Project Fuggly - No Longer Fuggly And Splashed!!!!!!

[archbuilder]

Finally getting back to the last push on Fuggly. I got the last major project done today, the oil lines. By the way PTFE AN lines are a bit of a PITA to make up, hopefully the extra heat and pressure resistance are worth it.


My camera on my phone really doesn't like to focus on black by the way, sorry about the fuzzy images. But I think you get the idea. Heading out to mow the lawn before the rain the next few days. I still need to put oil in, and prime it with an old distributor. I also need to somehow pump out the old fuel, it has been in there 2 years....so even non-nonlethal is probably bad. I put stabil in it, but figure the best thing is to just get rid of it and replace it with fresh fuel. Hopefully Wedesnday or Thursday night I will get a break from the rain so that I can run it and break it in. Heading back to the lake this weekend to do some fall chores....and have to take my flatbed trailer. I am hoping the following weekend to get some time on her in the water if the weather co-operates and she doesn't blow up :faint2: Hopefully not lol, guess we will find out! :bounce:

 

[archbuilder]

Oh yeah, I bought plug wire separators.....the plug wire mess has been bothering my OCD......need to get those on. I think this winter we may get new cut to fit wires.....I hate the one size fits all aftermarket ones.

 

[GA_Boater]

Arch - It's time to fertilize your lawn with Roundup. Grass cutting is taking too much time away from Fugly. Just put those lawyers on speed dial.

Your gonna get there. When does the lake freeze up?

 

[Baylinerchuck]

Love that filter relocation. The 4.3L Filter is a pain to get to. I may look into one for mine when the weather gets cooler.

 

[archbuilder]

I used to have one of those in my SeaRay Chuck.....dropped it in the bilge every time I changed it! That is my main motivation for the filter relocation on this one. I also think I might be able to get an oil pan under this one if I can find a plastic tub that is the right shape. Which would beat sucking it out through the dipstick tube.

GA, if the lake freezes up we have a serious problem lol! I have seen ice around the edges and actually a real thin layer on it, but never seen it freeze up.......I should have a good months worth of 70 and 80 degree days to get a few hours on her. My dad accidentally sprayed a 10' wide strip of his yard onetime when he was spraying the fence line with roundup.....he had the valve pointed the wrong way.....he wasn't very happy lol! It was very dead the rest of the summer lol!

 

[AShipShow]

I agree with Chuck, I need me one of those...I've seen em before, but never thought much about it until I changed the filter on my 5.7 this year... man what an aweful place to get to. Then your bilge is full of oil to clean up...

 

[Woodonglass]

Merry Christmas my friend!

 

[mickyryan]

where we at?

 

[WOEISMEIGOTTA470]

Hi Arch!! Woe is back from the dead, lol just wanted to say Fuggly is looking Fugginawesome! That engine is the jewel for sure. Love the custom brackets, might have to copy your design for the remote oil filter setup that's pretty slick. FYI I had to do the same kind of arrangement for the front engine mount...I made a much simpler type of bracket but it has worked very well so far. Not as robust looking as your design lol.

 

[archbuilder]

Hmmm for some reason I don't seem to be getting notifications of post.

Woe, nice job! That was a Oh....beep moment for me! Apparently most blocks have that boss, but looks like you and I weren't that lucky!

Not a lot to update at the moment. Dealing with work and all of the fun virus issues has consumed a lot of my time and energy. I have also had some other priorities. One right now is actually cleaning the shop and the hangar so that I can get something done. The small shop has been a total disaster, I am working on that this weekend actually. I also have to get a lot of maintenance done, sometime in the next few weeks, at the lake. Once I get the shop organized (oh and the new trailer brakes installed on the tandem utility trailer), I should be moving along on the final items for Fuggly, I am guessing in March. Normal, life gets in the way. Hope everyone is well!

 

[archbuilder]

Greetings all, it has been a while since I have been on! So here is the latest on Fuggly.

I was busy on other things till early summer. I I pre-lubed the new engine, checked TDC, set the timing as close as I could eyeball, put her on the muffs...........nothing, turned over great......but nothing. Pulled a plug, no spark. Check but couldn't find anything obvious. Put her back up, started trouble shooting her a few days later. This gets long, so feel free to skip to the bottom!

I converted to electronic ignition with Pertronix. After poking and prodding, I decided that I needed to call them on Monday. They were very helpful, sent over some trouble shooting info. After another call, I figured out that the shift interrupter linkage was out of wack, grounding out the coil. I adjusted that, that was a pain, but I think I have that ironed out, but left the coil unhooked from it just in case. Had great spark after that.

Pulled her out again, tried firing her up......nothing......I was doing it by myself, so tweak the distributor, walk up front try it again....repeat, not the most efficient way to do it......got nothing no mater throttle or timing.......put her back up

Got it back out a few days later and had my less than patient dad run the starter / throttle......in the hot sun lol.....tried it, nothing......so I got irritated, pulled the spark arrestor, splashed some fuel in the intake, and bang, she fired up! and died after a second. I did the several times, could not get her to run more than a second or two. Ok so must be a fuel issue. We are at the end of the summer at this point, I just ran Miss Morgan and the tower of power for the summer (which is super reliable by the way).

After pondering it a day or two, I decided to pump out all of the fuel, smelled out, but why not rule that out. All of the fuel system is new, hoses, fuel pump, filter, tank.....and the carb is rebuilt, with only a few hours on the other engine. Worked perfectly, I also pulled the fuel line off the carb flushed all the gas out of the pump, line an filter (electric pump). It shot plenty of fuel out. Pulled it out one more time (September at this point)......same old same old. It would only run when I dumped fuel in it.

