Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

[GA_Boater]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Gibbles - I'm petitioning a Mod to change your screen name to CatFish cause you are truly a bottom feeder. Nice score on the prop.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Gibbles - I'm petitioning a Mod to change your screen name to CatFish cause you are truly a bottom feeder. Nice score on the prop.

That means a lot

Starting to get the hang of this whole bottom feeder thing.

Wait till I update my nova thread with the $12 shipped steering linkage
I thought I did great with the $20 one on the jet!

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Where does this CatFish keep finding these guppies? LOL

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Well tried the new prop out...

it was disappointing

Instead of 33-35 I got up to 30-32
The engine had to work harder to get there, but It did not sound like it was over revving.

So the next day I took the unknown/unmarked prop off of the other 650 and tried it out, same speed, but it had more power, and did not sound like it was revving to high...

So I'll stick with that prop for now, I need to get a tach installed before I mess with it any further...

And on that note... with my FIL on the boat yesterday (first time since rebuild) I finally managed to trouble shoot my charging system issue

I got AC current from the stator, but no output from the rectifier, so new rectifier time!

Once that's fixed I should be able to get a tach working

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Freebie trailer painted

I did get the bunks installed + carpet, just need to adjust it and figure out the best way to get the boat on that trailer..

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Lazy Sunday at the lake

The Dog tagged along

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Well I had a busy day on Saturday.

I swapped trailers around

I got the bright idea to take off the winch/stop off of the front of my old trailer, tucked the front of the trailer under the rear of the new trailer, connected the winch strap to the boat and started cranking.

It worked like a charm!

One issue I had was the trailer was a bit more narrow than I thought, or the bottom of the jet was wider than I expected...

the fenders did not have enough space to have the boat sit down between so I had to raise the bunks and rollers to clear.

The roller mounts did not go quite high enough, so I had to mount them with two bolts each to get up there due to the almost flat bottom of the Jet.

Right now it will work, but the rollers are mounted a little weak due to having to raise them so much.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

I have not gotten much done with the Jet other than taking it out fishing whenever I can.

I did add an 18gal tank taken from my Chief project and mounted it under the front.

I plan on never running more than 12 gallons, but mostly it's just testing the idea out.

Took it out today to see how it worked, and I could not get the new bulb to prime; primer is above the fuel tank and tied up.

From what I could figure out, I need to get the bulb under the tank as it manages to fill the fuel filter up, and almost hits the fuel bulb.

Other idea is to use compressed air to add some pressure to the tank and hope it helps...

Or I have a leak somewhere...

And my plan was to go to a lake that's a good 2hr drive for some good fishing, but I ended up going to the local lake instead.

Good thing I did, apparently I toasted my impeller when running in the tank while adjusting the shift cable...
I pumped just enough water to get a weak spray out of the tale tail, top cylinder was a bit too hot to touch, and lower ones were cool...

So I ran around with the kicker until the storm rolled in, and I rushed back to the truck at top speed (5mph).

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Thought I would update this a bit...

first I had some issues with the transom plate, I decided to try and seal it up and that backfired badly
I had a bit of water get trapped behind the plate and if finally worked it's way into the plate...

So I drilled some holes into it, and dried out with help of my air compressor, and found out where the water got in...

Anyways I'm leaving vent holes at the top of the plate and at the bottom, this winter I'll remove the engine, transom plate, and sand it down for a fresh coat of epoxy.

Also I had my first real draw back from having all of that weight at the back (65hp + 9.8hp)
Got caught in a nasty storm over the weekend and took on a bunch of water, ended up weighing my backend down enough that I had waves going over the back when trying to back out of a dock to load the boat up.

Also, exciting feeling being in the middle of a large lake in a lighting storm & tin boat

I sure felt alive.. and wanted to stay that way

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Hmmmm, some of this narrative might be best left untold when relaying this to the Admiral. Particularly that bits about the stern weight & waves washing over the transom, and the lightning & a tin boat.

Did the 65 run better, or has the impeller not yet been replaced?

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Hmmmm, some of this narrative might be best left untold when relaying this to the Admiral. Particularly that bits about the stern weight & waves washing over the transom, and the lightning & a tin boat.

