'76 Holiday i/o 18' Fishing Rebuild (pic heavy!)

[Watermann]

Most of us make the final idle adjustments backed in just enough in the water while still hooked up on the trailer.

 

[italianstal27]

Ah brilliant that's a good idea... We'll call it good as is now then!

Realized we probably need an engine allignment tool...

On the sterndrive we're replacing the lower shift cable (per your suggestion), bellows look good and flexible, anything else we should be considering?

-John

 

[Watermann]

Check the shift shaft bushing for being sloppy and worn, it can leak water there. U joints need inspected, make sure they're in good shape and greased. Buy extra outdrive gasket kit or 2 just so you can pull the drive later to check the alignment again after everything settles in and for leaks. Most MC guys who want their set up to stay in good shape pull the outdrive after every season to grease the u joints and check for leaks.

Tip: use the correct grease for the spline shaft and gimbal bearing, use the real deal quicksilver stuff not crap from WalMart, I have 3 grease guns now :lol:

Oh and put a thin layer of gimbal bearing grease on both sides of the outdrive gasket, you won't regret it when it comes time for removal. On the water O ring I just use a dab of bellows adhesive to hold it in place, I did the same for the outer transom assembly ring too.

 

[italianstal27]

Today wasn't a huge accomplishment. We had to make a run to the boat graveyard to see if they had parts we could use. We found a almost new anchor caddy for $65, a 4000 blower for $10 and a bow cap for $25. Now the bow cap isn't an exact fit, but it is fairly close. We'll be attaching the bow cap to the anchor caddy for additional support.

All said and done we saved a decent chunk of coin! The drive was an hour. Guy said he often sells broken engines without cracked block for $600-800. Perhaps that could be the next project after boat is done... Fixing up a 1980s or 1990s engine for when ours one day bites the dust... Really rebuild an engine from scratch.

Tomorrow, is prepping for paint and getting primer on the boat. Sunday, we'll spray the top coat with hardener. Monday night, we spray the final coat. It's a marathon sprint the next 3 days but it should put us in a very good position to finish.

We elected to peanut butter the edges of the sidewalls and paint over them. If they get too dinged up, we will put metal over the edges.

More to come....

 

[scoutabout]

Just ran through 14 pages - very impressive and great stick-to-it-ness! Looking forward to the splash!

 

[italianstal27]

Guys!! Deck is primed with grit added!!!!!!!!! Pics to come but by Monday night the entire board will be painted!

We also patched the 3 stress fractures, and replaced the bow cap. We are getting very very very close to engine install!!!!

 

[italianstal27]

Painting going well! Pics to come.

We found water in the oil

Compression is 125,115,115,115

Probably the riser not making good contact with the block then? We've only run it with the hose directly connected to the water intake... So silver lining is we rebuilt the engine mostly right!

 

[italianstal27]

Ok here are the scenarios we have:
1) When we intially drained the oil, we didn't remove the oil filter. There was most certainly water and antifreeze in it, which could cause the milkiness.
2) The exhaust manifold is not sealed well
3) The riser is not sealed well
4) We have a cracked block.

So tonight, we'll drain all the oil and replace the oil filter with a new one. Then, we'll rinse the valve cover with new oil and let that pull the milkiness down and out of the oil pan. We'll discard this "bad oil". Then, we'll accurately measure 4 quarts, and add 4 quarts to the system. (We didn't accurately add oil the first time after removing the anti-freeze filled oil).

We'll keep y'all posted. Hopefully we don't have to buy a rebuilt engine

-John

 

[italianstal27]

Remembered that we had rust in the cylinder 1 & 2 intake manifolds...



But I'm sure that was a different problem.

 

[Watermann]

Ok here are the scenarios we have:
1) When we intially drained the oil, we didn't remove the oil filter. There was most certainly water and antifreeze in it, which could cause the milkiness.
2) The exhaust manifold is not sealed well
3) The riser is not sealed well
4) We have a cracked block.

So tonight, we'll drain all the oil and replace the oil filter with a new one. Then, we'll rinse the valve cover with new oil and let that pull the milkiness down and out of the oil pan. We'll discard this "bad oil". Then, we'll accurately measure 4 quarts, and add 4 quarts to the system. (We didn't accurately add oil the first time after removing the anti-freeze filled oil).

We'll keep y'all posted. Hopefully we don't have to buy a rebuilt engine

-John

All that work, time, money and you left the old $6.00 oil filter on the motor?

Exhaust riser will allow water into the cylinder with the water will either hydro lock the motor or push the water back out, not much if any water will go past the rings. Pull the spark plugs and turn the motor over to see if any water remains inside before you try running it again. Inspect the plugs for signs of water.

If there was a crack in the block it should've been very obvious

 

[italianstal27]

Oil smelled pretty fuely. Definitely thinking it was from leaving the old filter on. What a stupid mistake. We'll do a one hour run and see if the new oil goes bad. We pulled about 5 quarts which sounds about right for how much we put in + leaving the filter on...

 

[italianstal27]

pics!



Seats finally sanded and amine blush removed. About ready to paint... We used scrap 3/4" for mounting things to the transom so we don't have to drill more holes in it. Smart. (We can't take credit for that idea... we've seen it on iboats).



Second deck cut out! Had to re-epoxy all the edges so that kinda sucked, but we opted to use a jig saw... and it went pretty swell! No major nicks anywhere and it's straight! You can see on the left side of the picture we had to do some serious cutting... that's because shaving down 1/8" never seemed to help, so we just opted for making the cuts around the ribs. should've done that from the start....

Interior primed! You can see we figured out how to actually lay down the grit. We would HIGHLY recommend mixing in the grit with your primer, and THEN roll it on. Don't spray or roll on primer and then drop the sand on top. That's how you get the pattern we have on the gunnels lol. We also forgot to prime the edge here. oops.



Our friend Will came by to help, and we asked him to cut some more foam. We had considered mounting a woooooofer in that middle compartment (roughly .5 cubic feet), but we don't want to be "those guys" on the lake or river. Plus I hear fish don't like Tiesto.



Also, seat boxes are primed and ready to go. More pics to come!

 

[italianstal27]

Well the oil is still clear so that's a good sign! Having troubles getting the oil sender to work (if you push a screw driver against the housing it works!, so there's a problem with the sender itself making contact with the sender wire).

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engi...s/10471622-mercruiser-120-running-rough-video

Attached a link to the proper thread where I posted the video of the engine listing side to side. I *think* this is the proper way to post on this forum , rather than asking the same question in two spots.

Anyway, hoping we get an answer, but we'll continue on with the boat itself as well! Paint needs to dry for a couple days on the interior. Until then, we'll probably start mounting stern drive, etc. on the outside tomorrow!

-John

 

[italianstal27]

Pic updates!



Painting the seat boxes same color as deck... pretty generic.







The paint helps hide a lot of the imperfections... but it also accents some others. We're staying off the paint for 4 days to really let it cure.

2 coats with hardener sprayed with HVLP 24 hours apart. We also have a fan running 1) to keep fumes out of Wyatt's face and 2) speed up the cure. Temps are hitting low 80s in the afternoon so hopefully we'll be able to walk in it soon!! The gunnel last night was still easily scratchable. Not sticky, but scratchable (you could get your fingernail in it).

Tonight, we'll probably take a look at the stern drive + tinker with the engine some more!

-John

 

[italianstal27]

Found a guy on craigslist selling a merc 140 with no water in the oil for $400... may pick it up as a side side project lol.

We do need a new oil sender and alternator though...

 

[Watermann]

What all comes with the 140?

 

[italianstal27]

complete engine, but he can't get it running. it does barely turn over.

also selling a gimbal / stern drive but they're pretty rusted...

 

[Watermann]

You might be paying the guy to haul off his garbage...

 

[italianstal27]

Sigh... That's a good point.. new blocks aren't cheap.

 

[TXtraingal]

That would add to your list and we all know we can't have that...