1966 Starcraft Holiday Engine Repower

[66Holiday924]

Hi, I'm a new Starcraft owner, and I am new to iboats.com. I went through and read a lot of the forums here when I was researching my boat. I bought a 1966 Holiday I/O, 18 foot model. I like the boat and bought it with the intention of keeping it for at least 15 years. It had the original 110 horse Mercruiser in it and the 1A-EZ Drive. I am getting ready to repower the boat and I am interested in opinions. I have my eye on a 1992 3.0L Mercruiser w/Gen II outdrive. I think that engine should push me along pretty nicely and it's probably about the max for that hull.

 

[Scott06]

That would be a clean repower as the 3.0 is essentially the same as the 2.5 that's in there. It would be more power and definitely push the boat along fine, but I think the boat could could go for more power if you wanted it. The hull would certainly take a 4.3 if you wanted to do more water sports or be heavily loaded with people or gear, really depends on your intended usage.

 

[ahicks]

Sounds like an awesome project. Keep us posted!

 

[66Holiday924]

I wanted to post a few pictures of the boat that I bought, but it won't let me upload them for some reason. What format do they need to be?

The 110 and the 3.0 weigh about the same. I'm worried that if I go bigger the extra horsepower will be mostly countered by the weight added. I would like to use it for family fun, including fishing and skiing & tubing. The skiing and tubing will mostly be kids weighing up to 100lbs or so though. During the repower, I'm thinking about doing the transom. The original transom is still in it. It's usable, in "ok" shape at best, so might as well do that while I'm at it. What is a reasonable price to have that done on that boat? Since it's such an important structural piece of the boat, I'm leaning toward having a pro do it. I don't know, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot to it.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Aye aye mattie, welcome to iboats and my Star Craft owners club

You need to post 3times or more before the system will let you upload any pics, also have to be of a certain size only.

 

[jbcurt00]

Pix help
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/forum-rules-and-guidelines/9938375-photo-upload-tutorial

Dont choose option 3 ^^^

 

[jbcurt00]

Aye aye mattie, welcome to iboats and Star Craft owners club

OI: sarcasm and kidding dont always translate well remotely via the internet, esp when not phrased well.

 

[Alumarine]

Welcome, if you head on over to the Starcraft section there's a ton of info on just what you want to do including the transom replacement.
If you ask a moderator they can move this over there if you want.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owners-groups-by-manufacturer/s/starcraft-boats

 

[Roadblock007]

I was under the impression that the 3.0L and the 4.3L had totally different engine mounting locations that were built into the hull on 4.3L powered boats. If it didn't have a 4.3L engine to start with, it wouldn't have the necessary mounting locations. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

OI: sarcasm and kidding dont always translate well remotely via the internet, esp when not phrased well.

I was thinking that after I posted. One can't hear the cadence and voice inflection on a screen. There will be a day that we just speak into the PC and others will hear what and how you said it. I'm sure it is coming sooner than later. Sorry jb.

 

[66Holiday924]

I think I'm pretty sold on the 3.0L. Everything I read says it is an outstanding engine. Going to look at a donor boat on Tuesday.

​Does anybody have any advice on what to do with this transom? Right now it looks pretty straight forward, it's plywood and it was painted with some sort of anti-fouling paint. People are telling me that I should paint over the new transom with fiberglass resin, and DON"T use marine grade plywood if I do that. I'm kind of thinking that my biggest problem in the future is going to be dry-rot. My boat isn't going to be kept in the water and it only gets used a dozen times per summer at most. It almost seems to me that I should leave it exposed (no resin or anything) and use some sort of product on it to prevent dry-rot. If I seal it with resin or something, water will get into it eventually and it will rot. So I'm thinking leave it unsealed and exposed, so it dries out after it gets wet, but use some sort of treatment to maintain some level of moisture in it, so it doesn't dry out completely and dry-rot. The transom that is in there (painted plywood) seems to be original, making it over 50 years old. 50 years is a pretty long life I think... It seems successful enough, why mess with it? Anybody have any thought?

