Thinking About a Boat

Ted DuPuis said:
I haven't been good about looking for petcocks. This is easy - few seconds with a screwdriver on 6 hoses. Of course the potential exists for hose to break, but not really a big deal if it does - hoses are cheap.

No overheating issues yet (thankfully). For the boat, my general philosophy is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, maybe fix it." Not taking this thing to Europe.
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You want to open the petcocks. There should be one at the center-bottom of the block water jacket, and typically there is at least one, and often 2, on each exhaust manifold/ riser set. This is as much to protect the petcock itself as anything else.
 
gismo said:
I don't know if this applies to your engine but there may be passageways in the block that won't blow clear. If I were you I'd find the petcocks and open them. Chances are pretty good that dumping antifreeze in will protect the engine from residual water but why take the chance?
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Some water in a narrow passageway is not going to crack the block. Every engine block I ever cracked was over one of the larger coolant filled voids :D
 
weilke said:
Some water in a narrow passageway is not going to crack the block. Every engine block I ever cracked was over one of the larger coolant filled voids :D
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The only Chevy block you have to be a bit careful with is the 400cuin, 4.125 bore block because it has siamesed cylinders.
 
Point taken on the petcocks. I didn't do them last year and did a much worse job of clearing the water out, so I'm not worried this year. There's always a chance that I screw up, and then I'll either build a 383 for it or sell the boat to Jesse and let him fix it. My general fear is breaking one when I'm trying to get it off, at which point I'm stuck replacing something that I don't want to. Worst case if I break a hose is I buy a new hose.
 
Henning said:
You can do it in the spring or anytime, no big deal. Lot's of people never do it, and I typically don't see people with issues until they have several years worth of scale. I just figure it's good PM on a raw water engine. The way I often do it is just lower the outboard or drive into a trash can with the flush mix in it and let it run for a while.

I like the shop vac idea, but as long as the petcocks are all found and opened, it's probably unnecessary, but doesn't hurt anything for sure.
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When I had my raw water cooled catalina 30, i did a vinegar flush on the motor. sucked about 2 gallons of vinegar into the engine and let it sit overnight. Followed it with a fresh water flush the next morning, and I never had cooling problems with the motor
 
sferguson524 said:
When I had my raw water cooled catalina 30, i did a vinegar flush on the motor. sucked about 2 gallons of vinegar into the engine and let it sit overnight. Followed it with a fresh water flush the next morning, and I never had cooling problems with the motor
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We've simply just drained the manifolds/block via the petcock for the past 20+ years on a 40-yr old raw-water 351W, and never had an issue with it. Granted, it's not brackish or salt water we are running in, but we're never had an issue in all that time with cooling. Hell, we were running on the original engine water pump and most of the hoses/manifolds from 1976 until we refreshed it all a few years back!

Our method: open two drain petcocks on the block, disconnect the raw water intake hose and drain, disconnect the two exhaust manifold intake hoses and let them drain. The whole process takes 10 minutes to perform. No antifreeze, no air compressors, etc. Just a few hose clamps and two petcocks. Never had a problem.

Change the oil, spray in some fogging oil, mix in fuel stabilizer, and shut off the fuel and let the engine die while spraying the fogging oil. Wash/wax/disconnect battery and put on the cover. Done and done.
 
Pulled the boat out from the outbuilding to get prepped and ready for summer. Or at least started on it. Threw the batteries in and tightened those down. Stupid me, I got lazy and didn't put the boat cover on since it was in a covered building. There was a lot of dust on the boat as a result - fortunately it mostly just sprayed off with the hose. Engine started up easily, everything still seems to work, so I'm happy.

I'm thinking I should change the oil plus oil and fuel filters this year. I realize that's supposed to be a yearly MX item, but I didn't do it since buying the boat. It looks like something along these lines:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...ontent=31347&gclid=CJuXq6bUu8wCFQYuaQodcoYLtw

Is what I need for draining the oil (rather sucking it out through the dipstick hole). I'm open to other suggestion if anyone has one. Main concern is getting the tube in through the dipstick hole since this is a 350 with a small diameter dipstick tube.

