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[MakoMatt]

Huzzah!

My heavy mechanical work is now complete! It was a long, tough row to hoe, but it's behind me now.

New factory PCM manifolds and risers, new heat exchanger (Lenco Farmingdale), new starter motor (DB Electric), rebuilt the Sherwood RW pump, new Autolite plugs, factory PCM plug wires, Pertronix cap and rotor. Fresh Prestone antifreeze fill. Oil & filter change (Castrol 20W-50 with a half-pint of STP and a Wix max filter) done before the shrink-wrapping last December. Replaced some suss hoses and clamps, re-did my main bilge pump fixturing, had my office 3D print a structural truss for the engine compartment forward bulkhead, removed any rustiness from engine and trans and gave them a fresh touch-up of black Rustoleum. This all took a ton of effort, not to mention a good bit of donated skin and blood, but it's done. Now onto my "normal" Spring prep.

A few new "tricks" I've added this time around. First, it's really tough to get at the 4 rear-most bolts of each manifold and those 4 rear spark plugs too, for that matter. At 70 years old now, not only can I no longer contort my body sufficiently to reach back there whilst laying atop the engine, but it seems like my arms got shorter too. I don't know if that's medically possible, but it is what it is. So, I took out the big stainless motor mount lag bolts and put a "cheapie" Harbor Freight 8-ton hydraulic bottle jack under the motor mount, each side in turn. OMG, why did it take me 30 years of ownership to remedy this nightmare? Dense, I guess.

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This made all the difference, that's for sure. Just had to make sure that the "down-load" on the inside of hull was well distributed with 1x6 board. Each mount (there are 4, including the trans mounts) carries about 300lbs of weight, so gotta be a little careful with this plan of action. Didn't hear any cracking, so good to go.

Instead of doing the aforementioned near impossible "by blind feel" method, I could now use a simple 12" 3/8" extension, swivel and hex-driver from the side of the deck to R&R those torture-inducing rear-most manifold stainless cap screws. This was huge!

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And here's the most important (and least expensive) "tool" for this type of work, which I figured out half-way thru the job -

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That's right, just a cheap pair of cotton work gloves, with the fingers cut off. Again, OMG, what a difference! No more deep scratches on the backs of my hands from wire tie cut-offs and assorted other nasties. Hey, dropping an American V-8 into a boat with an 8-foot beam has some truly great advantages. The other side of the coin is that access to bolts, hose clamps, etc, is at shall we say, a "premium." the glove solution made it MUCH more comfortable to reach down, in, and around all the pain inducing hand-snaggers.

And now she sits, ready to fire. That will happen some time this coming week, as today my wife graciously allowed me to use up "her" day's morning to complete this work.

Fingers crossed.

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You da’ man Pete!!! I think I got you by a year or two so FYI it ain’t get any easier, but I’m sure you know that. May you be rewarded for all your efforts with another double digit!!

 

[holty]

Good work, Pete! I remember those days when I owned the Mackinaw. Not an easy job.
regards Holty

 

[Leprechaun]

Had to work through some setbacks but floating now!

Been super-busy with work and all sorts of boat-related issues. Turns out that after I completely finished buttoning up the engine work and tried to start her, yeah, HOLY CRAP!, gas shooting 18" straight up out of the carburetor. And as soon as I got off the key a small carb fire erupted, which luckily I had taken off my sweatshirt and used that to snuff it out. It never ends.

Only one way that an engine behaves this way - she was spinning in the wrong direction, and so became a gas pump instead of a gas vacuum. The idiots (who shall remain nameless) sent me the right starter BOX, with the wrong starter in it.

Let me explain - boat engines are available in two rotations, left-hand and right hand - or to put it another way, clockwise and counter-clockwise. This is because twin inboard installations use a pair of engines with opposite rotations, so to cancel out prop steer from the two engines.

I have what is called a "standard rotation" engine, meaning when you view the pulleys at the front of the engine when running they turn clockwise, a.k.a., left-handed. they sent me a right-handed starter, but it arrived in a left-handed box. After my blood pressure calmed down I confirmed this was the case by tapping the key and seeing the pulleys move CCW. Oh, for the love of . . .

I'm so effing DONE with the incompetence in just about about everything I deal with - work or "play," always an issue. Two and a half days of hard work down the drain. Took another two days off work to re-jack up the motor, take off the starboard side manifold/riser combination, dump the fresh antifreeze (I was able to save most of it), remove the heat exchanger (a nasty job, btw), and swap out the starter for the correct one. Then reinstalled all the above. Two + days I'll never get back. She runs fine now, so at least there's that.

God, I'll never get tired of listening to a big gas V-8's rumble.

Anyway, once that all got done (for the second time), I was able to pull the shrink and get going on the "normal" Spring commissioning work.

And here she sat, boat stands removed, with Chris HippyChic coming this morning to get her off my lawn and over to the Freeport ramp.

And an uneventful shake-down run to my slip at Yachtsmen's Cove marina. Tomorrow I do a bit more cleaning and then the hunt for Mr. Mat begin thereafter.

Oh and LET'S GO KNICKS! My "other" favorite team!

 

[BoatGuy]

You picked a good time to get it running. My son-in-law went fishing a caught 50 fluke on a friends boat.
(They didn't say where and I don't ask) 2 keepers. The water was 63 degrees.