windsors03cobra
Lieutenant Junior Grade
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,191
So Friday I procured a 1977 Starcraft American runabout with a 165hp 250c.i. Mercruiser I/O with what was described as a water leak by the exhaust manifold, a prop that hesitates before turning when shifted and a rattle while shifting all for the bargain sum of $500.
So last night I put a battery in it, hooked the fuel pump up to a fresh gas supply and sprinkled some gas in the carb and it fired right up, the outdrive sounded a bit noisy, the speed of the outdrive grumbling made it sound like outdrive drive shaft noise to me never the less it ran and it ran ok.
I did not hear the outdrive rattle or grind as it seemed to like to die when I would shift into gear, the engine was cold and without water I could not run it long or warm it up properly. Maybe the issue with dieing.
I did give the engine a few revs 2 or 3 times and the oil alarm came on, RATS.
The oil that looked kind of ok before now was a milkshaked BIGTIME, dang....
I took the top end of the engine apart today hoping to find a cracked manifold, a rusted out riser or maybe even a blown head gasket but found none of those items to be broken. When I did get the manifold off I did find "CRACKS" in the block, upper crack is about half an inch below the engines deck and is about 4" long, the lower crack is about 3" blow the engines deck and about 6'' long and intersects a core plug boss.
I can see where the cracks have rusted and rust stained the side of the block. It looks pretty bad.
So I must assume the black is cracked somewhere inside as well to make the crankcase milkshake ?
The jugs looked pretty good with decent crosshatch and no "visible" cracks evident.
Dad wants me to check on cobbling it with JB Weld or maybe welding it but I want to fix it right and get a different used bottom end. Local guy has a good running 250 truck engine for $300 that I would like to marinize with my marine bits. The front engine mount scares me a bit. I would think the port side of the mount could be drilled and tapped but that wont do much good if the starboard side mount "ears" are not there to be drilled and tapped as well. Any good ideas ?
After that bit of disappointment I moved to taking the outdrive apart the lower drive slipped right off and the water pump did not look totally fried. the driveshaft has the preload pin. Skeg damaged a small bit, decent paint yet.
Pulled the upper drive off and and it came apart pretty good, the u joint isnt horrible, I would say the u joint bellows was not leaking water but it did have gear oil in it. The upper drive spun smooth and free, was clean inside, bearing's and gear looked to be in good shape. No oil in the upper drive tho, guess the upper drive has a bad seal and it's gear oil was in the bellows ?
Trim senders look flaky and have had a master electrician taping up the brittle old wires. Exhaust bellows broke in half and shift bellows dry rotted.
Gimble bearing looks well probably 32 years old and in need of replacement.
So any advice about the 250 auto block gone marine and or about the crankcase milkshake and welding the block.
Need to pull the prop off and open the lower drive up and see what is happening in there, probably more bad seals and RUST, dont know yet but I will soon. Suppose I need a special tool to get the packing nut out behind the prop.
I will be downloading AYUH's FSM.
The rest of the boat will work for me and seems to be very unmolested, the engine was clean inside and was probably low hours, as is the hull, no drilling off the hull, no rocket launcher rod holders or other stuff. Burnt orange kinda ugly but it shall work. I got it out of up north Wisconsin and got snowed on outside. Hull seems solid but maybe the punky water logged flotation is just frozen ?
Thanks folks for any good advice and I hope to have a fun stay here, I know there is a real good knowledge base and some real Mercruiser Old Head's here.
So last night I put a battery in it, hooked the fuel pump up to a fresh gas supply and sprinkled some gas in the carb and it fired right up, the outdrive sounded a bit noisy, the speed of the outdrive grumbling made it sound like outdrive drive shaft noise to me never the less it ran and it ran ok.
I did not hear the outdrive rattle or grind as it seemed to like to die when I would shift into gear, the engine was cold and without water I could not run it long or warm it up properly. Maybe the issue with dieing.
I did give the engine a few revs 2 or 3 times and the oil alarm came on, RATS.
The oil that looked kind of ok before now was a milkshaked BIGTIME, dang....
I took the top end of the engine apart today hoping to find a cracked manifold, a rusted out riser or maybe even a blown head gasket but found none of those items to be broken. When I did get the manifold off I did find "CRACKS" in the block, upper crack is about half an inch below the engines deck and is about 4" long, the lower crack is about 3" blow the engines deck and about 6'' long and intersects a core plug boss.
I can see where the cracks have rusted and rust stained the side of the block. It looks pretty bad.
So I must assume the black is cracked somewhere inside as well to make the crankcase milkshake ?
The jugs looked pretty good with decent crosshatch and no "visible" cracks evident.
Dad wants me to check on cobbling it with JB Weld or maybe welding it but I want to fix it right and get a different used bottom end. Local guy has a good running 250 truck engine for $300 that I would like to marinize with my marine bits. The front engine mount scares me a bit. I would think the port side of the mount could be drilled and tapped but that wont do much good if the starboard side mount "ears" are not there to be drilled and tapped as well. Any good ideas ?
After that bit of disappointment I moved to taking the outdrive apart the lower drive slipped right off and the water pump did not look totally fried. the driveshaft has the preload pin. Skeg damaged a small bit, decent paint yet.
Pulled the upper drive off and and it came apart pretty good, the u joint isnt horrible, I would say the u joint bellows was not leaking water but it did have gear oil in it. The upper drive spun smooth and free, was clean inside, bearing's and gear looked to be in good shape. No oil in the upper drive tho, guess the upper drive has a bad seal and it's gear oil was in the bellows ?
Trim senders look flaky and have had a master electrician taping up the brittle old wires. Exhaust bellows broke in half and shift bellows dry rotted.
Gimble bearing looks well probably 32 years old and in need of replacement.
So any advice about the 250 auto block gone marine and or about the crankcase milkshake and welding the block.
Need to pull the prop off and open the lower drive up and see what is happening in there, probably more bad seals and RUST, dont know yet but I will soon. Suppose I need a special tool to get the packing nut out behind the prop.
I will be downloading AYUH's FSM.
The rest of the boat will work for me and seems to be very unmolested, the engine was clean inside and was probably low hours, as is the hull, no drilling off the hull, no rocket launcher rod holders or other stuff. Burnt orange kinda ugly but it shall work. I got it out of up north Wisconsin and got snowed on outside. Hull seems solid but maybe the punky water logged flotation is just frozen ?
Thanks folks for any good advice and I hope to have a fun stay here, I know there is a real good knowledge base and some real Mercruiser Old Head's here.
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