We're also thinking about what to do with the seats. The vinyl throughout the boat could use some attention. The captain's seat (the boat has loungers) is torn pretty badly. We were thinking of adding these:

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/pro...ck-Back-Lounge-Boat-Seat-with-10-Base&i=72067

However the bases we have are 14", and this shows 10". I definitely don't want a shorter base, if anything I would personally like taller. Any suggestions there? We figured the prices on that would definitely be cheaper than having ours recovered, but I'm not interested in giving up the base. Currently we have storage under the longers, which I don't care about. For our use of the boat, that storage area is just a place the kids get into and get dirty.

I need to get the boat registered here in Kansas, too...
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'm thinking I should change the oil plus oil and fuel filters this year. I realize that's supposed to be a yearly MX item, ..
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FWIW, we don't put a lot of hours on the boat, just run up to our favorite little inlet on the lake, tie up with friends, have a good time, and go home. I change the oil every two years and have been using Rotella 5w-40 full synthetic instead of the expen$ive Mercruiser stuff. $22/5qt jug at various local retailers. Seems to be fine.
 
Bill Jennings said:
FWIW, we don't put a lot of hours on the boat, just run up to our favorite little inlet on the lake, tie up with friends, have a good time, and go home. I change the oil every two years and have been using Rotella 5w-40 full synthetic instead of the expen$ive Mercruiser stuff. $22/5qt jug at various local retailers. Seems to be fine.
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Thanks for the PIREP. I'll find out what oil filter the boat uses and then buy that and some Rotella. I ordered the oil sucker thing I had linked above, but found it on eBay for about half the cost.

I checked the Hobbs meter and it turned out we put 20 hours on the engine last year. That didn't surprise me, I thought it was pretty good given that we were done with using the boat by mid-July. If it wasn't for the move, we probably would've doubled that. Our use last year had more engine runtime, sometimes moving just for airflow, and then also towing the tube or skis around.
 
Get the oil dipstick siphon. Seriously. After doing ours the hard way for a decade (drain plug and funnel/garden hose out of the transom drain), it makes a mess inevitably every time. The siphon systems take care of the issue of draining it, and having it stored. I run the engine to get the oil warm, prime the extractor with about 20-25 pumps of the handle and then go do something else for 10 minutes, come back and the holding tank is filled. Swap out oil filters (easy on my Ford, usually a bit more of a hassle on a GM) and add back the oil. Done in 15-20 minutes max, and half of that is spent doing nothing but waiting for the siphon tank to fill. Most of the siphon systems have different siphon tube diameters to work with dipstick guide sizes, so I wouldn't fear that too much. Here's what I have:

51b7tmLJfbL._SL1000_.jpg
 
As far as the boat seats, is there a reason you want the taller bases? If it ends up being that much cheaper, it may be worth it to reuse your old bases with the new seats or build new ones to your liking. If I were to re-do the seating in mine, I'd probably do away with the back-to-back lounge on the helm-side altogether in favor of a pedestal-swivel with a bolster. I'd wager my existing seats are on an 8-10" base at most.
 
Maybe I need to re-measure, but I'm pretty sure the bases were 14". I like the taller bases because I can actually sit while driving the boat (usually I stand, but sometimes I want to sit).

You make a good point about some sort of pedestal-swivel instead of the loungers. That might make more sense and be more versatile.
 
If you decide to replace one of the loungers with a pedestal, make sure you get one with a flip-up bolster. It allows you to lean against the seat while you drive if you don't want to be fully seated. Also allows a bit of increased seating height if you like to look over the windshield while driving versus through it.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Maybe I need to re-measure, but I'm pretty sure the bases were 14". I like the taller bases because I can actually sit while driving the boat (usually I stand, but sometimes I want to sit).

You make a good point about some sort of pedestal-swivel instead of the loungers. That might make more sense and be more versatile.
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When I was driving small boats for skiing (and pleasure) I spent almost all my time sitting on the seat back with my feet on the seat bottom. I could see much better.

