Mercruiser Inliner Swap Progress...165 Rebuilt I6 replacing the old 470

[HT32BSX115]

Thanks Rick, I'm sticking with gelcoat cause I prefer it. I had used the Bilgekote first time I had the doghouse/transom restored and it is nice, easy to clean looks good. Gelcoat I feel has the bond to fiberglass and it should never peel or chip.

Yeah. I have found that Bilgkote is fairly durable but I did spill a little bit of coolant (closed cooling) and it lifted the paint it right off where it dripped!!

I used it because it was cheap and easy to apply and (spraygun) cleanup was quite a bit easier than a resin based coating.....................

Knowing what know now, I think I would probably use gel-coat now.............

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Yeah. I have found that Bilgkote is fairly durable but I did spill a little bit of coolant (closed cooling) and it lifted the paint it right off where it dripped!!

I used it because it was cheap and easy to apply and (spraygun) cleanup was quite a bit easier than a resin based coating.....................

Knowing what know now, I think I would probably use gel-coat now.............

Yup, to each their own really. The downside to gel-coat is that it's somewhat porous, so if you don't buff it to a shine (or use duratec), the matte finish will stain quite easily. That's why I'm thinking I'll go with gray inside the doghouse, stains will be less noticeable.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Don't remember if I asked you before................Looking at your engine picture in your SIG, is your heat exchanger large enough to cool your manifold too? Or will this be a "half" system?

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Don't remember if I asked you before................Looking at your engine picture in your SIG, is your heat exchanger large enough to cool your manifold too? Or will this be a "half" system?

Yup you asked once before but that's alright. All should be revealed when I finally get to test the system out in the water! I currently have it plumbed as a FULL cooling system. I also setup the manifold to be "reverse flow", such that the coolant flows from stern to bow (back to front of engine). I heard that having the coolant flowing in this direction is preferred to help emliminate air pockets which creates hot spots and could lead to thermal cracks in the manifold.

So far in my brief testing, the engine has stayed cool with the garden hose running through the heat exhanger. But things could change once it's pushing the boat through the water, hence why I have a spare HE laying around in case. I'll either swap it out, or tie it in series with the existing if I have to.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Yeah having it flow back to front makes sense because you'll almost always have the bow "up" while underway. (bubbles will rise to the top!)

Running on the hose won't tell you much, except it works well wih no load on the engine!!

The real test will be under load at WOT for a few min. (WOT is good for breaking in rings too!)

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Hoping to get a "real" test soon! Very excited to say I got a LOT accomplished this weekend! Very late, going to bed now, but will post pics and update tomorrow! Goodnight!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

So like I said, I have some BIG news from the work I did over the weekend...
Saturday I spent 12-13 hrs working on finishing the body work on the cuddy walk-through, and tabbing up the corners. I finished the day's work mixing up some gray gelcoat and rolling the final coat onto the bilge.









Got Acetone??? :loco: Crazy how much you go through on a project like this.

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Sunday was the BIG DAY, starting early at 8:30am and began prepping the alpha1 gimbal housing for installation. I removed the trim rams and old hydraulic trim hoses. I installed the new transom seal o-ring onto the housing first; using some dabs of black RTV silicone in key spots, I "tacked" the o-ring in place and used masking tape to hold it there while the RTV set up. Once dry, I removed the tape and the seal stayed-put perfectly in it's groove ready for a no-fuss installation.

By 10am my good friend Nick showed up in his wife's Jeep Wrangler. We used the winch on the front of it to pull the engine out of the garage and up the small hill onto the driveway. Easiest part of the day!

We set the engine aside and began working on moving the boat outta the woods and into the driveway next. I thought it was going to be more of a challenge since it'd been sitting there for over 5 years, which at that time didn't even have the driveway put in yet. But the wrangler in 4-low did the job with ease and we were able to maneuver it in just the right spot.

My other friend Russ joined the party around 2-3pm and with his help and the help of my father making us 4 strong, we dropped the engine into it's home for good! We used a side entry strategy using the engine hoist we started a bit uphill and parallel to the boat, and gently swung the hoist to the left and under the trailer. To get the trailer and boat low as possible, Nick came up with the idea to remove the left wheel and lay the leaf spring on a block of wood. In doing so, 2 studs broke off the hub, but I don't care, I'll be getting new ones anyways as they're shot.
All in all everything went smooth as butter and by some miracle, had all the hardware and new parts needed for the job that I had been collecting for the past year or two.

