MichaelP
Lieutenant Junior Grade
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2010
- Messages
- 1,190
I'm in the last stages of restoring a 1974 Starcraft Chieftain and fired up the motor for the first time last week. I bought the boat package 10/2010 and had the engine winterized and was told it sounded an alarm but ran well and I should clean the carbs. This boat has been soaking in the Atlantic for a while. I wasn't too concerned about that as I planned to go through it durning the winter. With service manual in hand I spent some time on it that winter replacing fuel lines, thermostats and rebuilding the carbs. Last week, after running fine for about 5 minutes I got a constant alarm (over heat) and it stared to run rough so I shut it right down, the whole engine felt hot to the touch. Pulled the cylinder covers and found the port side packed with salt.
I proceeded to pull the heads and exhaust manifolds cleaning everything and blowing out all the ports with air. Put it all back together with new gaskets and diverters. One of the diverters on the lower port side was installed on the wrong side of the bolt hole and was covering one of the 2 water slots on the head gasket but now its in the correct spot per the book and the grooves in the block. Over heated again and running rough. Starboard cylinder bank was hot I'm wondering if I disloged something deep in the block that I didn't see. Another problem may be that the lower diverter on that side wouldn't seat all the way in by about 1/4" whereas all the others did. The tell tale has good flow and I know that I'm getting flow on the port thermostat hose because it sprayed water from a split at the hose clamp. Replaced hoses and blew air into the hose nipple on the starboard block. Now I can't get it started. It fires for a split second just enough to kick out the starter and that's it. I'm thinking about taking it in to a pro but it might take a long time to have it looked at. I'm confident I can fix anything on this motor myself but with multiple things going on it's tough to trouble shoot. Any help would be appreciated.
![DSCF3150.jpg](http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g374/randor88/DSCF3150.jpg)
I proceeded to pull the heads and exhaust manifolds cleaning everything and blowing out all the ports with air. Put it all back together with new gaskets and diverters. One of the diverters on the lower port side was installed on the wrong side of the bolt hole and was covering one of the 2 water slots on the head gasket but now its in the correct spot per the book and the grooves in the block. Over heated again and running rough. Starboard cylinder bank was hot I'm wondering if I disloged something deep in the block that I didn't see. Another problem may be that the lower diverter on that side wouldn't seat all the way in by about 1/4" whereas all the others did. The tell tale has good flow and I know that I'm getting flow on the port thermostat hose because it sprayed water from a split at the hose clamp. Replaced hoses and blew air into the hose nipple on the starboard block. Now I can't get it started. It fires for a split second just enough to kick out the starter and that's it. I'm thinking about taking it in to a pro but it might take a long time to have it looked at. I'm confident I can fix anything on this motor myself but with multiple things going on it's tough to trouble shoot. Any help would be appreciated.
![DSCF3085.jpg](http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g374/randor88/DSCF3085.jpg)
![DSCF3135.jpg](http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g374/randor88/DSCF3135.jpg)