Not that this has any relevance to the discussion, it just brought back memories...
 
jsstevens said:
When I was driving small boats for skiing (and pleasure) I spent almost all my time sitting on the seat back with my feet on the seat bottom. I could see much better.

Not that this has any relevance to the discussion, it just brought back memories...
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That's actually what I've been known to do sometimes. My son is at the point where he can steer the boat (with some help). I suspect he's going to want to do that bunch this year.

One year ago today marked the first time on the water for the season. A bit chilly to go today, but nice overall.
 
Just wanted to say that if an admin with a sense of humor could please photoshop out the ground on Henning's avatar so that it looks like he is departing his plane during flight via a home made ejection mechanism (as only he could make it perhaps using some twine, bubblegum and a tightly wound elastic band), that would be great and would suit his new status of "Ejection Handle Pulled". :D
 
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jsstevens said:
When I was driving small boats for skiing (and pleasure) I spent almost all my time sitting on the seat back with my feet on the seat bottom. I could see much better.

Not that this has any relevance to the discussion, it just brought back memories...
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It's relevant to my post about the flip-up bolster. The bolster was an answer to the issue of "sitting on the seat back". I normally sit or kneel on a throw-able seat cushion placed on the regular seat cushion to give a bit of extra height.

272-1-md.jpg
 
SoonerAviator said:
It's relevant to my post about the flip-up bolster. The bolster was an answer to the issue of "sitting on the seat back". I normally sit or kneel on a throw-able seat cushion placed on the regular seat cushion to give a bit of extra height.

272-1-md.jpg
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I like the flip up bolster quite a lot. You can be up in the breeze when it's nice and when you really need the extra visibility, and behind the windshield when it's not so nice or you're going so fast it makes your eyes water.
 
FormerHangie said:
I like the flip up bolster quite a lot. You can be up in the breeze when it's nice and when you really need the extra visibility, and behind the windshield when it's not so nice or you're going so fast it makes your eyes water.
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Our boat has very similar seats, and I love sitting up on the flip up bolster, and when its 95* the breeze feels great.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I am Mr. Miyagi, and I approve this message.
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Henning recommended it on here, and another friend recommended it on Facebook.

So far, the boat has really been more about aesthetic work more than anything. We redid the cushions in the cabin, I may put a new steering wheel on this year, we're hoping to either redo or replace the seats. Pull off the old vinyl pinstriping and wax it. Mechanically, so far it's been pretty sound. Radio could use an update (we did put in new speakers, but the radio itself is old). I bought Rotella and a filter today to change the oil, that'll happen whenever the pump comes for pumping the oil out and I can get to it, probably end up being next week sometime. It's on the list, but there are other items that are higher priorities.
 
Rotella is an intersting choice for a non-diesel marine engine. Most just run Castrol or similar 10w30 oil.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Rotella is an intersting choice for a non-diesel marine engine. Most just run Castrol or similar 10w30 oil.
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Rotella is a good oil that many use in non-diesel engines. I use it in my wife's BMW, for instance. Although they call out Castrol full synthetic, many run Rotella 5W-40 synthetic and are positive about it.

I figured the 5W-40 also made a good choice for the boat as it would help cold idle. Thinner oil during initial start-up/warm-up.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Rotella is a good oil that many use in non-diesel engines. I use it in my wife's BMW, for instance. Although they call out Castrol full synthetic, many run Rotella 5W-40 synthetic and are positive about it.