 

[Old Ironmaker]

I'm sorry but I just think if a boat isn't used more than a dozen times a year and is sitting in a slip is a waste. Let me know where and I will exercise it for ya'.

 

[66Holiday924]

I'm in the midwest. The season is about 5 months here, so a dozen times a year is saying you're going to be on your boat every other weekend pretty much...

 

[66Holiday924]

No Title

A few Pictures of the boat that I bought.

 

[ahicks]

Very nice! And worth doing it right!

My vote- use marine plywood, the expensive 7ply stuff....

 

[66Holiday924]

Thanks! The boat was redone by a previous owner who rebuilt the 110 and custom built the trailer. I was told that it doesn't work very good to glass in marine plywood. Is that true?

 

[ahicks]

I wish I could be of more help here. Unfortunately, no experience. I will say that I have been around a lot of the Starcrafts over the years, and I don't remember ever seeing raw plywood from the rear. I always assumed the aluminum was laminated to the ply prior to the transom installation.

If I were to take one of these projects on, I would carefully disassemble, noting how the manf. did it at each step, with plans on duplicating that process in the rebuild. They would darn sure know a lot more about the process than I would!

Maybe post this question in a Starcraft owners or boat rebuilding forum? If you do that, let me know. I'd love to follow along.

 

[66Holiday924]

When I look at my transom I see a raw piece of wood. It's painted with what I'm guessing is some sort of anti-fouling paint. I've talked to a few pros, they want to replace it with plywood wrapped in fiberglass, or painted with the resin. The idea is to keep it sealed, so it lasts longer, I guess. One guy says that glassing marine grad plywood doesn't work good because there is a conflict between the resin and the treatment in the wood.

I'm thinking, if I glass it, water is going to get through the fiberglass shell eventually and when it does it's going to rot it. So I'm thinking why not use raw treated (probably marine grade) plywood, leave it exposed and treat it once a year or something so it doesn't dry-rot. The painted wood that is my transom currently appears to be original, meaning it has lasted 50 years... I'm with you ahicks, with results like that, why change what the manufacturer did? Pros are adamant about wanting to glass it in though...

 

[jbcurt00]

Moving this to the Restoration forum.

Yes, Starcraft simply painted the raw plywood, although it was high quality 1.5in marine plywood.

No, the plywood isnt laminated to the aluminum skin. It is just set in place, and is usually 3 pieces, the lower main part is all 1 piece w the small upper triangles (wings) made seperately

For boats building, you need to be specific. Polyester resin or epoxy resin w fiberglass, not simply fiberglassing.

Polyester isnt as good a waterproofer as epoxy and MUST be used w glass cloth/mat.

Most (all?) take the time to seal the transom in 1 way or another, but not w polyester resin. I'd recommend epoxy and have used it for all the transoms I've rebuilt, including small 12ft fishing semi-Vs.

Some choose to use spar varnish

Some choose a blend of BLO (boiled linseed oil), mineral spirits and spar varnish, then finish w several coats of straight spar.

I'd reconsider listening to the "Pro" that suggested painting w

just resin

, if they meant polyester resin. Thats a waste of time and money w out glass. It'll crack and check as its brittle w out the reinforcement glass.

Its your boat, and you can rebuild it how ever you wish. But even an aluminum boats transom is hassle enough for many to do as much as possible to minimize chance of having to redo it again.

1.5in marine plywood is likely hard to come by, if you wanted to redo it like the factory.

Loads of helpful info in here
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/owners-groups-by-manufacturer/s/starcraft-boats

 

[TommyRocker]

I think you're thinking of pressure treated plywood that isn't the ideal choice to glass over. It generally had a very high moisture content from the treatment. Marine grade is not the same as pressure treated. Marine grade uses better quality water proof glue, more plies, and is void free. You can also use a quality exterior grade and it will be similar to Marine but not void free and probably have fewer plies. If you want to use pressure treated you'd have to make sure it was dry before glassing it. I wouldn't bother with it myself.