chrysoflax
Recruit
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2012
- Messages
- 3
A promise is a promise and I did say I would.
My brother and I kind of co-own this 1970 19ft Silverline DeVille that is powered by a Mercruiser 200.
Funny about that, I cant find that model in the Mercruiser listing on this website. But never mind I have it
and can see and touch it so that must mean something. I have included some pictures I took of the boat
which are hardly pretty (I had the engine cover sitting on top of the seats) but show what I have to work
with. My brother bought the boat for $1500 in running condition along about 2005 and used it for one season.
I think the shift cable broke or was binding so it wouldn't shift into gear.
He replaced the cable but somehow the cover got left off and the engine was exposed to a winter's worth
of rain. He also rebuilt the hydraulics to raise and lower the outdrive almost completely. New pump, rebuilt
cylinders and hoses just so he could put the boat on the trailer and move it.
When he tried to start the motor and discovered it was frozen his disgust was complete. It was then he asked
me if I wanted a power boat. Being a watersign fool I of course said yes and have been slowly sorting out it's
problems over the last four years. I started on the engine. I figured if the powerplant was seriously screwed
then we'd retrench and decide if it was worth continuing. Actually it was kind of good that the thing stopped
when it did.
When I pulled the head off the 292 GMC six cylinder I discovered that two of the exhaust valves had shed
the seats of the poppet and the pieces were bouncing around the intake and exhaust manifolds. That is,
the pieces that hadn't embedded themselves in the top of the number 3 & 4 pistons. It was definitely time
for a valve job!
While that was happening I poured a bunch of WD-40 into each cylinder and let it sit for a couple days.
It took nearly half day of swearing and effort to finally free all the pistons so I could manually rotate the
crankshaft all the way around. One thing to be very cautious of if you ever try this lunacy is to make sure you
dont destroy the lower end while you're working on the upperside. By this I mean that I assumed the bearings
on the crankshaft and piston rods were most likely in acceptable condition. I'd drained the crankcase as soon
as I knew what was wrong and the oil was contaminated with water which has a very characteristic look.
I replaced the oil filter too and then dumped fresh oil in. Since the engine wasn't running when water got in
it was likely a safe bet that the bearings would be okay.
So I hammered each cylinder in turn, trying to work them loose as a set rather than individually. Once again,
I was attempting to keep stress on the lower end at a minimum. Eventually I did get them all freed but it was
at the cost of the harmonic balancer becoming ravaged. It was rebuildable but there went another $95 to
the damper doctor in Redding. I honed out the cylinders in a QnD way (with a drill and a rotary sanding wheel)
just to get the rust out and smooth the ring ridges a little. Yeah, I know that's a pretty bogus way to do
things, but I figured the motor had a lot of hours anyway and I just wanted to see if I could get it running.
It's not like this is some high revving drag boat, the motor only turns over at 3200 rpm doing 35 knots so a
bit of slop is maybe something I can get away with. So far the odds haven't caught up with me on that.
Naturally the quadrajet 4 barrel carb had to be rebuilt and tested. Whoever heard of a 4 barrel on a six
cylinder? Another $250 went bye-bye for that. But at least I knew I had the elements for a valid assessment
of the engine when I got it running.
I'm going to stop for now as it's late and my bed beckons. However I will say that we did get the engine to
run (new coil and distributor wiring) and it sounds solid and has a nice roar. Kind of like a landing craft
approaching the beach at Normandy on D-day (lol). There's more if folks want to hear it. Let me know.
One thing: One major reason I'm writing this is in the hope that I'll be able to make contact with someone
who might know where certain hard to find Silverline parts might be found. In particular I'm currently trying to
spiff up the old tart a bit cause I want to get her in the water this fourth of july. The one bit of trim I cant
seem to find is the weird looking gray vinyl(?) piece that slides into the bottom of the center opening front
deck window. It's kind of like a 1/2" diameter hollow tube topped by a pair of back to back capital 'P's.
Altogether it's a bit over 5/8" tall and I'd dearly love to find a source for this.
I found an extrusion made by Macklanberg-Duncan that is similar in shape but too small by a factor of 3 or 4.