Did the 65 run better, or has the impeller not yet been replaced?

Yeah I replaced that sucker the next day
Also the fuel tank I had mounted in the front caused more issues than it could of resolved.

Even though I thought I had it fully cleaned out, installed dual inline filters... It still managed to clog everything up, and I managed to get some gunk past two filters and plugged up the single filter I have under the engine cowl...

Caused several fuel related issues for me.

So I'm running with nothing under the front, including on that stormy day.

but overall with the weight in the front of the boat it did ride a bit better, but I also had more water come over the front

Also adding to the water in the boat issue, I never did install all of screws that hold the splashwell to the transom, I installed one at each end and 4 in the middle...

so right now I have a pretty good leak there, probably from standing in the splashwell...

 

[InMotion]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Yikes!!! Water over the back! Lightening strikes... man close calls there!!!!

If you want to get the bow down some without changing motors, add 1 or 2 sand bag up under the bow. You would be surprised at how much it will level out the boat. Also, the sand bags are aluminum hull friendly --- they won't dent it. I would recommend putting the sand bag(s) into garabage bags first to minimize any spillage from rips etc!

Yah... what happens in the boat, stays in the boat. The adventure should be "Admiral Censored" for sure!

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Gib - On the junk in the fuel - Did you re-use the rubber fuel lines? Maybe they're breaking down internally and plugging the filters. Just a thought.

Sounds like you were you were getting close to SOS time. Scary.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Merc 65hp on a Jet Star? (now with pictures!)

Yikes!!! Water over the back! Lightening strikes... man close calls there!!!!

If you want to get the bow down some without changing motors, add 1 or 2 sand bag up under the bow. You would be surprised at how much it will level out the boat. Also, the sand bags are aluminum hull friendly --- they won't dent it. I would recommend putting the sand bag(s) into garabage bags first to minimize any spillage from rips etc!

Yah... what happens in the boat, stays in the boat. The adventure should be "Admiral Censored" for sure!

Yeah I had a sandbag in the front for the first few trips, it worked good, but the plastic bag wore down and I started getting sand in the bilge.
I had hoped to get away from it, but after that last trip I want weight back up there.

Gib - On the junk in the fuel - Did you re-use the rubber fuel lines? Maybe they're breaking down internally and plugging the filters. Just a thought.

Sounds like you were you were getting close to SOS time. Scary.

All I can say is thank you kicker with seperate tank!

And the issue was the gunk that built up inside of the tank over the years

I had put a bunch of that soaking carb cleaner in the tank and then pressure washed the rest out, took apart anything that could be taken apart and installed fresh fuel lines.
still gunked up, I had planned on a little, but not this level
The tank also gummed up 10gal of brand new fuel.

Aso on another note, I had been running Pennzoil marine 2 stroke oil, but I picked up a gallon jug of mercury "premium" 2 stroke from Wal-Mart and I have been running that for a while now.
And the first thing I noticed is how much less everything smoked.
Last trip I got the same Pennzoil 2 stroke to top off my kicker fuel tank and noticed the smoke came back.

anyways just a fun little thing someone else might want to give a shot.

 

[The Window Guy]

I have a early 60's Starcraft Jet star, And I picked up a Merc 650 65 hp (3 cyl) local yesterday, with controls and wiring for a song...
it looks like it just needs some work with the internal plug connector, and a good carb cleaning.

The boat is rated HP is about 50 or 55hp if I remember correctly...
How close do I need to stick to the rated HP on this boat?

I'm thinking I should be ok once I get a new transom in there this fall/winter.

Think I'll get away with this engine, or will it sink me?


Currently I have been trolling along with a merc 200 20hp, that works great when I'm by my self, but with another adult in there... :facepalm:

Right now I'm just hoping this engine does not need a dist cap or rotor, apparently they are a little rare and $$$

I have happy thoughts of my little jet star rocket with this 65hp, getting it up on a plane quickly and having some speed and power.

Good morning, I like your post easy for me since I picked up a nova 15 feet with a mercury 650 , 65 HP . I am at paint stage now. Did you run your boat over the years?