UPDATE on my recent Starcraft find. Info and questions
I'll name this update... "Mystery on the Floor Front"
I wanted to get the motor fired up before doing anything so started in that direction the first day the temps went to 47 degrees here in Rhode Island.
so FIrst, The motor and fuel situation...
Knowing this boat was sitting in a warehouse for 12 years I wanted to re break in the motor carefully..
so, disconnected battery / removed the plugs... squirted fogging oil in cyclinders
Put the boat in gear and rotated the engine 180 degrees by hand at the prop
Squirted in more fogging oil.. turned the engine 360 slowly by hand with boat in gear.. then let the motor sit over night. Give that oil some time to work it's way in there good.
Following morning, spun it over to blast out remaining fogging oil, did a compression test, all was good.
Hooked the fuel line to a portable tank with fresh fuel and gave it a shot.. NO LUCK.
Squirted a little bit of pre-mixed fuel into intake, gave it a spin and she fired, ran for 4 seconds and died so I knew I had spark / must be a fuel issue.
FUEL PUMP TEST: (While still hooked to portable fuel tank)
Removed the fuel line that fed the carbs from the fuel pump / spun the motor over and fuel was shooting out all over the place so knew the fuel pump was good so figured better check out the carbs.
Pulled the drain plugs out of the carb bowls and fuel came out..
Not much but something came out... wasn't pretty either so decided to pull the carbs which is what I did. Cleaned them all out good, blasted them wtih air / thru them back on the motor.
Hooked up to the portable fuel tank again and she fired right up and stayed running. Checked the thermostat housing temps while running and starboard side temp was 15 degrees hotter then the port side. Installed new thermostats / not taking any chances. Restarted engine and temps were now even on both sides. 95 cold to 120 warm. Thumbs up!
Next,
I tried pulling fuel out of the fuel tank for inspection.
I always test fuel tank fuel before actually using that fuel to run a motor when I pick these boats up because 9 out of 10 of them have skunky fuel in the fuel tank.
So I used a regular primer bulb to pull some fuel... just disconnected it where it connects to the motor fuel line, added a piece of hose and pointed it into a clean white plastic bucket.
It wasn't good.. matter of fact it wasn't good at all.
The stuff that came out was a creamy colored liquid and not much came out at all. This stuff looked like liquid tapioca pudding with lumps of tapioca in it. Lost prime on the primer bulb / couldn't get any more fuel. After looking into things I ended up having to locate first then remove the fuel tank pick up tube.
When I say locate pickup tube I mean locate...
As mentioned earlier the previous owner said they installed a new fuel tank and brand new floor..
Only problem was they forgot to make access holes for the pick up tube and fuel sending unit in the new floor. duh? :-(
I ended up having to drill a small hole in the plywood near where I figured the pickup tube was. I inserted an inspection camera to locate the pickup tube then cut a large enough access hole in the floor to get the pickup tube out.
PICKUP TUBE WAS SCREENS WERE CLOGGED SOLID / creamy colored junk hard as a rock / Fuel line was so brittle when I removed it, it actually broke into little pieces. Antisiphon fitting had been 'drilled out' by somebody. Not safe..
Cleaned the pickup tube / installed new anti siphon fitting / all new fuel line from tank to spin on filter at the back / new spin on fuel filter / already inspected and cleaned fuel filter on the side of the motor.
Luckily there was no fuel at all in the fuel tank.
Took the boat up the gas station / dumped some startron fuel conditioner in the tank.. added 30 gallons of fuel and headed back to the house.
TESTED THE FUEL FROM TANK AGAIN just to make sure what was coming out wasn't going to hurt the motor. Primed some into a clean white container and everything looked perfect.
Re connected fuel tank fuel back to motor... fired it up and everything is good to go now.
That's about all I have for now on this project..
What's next?
Hookup new bilge pump.. then start tracing wires that are going no where at both ends of the boat. If you were to look down into the area of where the bilge pump goes... attached to the transom with zip ties looks to be a harness of wires just hanging there connected to nothing. Same thing under the center console.
Transom mystery wires are probably for bilge pump manual switch, washdown pump / livewell pump feeds..
Wires going to lah lah land under center console probably should be extended to go over to a 6 toggle switch panel that only has 1 wire connected to it currently. I'll figure it all out.. I love electrical issues
The pictures show the hole I had to cut in the floor to find the pickup tube, then larger hole to fit new access hatch, and the PLUGGED UP pickup tube screen. By the way... this pickup tube had a screen at the TOP of the tube as well as the BOTTOM of the tube. If you run into an issue like this take a good luck to make sure you do or do not have a top screen to clean when you're done doing the bottom one. Most pickup tubes I've seen only have a screen at the bottom.
MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU FOLKS
Is my boat a MR21? V5 or what the heck is it? The guys said it was 22 ft. ? Haven't measured it yet but doing that today.
The paint is new, somebody painted it cream, new decals so I have no clue?