We wrapped up the install by about 5-30-6pm and treated ourselves to a few cold one's and called it a day.

My friends were a huge help, and couldn't of done it without them. As the song goes... I get by with a little help from my friends!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

PICS!!!!

 

[HT32BSX115]

Looks NICE!!!!!

I'm jealous! I wish I had used gelcoat in my bilge!!!

 

[52FordF2]

I hope you tightly covered that engine up, so no dust, dirt, or gell can get on it or in it. Don't ask did it before on a truck I know.

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Looks NICE!!!!!

I'm jealous! I wish I had used gelcoat in my bilge!!!

Thanks! Next time! (if there's a next time...)

I hope you tightly covered that engine up, so no dust, dirt, or gell can get on it or in it. Don't ask did it before on a truck I know.

Yikes, yea don't worry I had the engine wrapped under blankets in my garage storing it 'till this day. I shouldn't need to do any more heavy sanding from here on out. If I do, out of precaution I'll be sure to cover it up again. I'd also like to get a real filter on there and ditch that cheezy flame arrester. Gonna look into K&N universal ones.

 

[Mark72233]

Woe, looking good and I am right behind you. Spent the weekend painting stern drive parts and trying to put my gimbal housing and all the bellows in place. Yours is looking good and that engine looks clean. Good job, when your done with your friends send them my way I end up doing all this stuff by myself it always seems harder to get folks lined up to help out, I even offer free beer and pizza :very_drunk:

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Woe, looking good and I am right behind you. Spent the weekend painting stern drive parts and trying to put my gimbal housing and all the bellows in place. Yours is looking good and that engine looks clean. Good job, when your done with your friends send them my way I end up doing all this stuff by myself it always seems harder to get folks lined up to help out, I even offer free beer and pizza :very_drunk:

Good to hear Mark! Yeah you have double the engine = double the work. If you weren't so far away I'd offer a hand, I'll happily take free beer and pizza any day! Haha.

FYI - I just ordered myself one of these nice filters. Certified for marine use, stainless steel construction.
K&N 59-3262 will work for 2bbl rochester carbs with 3-1/16" carb flange dia. They also offer a slightly taller filter p/n 59-3362, probably would've gone with the taller one, but didn't see it till after I placed the order.

 

[archbuilder]

Nice looking work Woe! I think I have talked myself into the gelcoat for the bilge......assuming I ever get the trailer done, I keep adding things to my list, lol!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Nice looking work Woe! I think I have talked myself into the gelcoat for the bilge......assuming I ever get the trailer done, I keep adding things to my list, lol!

Do it! Yeah I mean, the list never really ends. I just placed the order to fix up my trailer, it's getting all new rollers and hubs, I already put a new tongue and tongue jack on it. Tires aren't too too old.
I'm hoping tonight I can work on getting the deck glassed up, and possibly paint gelcoat tomorrow. We'll see!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Well still haven't finished off the deck just yet, but I did manage to get the cabin bulkhead pieces installed for good this morning! Sorry no updated pics, but here's an old one just to show the pieces I'm talking about...

Already got them PB'd up with nice fillets. Hope to tab them in place tonight (I hope we have a extended summer in NY) getting anxious :watermelon::watermelon::watermelon:
Also many of the parts I ordered should be coming in today/tomorrow.

 

[archbuilder]

Looking good! I have been loafing at the lake....so I need to get my butt in gear!

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

So I know it's been a while since I've updated the 'ol resto page...been so busy I haven't had time to post up. I was away this weekend at lake winnipesaukee in NH for a wedding, and man-oh-man is it beautiful up there! My gf and I stayed in Meredith, our hotel was smack on the lake. Seeing all those nice boats playing and having fun did make me a bit jealous! Might need to trailer the boat up there sometime after I get her running good.

Anyways, I'm going to be lazy here and let the pictures do most of the talking. But basically I finished fiberglassing the deck and cabin bulkheads w/ a final layer of CSM. I also put down a coat of white gel. It still needs another coat or two down before it's finished, right now it's still tacky laminating gel. I'm also trying out PVA in the HVLP gun now instead of using the wax mixed in, and so far I've had good results. What I like that you can be selective where you apply the PVA, so that on areas I know need sanding I can have those areas cure hard. Helps save time so I don't need to sand the entire deck all over again.

In other news, I also managed to clean-up and paint the outdrive mating surface and input shaft, as well as the gimbal bell-housing. The bell-housing had some minor pitting in it which I filled in with JB weld. Worked great I think. OK enuf talk... pics...

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]