Flash forward to Monday, I found out my friend David was in town. He used to help me out on things like this, but has pretty much been at the lake since COVID started. He came over, went through what I had done, asked a lot of questions. I had been wondering if it was something weird in the linkage, he also suggested we disconnect it and try it on the muffs again. I ran the ignition and he ran the throttle and tweaked the distribuitor at the same time. We got it to fire up a few times, slowly getting it to run longer and longer. He could keep it to run, as long as he twised the trottle and gave it a pump shot from the accelerator pump. Other wise it would die. We tried it one last time, as soon as it died he got up and said its got to be the carb. I walked back to see what tools I would need to pull it......out of the corner of my eye I saw something move.....I looked where I saw the movement, didn't see anything for a second, then saw it again. One thing about black shinny engines, is they look really cool, another thing is everything blends together and is kind of hard to see. What I saw was atomized fuel / air coming out of a hole in the intake! came on in my head! We got to looking and there were two 5/16" threaded holes next to the carb adapter.....I don't recall them on the old manifold, but they were open to the intake runners. Anyhow two giant vacuum leaks! It all made sense now, the holes were causing the carb to lean out......which explains why it would only run with a lot of fuel.

Put two bolts in to plug the holes, and she fired right up! We tweaked the timing, and ran her for a while to start seating the rings and break in the cam. Later on I re-winterized her, and made a list of minor things that need tweaked.

 

[archbuilder]

You can't believe how happy I was to finally get that new engine running. She sounds great, I can't wait to try her out this spring! Here is my engine list of items to complete, not much really:

1. Get rubber washers for the 6 push rod cover bolts. They apparently leak oil if you don't have them!
2. Find the small oil leak on the port side. Think it is just a oil pan bolt that needs snugged up.
3. Install some resistors in the line to the tach. The pertronics ignition causes it to read incorrectly, apparently this is a common issue. I call them about it this summer.
4. Figure out why the temp gauge reads hot, when it isn't. I am thinking I may have the sending unit for a idiot light and not a guage.
5. I found the missing low oil pressure light for the dash, got it off evil bay. Need the bezzle re-chromed. I put in a new switch for it when I built the engine, so its really a mater of putting in the light and wiring it up. I also ordered an electric pizzo buzzer to hook in with it.....which should be annoying at start up! But I really don't think I will be able to see the light well in daylight.

I have a few things on the boat.....probally more than I am remembering right now:

1. Fabricate the glove box, get it and the door intalled. The old plastic one is shot. I am thinking about doing the new one out of fiberglass or maybe aluminum.
2. Install the little rubber steps on the top of the transom. The ones you stem on when gettin in off of a dock.
3. Install the access door on the bow. I really need to make some kind of box to put in there. Right now it just opens to the deck below....not so useful.
4. Finish up tweaking the rear seat mounts. I think i have all the parts for this.....need to do some digging today.
5. At least start thinking about a radio, its been low on the priorty list, but moving up now.
6. Cup holders.....think I have a few of them somewhere....
7. And I am sure a few more items that i will think of........

 

[GA_Boater]

Welcome back, Arch.

I hope once a year visits are not the norm and hope March holds. LOL

 

[archbuilder]

Hi GA, I did a little homework on Fuggly today, before I moved her back to the hanger. I checked the continuity on the temp sending line just to make sure. I check all of the wiring before I put it in, and as expected it was fine. I also tried wedging my head under the dash to see if I could see a part number on the gauge. All of the gauges are basically new, I bought NOS to replace the old ones. About the time I got my head wedged up in there......I remembered I kept a lot of the NOS boxes because they were so cool. Most of them were really early 70's vintage based on the production dates stamped on them. Sure enough I found the box for the temp gauge and I now have the part number! I am going to call Mercury tech on Monday to see if they can give me the part number for the right sending unit. Hopefully that will resolve that issue.

I also ordered some oil resistant rubber washers for the push rod cover bolts. That should take care of that problem.

I should be in an out, on here, juggling a lot of other projects.......but I want to chip away at what I can on her before spring. I did some research on radios today, that is a project in its self lol!

Also so found some cool spark plug wire seperators I bought, so add that to the install list. I have one for the two oil lines going to the remote oil filter. I need to spend a day digging through my parts, not installed yet pile lol!

 

[jbcurt00]

Welcome back, congrats on figuring it out, even.w the moderately long todo list

 

[archbuilder]

I am starting to ease back into project Fuggly. Just ordered a few square headed bolts to plug up the holes in the intake....I got some hex headed set screws that I was going to locktite into place....but in the back of my head "if the gas eats the locktite....and they are loose they could vibrate down into the intake and eat a valve...... So i ordered square headed ones knowing they can't fall into the intake.

I also called Mercury today with hopes of getting the correct part number for the water temperature sending, that works with the water temp guage. I got "um we discontinued that gauge in 1981..................." Not supprisingly they have no info on it or the specs, not too suprising. So I ordered a candy thermometer, think I will boil the sending unit to see what ohm range it is. Hopefully I can get an idea of what I need and maybe find a sending unit that will work on the needed resistance range. Also I guess it could be the gauge, its new, but still 50 years old. Open to suggestions on this one!

 

[briangcc]

I wonder....would a Chubby(ahem Chevy) v6 temp sender work instead of the Merc part from similar vintage car??? Maybe off a 60's/70's Camaro or Nova?

 

[Scott Danforth]

I wonder....would a Chubby(ahem Chevy) v6 temp sender work instead of the Merc part from similar vintage car??? Maybe off a 60's/70's Camaro or Nova?

no, automotive had their own resistance ranges which were different than boats and industrial equipment