I figured the 5W-40 also made a good choice for the boat as it would help cold idle. Thinner oil during initial start-up/warm-up.
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Oh Rotella is fine, I just don't hear of many people using that brand in the marine-engine world so it was just a surprise. We use Rotella in the diesel stuff, Castrol in the boat (actually calls for straight 30W, but we use 10W-30 since 30 weight can be a pain to find sometimes), and Mobile 1 in the vehicles. With most summer pleasure boaters, the start-up viscosity isn't that big of a deal anyway when air temps are 90+ degrees. I haven't even pulled our boat out of the shop this year, so that's a project I'll tackle in a few weeks.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Oh Rotella is fine, I just don't hear of many people using that brand in the marine-engine world so it was just a surprise. We use Rotella in the diesel stuff, Castrol in the boat (actually calls for straight 30W, but we use 10W-30 since 30 weight can be a pain to find sometimes), and Mobile 1 in the vehicles. With most summer pleasure boaters, the start-up viscosity isn't that big of a deal anyway when air temps are 90+ degrees. I haven't even pulled our boat out of the shop this year, so that's a project I'll tackle in a few weeks.
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Most of the time when we start the boat it may be closer to 70, since we'll hit the lake in the morning right after breakfast and then stay until mid-afternoon, leaving before it gets into that really hot range. I don't want the idle too high on the boat, but the initial start-up on it tends to require holding some throttle in for a bit until it warms up a hair, or else it can tend to stall. This has happened to my wife enough times that it annoys her (she usually is the one getting the boat off/on the trailer while I handle the truck). At some point I may convert the boat to TBI like JHW has suggested (which will definitely help cold start), but I'm not going to do that at the beginning of the season.
 
My nose says Rotella stinks (Ro-smella) ... I like Delo from Costco ... does Mobil still make Delvac? Growing up, my granddad and dad used Delvac for our truck fleet.
 
Plenty of good oils out there that'll work.

I'll change the oil now, and then probably wait another 2 years before changing it again.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Plenty of good oils out there that'll work.

I'll change the oil now, and then probably wait another 2 years before changing it again.
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I would prefer you change it a little more often.
 
FormerHangie said:
Two years is what, 80 - 100 hours? I wouldn't think the oil would get excessively dirty in 100 hours.
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That's probably pretty optimistic for most pleasure boaters. I think 20-25hrs per year is quite common around here. Hell, I've got a boat built in 1976 with ~800hrs on it. That being said, we still change it annually. Spark plugs every 2-3 years just on principle.
 
Our boat got 20 hours last year on the Hobbs. It would've gotten 30-40 on it (maybe 50) if we hadn't moved. Sometime in mid-July was the last time we used it last year.

I think annually is good on principle, but I think unnecessary in my case, especially for an old 350. Jesse wants me to change it monthly since he's planning on buying it when we sell it.
 
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Oh, I agree. Mine's the Ford equivalent (351W), and it would be fine running the same oil for several years based off of usage alone. I do enjoy the electronic distributor for ease of maintenance and starting, although we're still running a 4bbl Edelbrock which seems to be pretty happy after 20-30 seconds of high-idle when it's started cold.

Regarding your speakers and such, I went with a new Pioneer unit w/remote and 4-Polk Audio 6.5" speakers last year which is working well. It replaced the plastic RCA speakers mounted under the dash and the Pioneer KP500 receiver they were powered by, so it was a marked improvement in usability and sound quality once the components were upgraded out of the late 70's.
 
We've got a Quadrajunk. An Edelbrock would probably do better.

I forget what speakers we ended up throwing on, but we did put some new speakers on last year which made a significant improvement in sound. We didn't spend the money on the marine grade ones, which saved a bunch of money.
 
Just visiting this thread because my Dad and I just went partners on a 2008 23' Steiger Craft Miami model! We are thrilled and the boat is in fantastic shape! It has just 220 hours on a 225 Suzuki outboard. Really looking forward to some awesome experiences with him this summer. Hopefully it won't cut back my flying hours too much!

A couple of things about owning and operating a boat compared to a operating a plane struck me immediately.

1. I can't believe they just let you operate a boat with absolutely no training. I'm going to take a boating safety course myself but it's just striking the difference.

2. No buddy in the boating world uses checklists or pre trips anything. It seems like honestly a check list for what to do once the boat is in the water( or if you sick it- what to do once you get on the boat) would be really smart. I remember as a kid when going fishing with my dad on our boat back then, we saw some unreal stuff with people putting the boat in the water without ropes attached, trying to leave the dock with the ropes still attached to the dock, forgetting to move their poles away from the dockside of the boat and watching them snap in half as they struck the pilings! It seems since I learned how to fly a plane before operating a boat, that I really do want a checklist of things to do before leaving the dock!

3. There is just so much to learn. I'm really excited about learning something new!
 
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