Tin addiction 18' Starcraft Chieftain

[Decker83]

Looks like it came from the factory.. Only better.. Awesome..

 

[Watermann]

Pulled the Chief out, took off the cover and she got a bath with the new tow vehicle. I ran a can of Power Tune through the motor and then gave it a tune up. The spark plugs from the PO I hadn't changed and were NGK. Not a big fan of Japanese stuff so I replaced them with some marine AC delcos with a new cap and rotor. That powerhouse runs like a champ. The Chief is ready for the water now. If the wind would slow down some time soon that would be great.

Oh yeah and I talked the admiral into a new set of wheels for chariot, the old ones are pretty shabby so maybe next week I'll be sporting some new alloys.

 

[jbcurt00]

yeah, new shoes for the Chief chariot

And it aint even father's day yet

Good luck getting it wet soon! I worked on the tow vehicle all weekend, but w/ the river way up and nearly chocolate brown, I dont think I'd have gone out anyway.

BTW: I talked to Sig, and he's been pounding out LONG, long days working now that the Admiral and their new twins are finally all home, safe, sound and healthy.

 

[astor]

Watermann- the sidemount control looks much better, nice work there.

 

[dozerII]

She looks real good sitting there ready to go for a splash, and I hear ya on the wind 40-90kph here for the last week.

 

[cj8mule]

Nice work H20. I like how the controls worked out!

Now,,,, let's go fishin'

 

[Watermann]

Thanks for buzzing by guys, forgot to take some pics of my new decals too, put some Starcraft decals on the trailer tubes. I also put on my Starmada / iboats stickers on the upper windshield side panels.

 

[hayko1971]

gorgeous boat! It's been very windy here as well, but all the water up my way is still hard anyways.

 

[Decker83]

That is one sweet boat you have..:first:.
Hope I can get mine 1/3 as good as yours..

 

[jbcurt00]

Thanks for buzzing by guys, forgot to take some pics of my new decals too, put some Starcraft decals on the trailer tubes. I also put on my Starmada / iboats stickers on the upper windshield side panels.

Add a hot steaming cup of coffee in your SOTY mug and you're a floating Starmada banner Early am fishing this weekend?

 

[Watermann]

Add a hot steaming cup of coffee in your SOTY mug and you're a floating Starmada banner Early am fishing this weekend?

The Starmada stuff is my way of giving credit to all the guys who were there along the way and of course iboats for making it possible to have such place to begin with.

I need to get the SN out there and some fish inside the wells. Past few weeks the wind has not stopped except at night. :grumpy:

Really looking forward to hitting the water with the Chief for a nice warm afternoon cruise.:happy:​

 

[GoldDuster360]

Nice warm spring day so I had to tear into my boxes of new parts for the Chief. The controls needed to be replaced badly, the side mount from the donor was not cutting it at all. So as I posted earlier in the thread I got a new top mount Uflex. There was a serious bit of trepidation as I had to install the new controls on the gunnel next to the helm chair so some cutting had to be done. I think it came out perfect, I hated that side mount, it was so low and reverse was a pain because of the helm chair.

I think these new controls are going to work out great.

I fabricated a cover plate to hide the hole from the side mount but the paint on it isn't cured yet so It's going to be a few days to finish that up.

I couldn't believe that I didn't have to even have to adjust the shifter side of things, just the throttle needed adjusted a bit. So I decided what the heck, time to bring the Chief out of winter hibernation so I fired her up and then took a little video of the event. For some reason or another the videos don't embed the player like they used to.

Thanks for stopping by :yo:

That is one sharp looking boat

 

[Watermann]

gorgeous boat! It's been very windy here as well, but all the water up my way is still hard anyways.

That is one sweet boat you have..:first:.
Hope I can get mine 1/3 as good as yours..

That is one sharp looking boat

I'm looking forward to seeing all your boats lined up for this years SOTY awards. Keep on it and moving forward for some more 2015 splashes!

 

[Watermann]

So Mercruiser guys,

I got some more parts and a choke upgrade. When I changed the spark plugs last weekend I saw how sooty they were and I was seeing sooty exhaust stains on the transom so I checked into the choke. I'm thinking the motor wasn't getting hot enough to open the old choke and I believe it was only getting maybe up to 120 degrees so I got a thermostat kit from here at iboats. The old thermostat looked to be original and was stuck wide open. Just in case I decided the old bi-metal divorced choke was going to get switched out too. I found a replacement electrical divorced choke upgrade from carbjunkys on fleabay. If you MC guys with the older models see a problem with your chokes it's a real simple upgrade to electric. I'm thinking there may be some linkage alterations necessary but that should be easy.

I saw in the MC manual that you're supposed to retorque the rear engine mounts annually and I was wondering if any of you did the retorque? I put a thread in the MC section about if you need to check the alignment afterward. Hope not because I did that last fall when I pulled the LU for maintenance.

I riveted on 2 SS fender locks on each side of the top of the gunnels rather than the side next to the rubrail just ahead of midship and aft. I found out last year it was a pain trying to find something to tie fenders off to. It's going to be nice to preset the fenders when coming in to dock and launching. I think these locks look good with the design of the SC's. I really liked that they had a nylon eye to tie the fender to, imagine something being snagged up and it was all SS.
(Sorry it's iboats pic)

 

[classiccat]

Nice upgrades there agua!!! thats a really slick idea for the Bumpers! That will bring the stress levels down a bit when returning to port.

 

[laurentide]

It all looks great. I like the bumper locks, too. I think I'll be installing a few of those. Unless you install spring cleats, there's nothing to really go to for fenders on these boats. I hope the weather cooperates for you soon.

 

[pckeen]

Like those bumper locks - I'll have to install those. Fed up with constantly having to put on and take off the bumpers off my cleats.

 

[Decker83]

Let us know how the electric choke works for you.. Stuck thermostat..
Great ideal on the bumper locks.. When and if this old man gets to that point I will look into them..

 

[dozerII]

Looks good Rob, I like the electric choke upgrade. I relied on your Mercruiser thread, but yesterday when we did the first install on the 3.0 liter I found the alignment changed a little after I torqued the bolts, but that could have been because of the new mounting kits and Murphy.

 

[Watermann]

Just got done with the install and testing. NO linkage alterations for the choke, one bolt, one screw and a terminal connector for power and it worked perfectly. A very worthwhile upgrade. :thumb:

For the first time the motor is now getting up to the operating temp of 142 degrees with NO leaks! The new thermostat was bit challenging though, I had to modify it to fit in the opening, never saw anything like the way MC set this up. The t-stat goes into a brass liner that is pressed into the housing. Crazy stuff, took an hour to get it back in. I knew I wasn't getting up to the right temp last year but after over a year of work on the Chief, I was ready to be on the water not turning wrenches.

Yeah Glen I don't think I'm going to be too worried about those rear engine mounts being retorqued since Mister Ayuh doesn't think it's necessary then I'm good too. :lol: