DieselDood
Recruit
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2018
- Messages
- 5
This will be a LONG post....
Last fall I picked up an old Crestliner Crusader 550. I planned to put a floor in it, sell it and buy a bass boat. It had the 85hp on it.
While looking for seats, I found an 89 Skeeter SK1700 for sale, without a motor, but was set for Johnson Controls. $550 I couldn't say no. This Hull says it's rated 90-150hp. My 85 won't be a speed demon, but should be enough to get by.
I pulled the 85 off the Crestliner, dropped it on the Skeeter, and hooked everything up. I used an external fuel tank, just to eliminate the issue of a fuel problem. Especially not knowing the fuel quantity or quality in the boat.
I got the engine running, but it wasn't running very good. I also wasn't sure the condition of the water pump, so I just replaced it and changed the lower unit lube (dirty, but wasn't milky or show any metal contamination). I pulled the carbs apart and found they must had been sitting for some time and there was plenty of varnish.
I cleaned the carbs really well, and put it all back together. I followed the link and sync procedure and made sure the hot foot was hitting WOT. I didn't have my timing light available at the time, so I wasn't able to time it right away, but it didn't look like it was molested. So I wasn't worried about it.
It idled perfect, but didn't seem to have any power on the lake. It wouldn't get the boat on plane. Max of 8mph.
I also found that the fuel tank on the boat was completely empty, so I filled it with 40 gallons of non-ox 91octane as well as 5 quarts of 2 stroke oil. (I know a touch heavy, but I wanted to make sure it was treated)
I switched from the external tank to the internal tank... no change.
I rebuilt the fuel pump, and that helped slightly, but not much. It sounded better by ear, and it got "up" better, but still didn't get on plane.
So, I did a compression test and leak down test. Compression is/was 120 on cylinders 2 and 4, cylinder 1 has 120 and cylinder 4 has 114. Leakdown is around 7-8% on the 120psi cylinders and 12% on cylinder 4.
Nothing alarming. So... I pulled the carbs down again. All clean. Double check WOT. Good.
I checked the Prop to pad, and was low, so I lifted the motor and set it properly.
Still no help. While on the water I grabbed the squeeze bulb... no improvement, and still felt pretty firm.
Then winter was coming so I treated the fuel, fogged the motor and winterized it.
Spring hit... I installed new plugs, grabbed my timing light, and set base timing to 4* and max of 25*
I checked for spark on all 4 cylinders, and used my timing light to verify that they were "firing" under load on the lake.
I didn't have tach, so I also replaced the rectifier and now the tach and charging system work.
Still wouldn't get up.
I pulled the carbs down again. Clean.
All seemed like the motor is/was good, so maybe this is just to heavy of a boat for a 17p prop (4300rpm)....I got a hold of a 15p prop and tried that. Odd... I only l get 3400rpm. Odd.... so i looked at my old 17p prop and found the hub was spinning. That explained the extra RPM with the bigger prop.
So, I figured I had to be loosing good spark and had weak spark under load that was not giving a complete fuel burn. So I converted it over to have the more modern coils from my 89 150hp I'm working on rebuilding. I got them installed and spark tested them, I had them jumping a 5/8" gap, which on my tester shows about 35kv. Plenty of spark.
So I took it out last night, and while it does feel smoother and more snappy, it still does not get on plane. In Neutral, or even reverse it has PLENTY of power to go straight to redline in a big hurry if I'm not careful.
What am I missing here?
I can't find much for specs on the hull, its "rare" being 2 model years. What I have found says that the hull is 17'8" long and, 1200lbs, but I find that hard to believe since the USCG tag on the boat says a max of 1290lbs boat, motor, gear, etc. (is that additional? I'm new here)
Even estimating high 1200lbs for the hull, 300lbs of fuel, 400lbs motor, 200lbs batteries, 100lbs gear, 250lbs me... so 2500ish lbs..... I would think it should put it at least on plane with a 15p prop.
I know I've missed a few steps, but you get the most of it. I've been through the carbs 6 times. Checked and set the timing 3. Checked for spark while under load, off the water, on the water....any condition I can think of and it's good.
Is this combination REALLY not going to work or am I missing something?
Thanks
Last fall I picked up an old Crestliner Crusader 550. I planned to put a floor in it, sell it and buy a bass boat. It had the 85hp on it.
While looking for seats, I found an 89 Skeeter SK1700 for sale, without a motor, but was set for Johnson Controls. $550 I couldn't say no. This Hull says it's rated 90-150hp. My 85 won't be a speed demon, but should be enough to get by.
I pulled the 85 off the Crestliner, dropped it on the Skeeter, and hooked everything up. I used an external fuel tank, just to eliminate the issue of a fuel problem. Especially not knowing the fuel quantity or quality in the boat.
I got the engine running, but it wasn't running very good. I also wasn't sure the condition of the water pump, so I just replaced it and changed the lower unit lube (dirty, but wasn't milky or show any metal contamination). I pulled the carbs apart and found they must had been sitting for some time and there was plenty of varnish.
I cleaned the carbs really well, and put it all back together. I followed the link and sync procedure and made sure the hot foot was hitting WOT. I didn't have my timing light available at the time, so I wasn't able to time it right away, but it didn't look like it was molested. So I wasn't worried about it.
It idled perfect, but didn't seem to have any power on the lake. It wouldn't get the boat on plane. Max of 8mph.
I also found that the fuel tank on the boat was completely empty, so I filled it with 40 gallons of non-ox 91octane as well as 5 quarts of 2 stroke oil. (I know a touch heavy, but I wanted to make sure it was treated)
I switched from the external tank to the internal tank... no change.
I rebuilt the fuel pump, and that helped slightly, but not much. It sounded better by ear, and it got "up" better, but still didn't get on plane.
So, I did a compression test and leak down test. Compression is/was 120 on cylinders 2 and 4, cylinder 1 has 120 and cylinder 4 has 114. Leakdown is around 7-8% on the 120psi cylinders and 12% on cylinder 4.
Nothing alarming. So... I pulled the carbs down again. All clean. Double check WOT. Good.
I checked the Prop to pad, and was low, so I lifted the motor and set it properly.
Still no help. While on the water I grabbed the squeeze bulb... no improvement, and still felt pretty firm.
Then winter was coming so I treated the fuel, fogged the motor and winterized it.
Spring hit... I installed new plugs, grabbed my timing light, and set base timing to 4* and max of 25*
I checked for spark on all 4 cylinders, and used my timing light to verify that they were "firing" under load on the lake.
I didn't have tach, so I also replaced the rectifier and now the tach and charging system work.
Still wouldn't get up.
I pulled the carbs down again. Clean.
All seemed like the motor is/was good, so maybe this is just to heavy of a boat for a 17p prop (4300rpm)....I got a hold of a 15p prop and tried that. Odd... I only l get 3400rpm. Odd.... so i looked at my old 17p prop and found the hub was spinning. That explained the extra RPM with the bigger prop.
So, I figured I had to be loosing good spark and had weak spark under load that was not giving a complete fuel burn. So I converted it over to have the more modern coils from my 89 150hp I'm working on rebuilding. I got them installed and spark tested them, I had them jumping a 5/8" gap, which on my tester shows about 35kv. Plenty of spark.
So I took it out last night, and while it does feel smoother and more snappy, it still does not get on plane. In Neutral, or even reverse it has PLENTY of power to go straight to redline in a big hurry if I'm not careful.
What am I missing here?
I can't find much for specs on the hull, its "rare" being 2 model years. What I have found says that the hull is 17'8" long and, 1200lbs, but I find that hard to believe since the USCG tag on the boat says a max of 1290lbs boat, motor, gear, etc. (is that additional? I'm new here)
Even estimating high 1200lbs for the hull, 300lbs of fuel, 400lbs motor, 200lbs batteries, 100lbs gear, 250lbs me... so 2500ish lbs..... I would think it should put it at least on plane with a 15p prop.
I know I've missed a few steps, but you get the most of it. I've been through the carbs 6 times. Checked and set the timing 3. Checked for spark while under load, off the water, on the water....any condition I can think of and it's good.
Is this combination REALLY not going to work or am I missing something?
Thanks