Here it is:
Fits Bumper Thresholds with "Bulb" style insert
#13409 36" GRAY 6
Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Chris
My brother and I kind of co-own this 1970 19ft Silverline DeVille that is powered by a Mercruiser 200.
Funny about that, I cant find that model in the Mercruiser listing on this website. But never mind I have it
and can see and touch it so that must mean something. I have included some pictures I took of the boat
which are hardly pretty (I had the engine cover sitting on top of the seats) but show what I have to work
with. My brother bought the boat for $1500 in running condition along about 2005 and used it for one season.
I think the shift cable broke or was binding so it wouldn't shift into gear.
He replaced the cable but somehow the cover got left off and the engine was exposed to a winter's worth
of rain. He also rebuilt the hydraulics to raise and lower the outdrive almost completely. New pump, rebuilt
cylinders and hoses just so he could put the boat on the trailer and move it.
When he tried to start the motor and discovered it was frozen his disgust was complete. It was then he asked
me if I wanted a power boat. Being a watersign fool I of course said yes and have been slowly sorting out it's
problems over the last four years. I started on the engine. I figured if the powerplant was seriously screwed
then we'd retrench and decide if it was worth continuing. Actually it was kind of good that the thing stopped
when it did.
When I pulled the head off the 292 GMC six cylinder I discovered that two of the exhaust valves had shed
the seats of the poppet and the pieces were bouncing around the intake and exhaust manifolds. That is,
the pieces that hadn't embedded themselves in the top of the number 3 & 4 pistons. It was definitely time
for a valve job!
While that was happening I poured a bunch of WD-40 into each cylinder and let it sit for a couple days.
It took nearly half day of swearing and effort to finally free all the pistons so I could manually rotate the
crankshaft all the way around. One thing to be very cautious of if you ever try this lunacy is to make sure you
dont destroy the lower end while you're working on the upperside. By this I mean that I assumed the bearings
on the crankshaft and piston rods were most likely in acceptable condition. I'd drained the crankcase as soon
as I knew what was wrong and the oil was contaminated with water which has a very characteristic look.
I replaced the oil filter too and then dumped fresh oil in. Since the engine wasn't running when water got in
it was likely a safe bet that the bearings would be okay.
So I hammered each cylinder in turn, trying to work them loose as a set rather than individually. Once again,
I was attempting to keep stress on the lower end at a minimum. Eventually I did get them all freed but it was
at the cost of the harmonic balancer becoming ravaged. It was rebuildable but there went another $95 to
the damper doctor in Redding. I honed out the cylinders in a QnD way (with a drill and a rotary sanding wheel)
just to get the rust out and smooth the ring ridges a little. Yeah, I know that's a pretty bogus way to do
things, but I figured the motor had a lot of hours anyway and I just wanted to see if I could get it running.
It's not like this is some high revving drag boat, the motor only turns over at 3200 rpm doing 35 knots so a
bit of slop is maybe something I can get away with. So far the odds haven't caught up with me on that.
Naturally the quadrajet 4 barrel carb had to be rebuilt and tested. Whoever heard of a 4 barrel on a six
cylinder? Another $250 went bye-bye for that. But at least I knew I had the elements for a valid assessment
of the engine when I got it running.
I'm going to stop for now as it's late and my bed beckons. However I will say that we did get the engine to
run (new coil and distributor wiring) and it sounds solid and has a nice roar. Kind of like a landing craft
approaching the beach at Normandy on D-day (lol). There's more if folks want to hear it. Let me know.
One thing: One major reason I'm writing this is in the hope that I'll be able to make contact with someone
who might know where certain hard to find Silverline parts might be found. In particular I'm currently trying to
spiff up the old tart a bit cause I want to get her in the water this fourth of july. The one bit of trim I cant
seem to find is the weird looking gray vinyl(?) piece that slides into the bottom of the center opening front
deck window. It's kind of like a 1/2" diameter hollow tube topped by a pair of back to back capital 'P's.
Altogether it's a bit over 5/8" tall and I'd dearly love to find a source for this.
I found an extrusion made by Macklanberg-Duncan that is similar in shape but too small by a factor of 3 or 4.
Here it is:
Fits Bumper Thresholds with "Bulb" style insert
#13409 36" GRAY 6
Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Chris
