1978 Mark Twain

[Arrace]

Hey guys, just joined the forums after trying to get registered while it was still in the updating process. Just wanted to share what I picked up over the weekend which was a steal. I bought a 1978 Mark Twain Vsonic with a 305 (could be a 350 as that is what the PO said but the valve covers state 305. He also said it was 19') Anyways I picked this up for 300 bucks, drove down one night to check it out and the owner wasn't there but he said I could look at it. After looking over the hull and checking if the motor was free I decided to go for it. My buddy also picked up a 98 buick for 400 bucks, this guy had a lot on the other side of town that had just sold where all this stuff was parked so he just needed to get rid of it.

Here's the craigslist ad
1978 Mark Twain 19' Open Bow, Chevy 350 V8, New Ignition Switch New plugs, Wires, Points and Condensor Tandem Axle trailer with Brand new tires (tires cost 300.00). Bearing Buddies on axles for easy maintenance, Needs motor work, doesn't run just don't have time for boating. Needs some TLC, bought it and have never been able to put in water so it has to go Interior is in great shape for age (no rips).

Anyways, dragged the boat home on Monday night and finally got around to taking a deeper look and working on it last night. First thing I did was pull all the plugs and see if she would turn over all the way, she turned right over by hand. Drained the oil and put some back into it (oil had a lot of gas in it so someone must have been trying to start it without getting it running) also sprayed some john deer **** into each of the cylinders and turned her over just a bit. With the plugs out I bumped the starter with a screwdriver and let her spin over a couple times. put the plugs back in after cleaning them up with emery cloth and put it up on TDC. Hooked a jumper from the battery to the coil to make sure it had spark and there was a fat blue spark coming, after re-timing the motor it was time to almost fire it up. Are all stern drives a PITA to work on when the motor is in? There's a hole cut in the fiberglass that i assume one of the owners made in order to time the thing but it was still annoying. After getting it timed and getting some gas down the carb I tried to fire it up, it sputtered once after a few cranks. Put a better battery in and after a couple more fires, I was able to get it running.

My next step is to change out the impeller, check the wiring since I had this whole thing hotwired so I wouldn't have to mess with a faulty ignition switch or terrible wiring. I'm going to change out the gear oil, run it on muffs for a few minutes then drop it in the lake and get it good and warm and make sure there aren't any leaks in the hull (looked fine from when I crawled under the trailer). Then I'll probably change the oil again to give it a thorough flush since there was so much gas in it. I also need to go through the whole fuel system and make sure that is fine, I'll probably change the hoses on it to be safe. Other than checking out the wiring/cleaning up the boat and making sure all the electrical controls and gauges work can you guys think of anything that you would do before really running it? I really need to run it and check the oil after I change it to hope that the block isn't cracked or anything since I'm pretty certain it wasn't winterized properly.

Here are all the pictures, just using an album on imgur. Sorry for the wall of text!
http://imgur.com/a/gcHmR

 

[garbageguy]

Welcome. From the pics, looks pretty good for 300. Besides looking in the stickies for things to check, I'd make sure there's no rot (especially stringers and transom) before doing much else.

 

[southkogs]

Twains are neat boats. I've always kinda' liked 'em - especially when they're all put together and pretty lookin'. You sound like you're on the way to a nice boat for not a lot of money. Welcome aboard!

 

[haulnazz15]

Not bad. A little elbow grease and a nice wax/polish ought to bring the chalky blue back to a better luster. I've heard wiping it down with a lot of petroleum jelly and leaving it in the hot sun for a day does wonders, too. Someone ripped off the bimini top cover (which would normally cover the hole in the back). I have no idea why they would have cut a hole there, as timing the engine shouldn't need to be done often enough to cut holes in fiberglass. However, I will say that the rear deck design on most of the MT's was a bit poorly-engineered in regards to rear engine access. I don't have the problem on mine for timing since I've got the 351W, but I can barely removed the flame arrestor due to clearance issues with the rope locker above the engine.

As mentioned, make sure you have all of the appropriate safety equipment, and keep an eye on the gauges. I'd probably just run without the engine hood for the first trip or two in order to make frequent visual checks for fuel/water leaks and funny noises. Use a rubber mallet around the outside of the transom and the engine stingers to check for rot.

 

[Arrace]

Thanks, my friend has a 7 inch multi speed polisher I'm probably gonna use. Just gonna buy some polish and use on it depending on costs. My next step is to check out the wiring up to the dash to make sure that everything works up there. Good idea on the engine hood, I'll definitely do that. Nice thing is that we have a pond behind the farm so we aren't far from home. I need to mess with the dipstick tube as well, stupid dipstick won't go in and I'm not sure if its the right stick anyhow. The tube has a lot of funny bends so I'm gonna try and remove it and straighten it or get a new one altogether I think. Going out to work on it probably tomorrow night and maybe I'll think of something else.

 

[haulnazz15]

Well, unless it's a large pond it'll be difficult to do a lot of anything useful aside from idle test and ensure that the shifting is operating properly. Once the engine is under a load (like when trying to plane out/cruise) is where a lot of gremlins rear their ugly head. Hopefully all goes well. I'd comment on the dipstick because mine is pretty straight, but my engine was built with the distributor in the correct location. :lol: