My Merc 470 rebuild

nola mike

Vice Admiral
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Messages
5,068
Re: My Merc 470 rebuild

Alex good for you. There are a couple of really good 470 rebuild threads here. Go up to the "Community" tab, hit "member list", then "member search" and look up these two guys: natemoore, and nola mike go to their profiles and look for started threads, both have done a really nice job of writing about their rebuilds. Will answer a lot of your questions and show you how to make some of the special tools you will need. Have fun.

For some reason, just getting to this thread. Thanks for the plug Terry, but I haven't rebuilt anything. A (very) little headwork (and a bit more to come since this winter...grr), but that's about it!
 

alexr254

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
262
Re: My Merc 470 rebuild

Am I invited?

U know it.. I will be giving you a call a few days before and hopefully you will be able to make it up.

We will probablly just cruise for the day around the intracoastal waters around St Augustine. Testing out the newly rebuilt engines on load, and have a nice relaxing time out on the water :p
 

sasto

Captain
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
3,918
Re: My Merc 470 rebuild

U know it.. I will be giving you a call a few days before and hopefully you will be able to make it up.

We will probablly just cruise for the day around the intracoastal waters around St Augustine. Testing out the newly rebuilt engines on load, and have a nice relaxing time out on the water :p

Cool Alex......Thanks!
 

alexr254

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
262
Re: My Merc 470 rebuild

Thanks for the tips. When we drop her in the water for the first time (in a couple weeks from now) we will have an experienced boat mechanic with us. Right now were still doing some finishing touches, and of course finding more issues...

Installed the trim/tilt rams,(4 of em) one was bad and i only had one more for the wrong side, but we used it anyway by bending the hose the opposite direction, it worked like a charm :) then we started testing the trim/tilt motors, the port side worked, we ended up hotwiring it up (tilt?) and down (trim?) and it actually worked (a first for this whole project), the starboard side has a cracked resovior... So have one of those on order...

Today i finally attached the exhaust riser to the exhaust Y pipe and ran the inlet hoses, i couldnt get it on when we were dropping the engine in so we left it off until today :) For the inlet hose i simply went to HomeDepot and got a heavyduty clear hose which has the fiber in it, i am mentioning this because i know there was some debate over what to do there, and thats the route i took.
Now as it is, we can start the engines in the boat by hotwiring them.. We have yet to touch the wiring in the boat and i am hoping since its been untouched, mostly it all will work when we plug it in. But for this i will have a boat engineer on hand, since some things are beyond me and my dad at this point. IE the engine sync meters...

I also noticed the trim limit switch is bad... Of course i noticed this AFTER i changed the bellows and reinstalled the outdrive, so i wont even bother with them at this point. The trim/tilt indicators are working.

Sooo, after we drop her in and all works and we dont sink, the next HUGE project begins... Painting her, redoing the galley and upgrading the electronics. I do have a nice 90g air compressor in my garage, and a couple paint spray guns. Painting will be the easy part while sanding, patching and prepping will be a pain.

As far as the galley goes, my dad is a cabinet maker by trade, he has been at it for over 55 years. So some would say he has some experience ;) In all reality i have not seen kitchens in my life better then the ones he has made with his bare hands... I'm talking euro design with not one sharp corner..seriously nice stuff.. Cant wait to have some of that in my boat!!

And when we get to the electronics, that is my specialty, will hook up the boat with some cool stuff for sure, LED TV, PS3, surround sound, Navi chart plotter, etc...

I am excited!!!

I want to once again say a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who has the patience to read my posts, to all who have chimed in and helped, to this wonderful forum which has assisted me in finding a bunch of new friends, and to the entire boating community for being so cool. bless u :D
 

Desertsky

Seaman
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
73
Re: My Merc 470 rebuild

Just as a side note, most auto parts stores that rent tools have a clutch pilot bearing puller that works great for the gimbal bearings. Make sure they give you the slide hammer with it!

Nice job on the rebuild. I plan on doing this with a spare engine for my Glastron SSV-177XL in the near future. I have seen rebuild kits for around $500 including pistons, rings, bearings and gaskets. Everything else on the engine seems to be fine for now.

Like you said, these are real beasts and are very good on gas. Mine is now 33 years old and all original except for the alternator and a few gaskets.
 
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