86 18' Starcraft SFM

[MD28]

New here but have been reading your restores here for about a month since I bought this boat. I plan on replacing transom and deck and the interior. This all hinges on $$ of course. I hope to get started this winter when I'll have more time. As is the boat is functionable and we have used it a few times already. I have four kids and a wife who love to fish, or tangle is probably more accurate.
I'd love to include a picture but I don't believe I'm allowed for some reason?

 

[MD28]

Oh yes he three posts rule

 

[MD28]

One more

 

[MD28]

[/URL][/IMG] hope it works... used photobucket

 

[Tnstratofam]

Welcome to the Starmada and to iboats the best boating forum on the web.

Unfortunately your pic did not post. Try copying the img url code and then posting it from photobucket.

 

[MD28]

try this

 

[GA_Boater]

Ya got it, MD. Welcome to the Starmada!

Your Super Fisherman looks pretty good. She is rigged for fishing, does she catch fish? LOL

 

[MD28]

So far she has caught five perch and a lot of tangled messes from my kids. I will try to post more pics soon...
Ive done some work to the chariot to make it usable. The tires where cracked and old. Found the right size for sale on the rim at Family Farm and home. Then rewired the lights. That was a headscratcher until I ran the grouund all the way back from lights to the plug. Now it works fine. Took that advice from one of the threads on this forum. The electric winch doesnt work. I just use it manually.

 

[MD28]

It caught a few perch and more than a few tangled messes last saturday on lake Macatawa in Holland, MI. I hope i can use it to Salmon and walleye fish. the Floor is very soft in the front and the port side upper transom section is rotting. You can see that by the threads showing on the u bolt tie down thingy.

 

[MD28]

Maybe i should ask this on the Johnhnyrude forum but whatever... The motor starts and runs great, but blows blue smoke pretty bad especially while idling. is that a carb issue or maybe the vro giving it too much oil? I used premeium non ethynol and seafoam. PO said he always did the same.

 

[GA_Boater]

Ask over in the J/E forum, but Seafoam does add smoke. How much are you adding?

I hope you are about done for the season. Your transom appears to be barely working seeing the tow eye. You don't want the motor in the drink.

 

[MD28]

That would be something GA! I crawled under the sw and poked arount the transom. the bottom section the 60h bolts to is still good. the port side wing is not so much. I added a can to the whole tank, as po said he did. maybe that is too much. i think its a 20 gallon tank but not certain. kinda new to the seafoam thing and as a male i dont read labels :lol:.

 

[MD28]

20 gallon belly tank. I read online that one can use 1 oz. per gallon. I dont remember how much fuel i put in so it is possible that there is too much seafoam in tank.

 

[MD28]

Well we took it for the team and took the boat to a nearby lake for the sake of science to see if it was the seafoam smoking us out, and we did a little fishing and grilled at the local park there. I put in 11 gallons of fuel without Seafoam. To begin it still smoked but it became less as the night went on. The last cruise I failed to check but before we couldnt help but notice the blue haze behind us. So hopefully that was it. :joyous:

 

[MD28]

I also took the kicker off to take weight off that bad section of transom. That is the Admiral cleaning out the boat.

 

[DLNorth]

Was that Seafoam (snake oil) in addition to the normal oil it gets? I sure hope so. And if so, that was a lot of oil.
What's VRO range? from a heavy mix of 50 to 1 to a light mix at idle of 150 to 1.
As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that should go in an outboard is non-alcohol fuel and the proper oil from the outboard manufacturer.

Dan

 

[MD28]

It was in addition to what the vro puts in. I think I'll just use snake oil when I need to stabilize the fuel over the winter. I'd rather it be about empty actually if I plan to do a little restoration work this winter.

 

[DLNorth]

Instead of snakeoil, you might try fuel stabilizer, probably have better results..

 

[Watermann]

Welcome aboard MD28 :wave:

Your 18 SFM looks pretty straight and a perfect candidate for a restore to her former glory or even better!

I use Seafoam when I don't have any QS Powertune to decarb the motor every so often but I don't put it in the tank rather after the motor is warm I spray it into the carb throats for a while and then until it dies, wait 10 - 15 min and start it up again to run until it stops smoking. You won't believe how much sludge will come out of the exhaust if it was in need of a decarb. I use only NON E premium fuel and never have to add any snake oil for the winter, no problems at all doing that. But I do run my motors and spray fogging oil in them before layup.

Be careful running your boat with compromised transom and decking, it can cause more damage that you'll need to repair or make existing problems even worse.

 

[MD28]

Welcome aboard MD28 :wave:

Your 18 SFM looks pretty straight and a perfect candidate for a restore to her former glory or even better!

I use Seafoam when I don't have any QS Powertune to decarb the motor every so often but I don't put it in the tank rather after the motor is warm I spray it into the carb throats for a while and then until it dies, wait 10 - 15 min and start it up again to run until it stops smoking. You won't believe how much sludge will come out of the exhaust if it was in need of a decarb. I use only NON E premium fuel and never have to add any snake oil for the winter, no problems at all doing that. But I do run my motors and spray fogging oil in them before layup.

Be careful running your boat with compromised transom and decking, it can cause more damage that you'll need to repair or make existing problems even worse.

Thanks Waterman! The main deck is firm. The fishing platform has a few soft spots. The Transom is solid for the most part. I can't get it to flex or anything so I believe it will be alright. I don't plan on doing any tubing and such with it. Just motoring to a fishing spot every now and then. I have a seasonal job so this winter I'll have some time to do some work on her. That is after I get a project or two done for the Admiral