Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

I got the Chief back upright and on wheels.

Back inside and doing some modifications to accommodate the increased width of the V6. I had to widen the floor supports a little ways and I fabricated a firewall from some of my tin supply to add strength to the deck supports.

Of course widening them means it also raised them so I will have to compensate when putting the floor in with some furring strips. There's always a ripple effect when changing things.

I also have to come up with a different motor mounts as well..

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

I'm interested to see how ya build out for the V6. No doubt this info will be very valuable for fellas who'd like to go the 4 cyl to V6 route:encouragement:

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

I'm interested to see how ya build out for the V6. No doubt this info will be very valuable for fellas who'd like to go the 4 cyl to V6 route:encouragement:

Okay now that's funny I was just heading over to your Islander thread to check out what you came up with for front motor mounts on your V6! I really hate re-inventing a wheel and more than happy to pilfer good ideas.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

HA! Yah bro, the mixed blessing of the OMC Stringer is I had awesome, solid, bomber front engine mounts factory installed:thumb:

All I needed to do was build out a pair of block/risers to bring the mounts up about 3 inches or so.

 

[Pmccraney]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Paint looks awesome...can't wait to see the inside come together (and yeah, that dash panel, though well intended, is a hazard of too much information)

 

[Weep'n Willy]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Nice progress. Paint looks great. She should really scoot along with the V6.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Well to have something to do while I pondered the new V6 motor mounts, I dropped the transom in by myself and only had one mishap that will cause a small bit of sanding and a repaint on the transoms outer side. Wow did that big heavy chunk of wood add some serious rigidity to my floppy flaccid stern area... Now to peel some 5200 off my fingers.

I have the easy part done on the motor mounts, the width they need to be apart. The only thing I have left to work out is the most important, the height to make them. Too high would be a bigger problem that too low where I could just use some wood shims to raise the height. If anyone has a similar V6 set up in their stern drive SC it would be nice to know the height of the motor mounts before I put my weak minded plan into motion tomorrow.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Save the motor mounts for last. Put the transom parts on, the inner and outer parts, drop the motor in and put in the rear mount bolts. Stick in the alignment bar and raise/lower/shift from side to side until you get good alignment. Then work on the motor mount measurements because the motor is in the right position. Pull the motor out and build the mounts up. Drop the motor in and do alignment again. You should be good to go.

You don't shim the mounts. They have adjustment built into them.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

GA thanks for the reply. I need to have a base to start from for the motor mounts to rest on and want to get the base close enough to use that 1/2" up 1/2" down adjustment. If I make the base for the motor mounts too high then I have a problem, if the bases are too low then I would just add some wood to shim them up into the adjustment range. All I have to work with is 1" for the mount adjustment and was hoping to get the bases close, maybe from someone elses similar setup. The glasser it's in is way different so It's tough to get an accurate measurement.

From what I understand, Jas had to add 3" to to the top of his existing 4" bases which seems too high , at least in my mind and would put the mounts above the deck level. So you see my dilemma, I need some bases installed before hanging the iron.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

I think I wasn't clear. Put the mounts on the motor with the adjustment centered. When you hang the motor on the rear mounts, the motor stays on the hoist. Then while it's still in the air move it around making constant alignment checks. Once you get the alignment close, measure how thick to make mounting plates.

Yank the motor out, build the plates, drop the motor back in, secure the mounts to the plates and make sure you can align it. Yank it all out again, do the wood protection treatment, secure the wood, put the motor in for the last time and go through alignment.

The motor is gonna be a yo-yo for awhile, but it's the only way when you are starting from scratch. It's a PITA cuz you're going from an inline to a V motor, from a single front mount to a pair of side mounts.

Hope that is clearer.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Have you looked through Dozer's Holiday thread? His is V6 from SC, I don't remember if he had any details or pics showing how it looked after the motor was pulled.

Ooops - Not the current re-do. The SOTY winner. The SS201 was the V6.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

From Dozers SS201 thread - I grabbed these since you're going from inline to a V motor. So things are a little different and I thought the factory way might be good to try to duplicate.

Post #141 shows the motor in place - http://forums.iboats.com/starcraft-boats/1986-ss-201-a-543074-6.html

Post #169 shows the motor out and the beefy stringers, which are wood filled, to secure the motor mounts to. http://forums.iboats.com/starcraft-boats/1986-ss-201-a-543074-7.html

Post #178 shows the mount stringers. http://forums.iboats.com/starcraft-boats/1986-ss-201-a-543074-8.html

Post #236 with a good pic of the redone mount stringers. Post #245 shows the floor stringers and motor mount stringers http://forums.iboats.com/starcraft-boats/1986-ss-201-a-543074-10.html

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yup, GA has ya pointed in exactly the right direction. All the steps involved make the job a huge pain especially since you have to do it twice to install the engine but it's really the right way on a totally new engine configuration.

In order for me to find out I needed those blocks I had to have the engine hanging, rear mounts bolted down, and the engine aligned. Then the engine came out and I built up to the front engine mounts.

If it make ya feel any better I had to run it three times #1 Check to see if the Merc V6 engine mounts would actually land on the stringers build for the OMC dinosaur. #2 Hang off the rear mounts, align, figure out I need to build up from the stringers. #3 Install

The Islander thread is gianourmous, so you don't have to wade through all the yammerin looking for the stuff ya need:

http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...-islander-rebuild-369247-175.html#post3604452

I really wanted to cheat and not have to go to that 3rd up and over. You can see here I accepted the fact it needed to come out in order to build up the stringers:

http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...-islander-rebuild-369247-176.html#post3605584

Hopefully that helps ya think through the next steps eh.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Too high would be a bigger problem that too low where I could just use some wood shims to raise the height.

Use the wood shims for test fitting, but bet something "more permanent" for the finish job. If you have access to lots of "tin", especially thicker stuff, clean it, stack it with JB in between, to the proper height.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Thanks for the info guys. I had an idea of how they're supposed to look but kinda still in the same position of not having the height dimensions of the motor mount stringers. I guess I will have to just do a SWAG and go from there. I need a good solid base and with some ideas of what it should look like onward I go to design and fabrication.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

OK, so I used my glasser for measurements on height of the motor mount stingers since I had nothing else but a guess. I ended up about a half inch under the height of the glassers 9" mount to bottom of bilge measurement. I hoping they're close to the same for height. I fabricated up 2 different sizes of plywood as shims for when the time comes they will be ready to mix, match or add together for height.

One side at a time and everything is loosely put together using clecos but so far everything is coming out looking good.

I decided to use 5 pieces of 3/4" ply to fab up the supports. I know ply doesn't hold screws well on edge but it sure is strong. Besides the force is downward weight not upward and a couple SS lags with 5200 under the mount pad should hold her down.

and what the finished fabrication will look like, obviously it's all loose right now.

 

[laurentide]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

That looks like a bad@&# engine mount right there! ^^^

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

The mount stringers will be great. Almost flight time for the motor.

 

[Watermann]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yeah it's going to be a bit before the V6 goes in. I have to rehab the trailer the glasser is on and switch over before I add the monster iron to the Chief.

Oh yeah and for you guys still using butter knives to cut aluminum, here is a small demonstration of what a non-ferrous metal saw blade will do it a little table saw 7-1/4" blade can also go in a chop saw or skillsaw. The Diablo I use costs a little over $40 at HD but is worth every penny.

Enough said about that, it would take 15 minutes to cut that old sign up like that with a jigsaw. Big bonus is the super straight laser cut line.

 

[jasoutside]

Re: Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

Yur stringers look rock solid buddy! I do hope you can sneak that engine in just one time and make it work, that'd be cool:encouragement: