to fire it up with no issues.

Glad to hear. Sometimes our boats have minds of their own. You use Shell/Pennzoil oil? Was it less smoky?

 

[EchoNovember]

Glad to hear. Sometimes our boats have minds of their own. You use Shell/Pennzoil oil? Was it less smoky?

Not yet, I had already filled the tanks and used the cheap crap the PO had given me. However, it was still less smoky. I attribute Seafoam fogging and cleaning up some of the engine crap for that one, along with using new plugs. Going to try to take her out on the water to test to make sure everything is good. Then we'll start in on the transom.

 

[EchoNovember]

Oh, and trolling motor quick release bracket arrived, and the mounting holes were drilled and now we just need to fabricate a backing plate for it.

 

[EchoNovember]

Fun things to do with your significant other: wake up to a storm and be asked, "did we put the cover on the boat"?
"No, because you said it wasn't going to rain until later..."
Run outside in a torrential downpour and scramble to put the cover on the boat, getting soaked to the bone and laughing the whole time.

That was a fun way to wake up. ^_^

 

[SHSU]

Fun things to do with your significant other: wake up to a storm and be asked, "did we put the cover on the boat"?
"No, because you said it wasn't going to rain until later..."
Run outside in a torrential downpour and scramble to put the cover on the boat, getting soaked to the bone and laughing the whole time.

That was a fun way to wake up. ^_^

LOL, That is AWESOME!!!! Glad your Admiral is as willing to work with you as mine is with me!!!!

 

[EchoNovember]

Yeah, but now I have a boat to dry out, as funny as that sounds.