"Lee's Limo" 2001 F350 crew cab 4x4 diesel

[SuperBuickGuy]

now you know why they do those adjustments with the motor off the boat and in a barrel of water

Personally, I like seeing the guy leaning over the back of his boat doing those adjustments..... but I'm a sicko thus I'm waiting for accelleration, followed by a splash, then the sound of "hey, look that boat is taking off without a driver."

[milner351]

Yea- I hear you - I do notice the timing screws are on the front of the engine -
so they could be adjusted while under way -
it would be easier in a sport boat - instead of our pontoon - which admittedly is not the ideal set up for this engine - but at $700 for a like new engine which I only have about $950 in now total - I can't complain - new outboards are really pricey. IF I can make this one run well dependably - I would not hesitate moving it to a newer pontoon, since the price of new ones are reduced drastically if you don't want a new engine to go with it!

[DirtyWhiteBoy]

Good call John I would have let him do it too for the price.........I hope it is just a valve or gasket


On the boating front mine ruptured an oil cooling line and pumped around 8-10 qts of racing oil onto the bilge. What a mess, I just got the new braided line to make the new lines....just hope I didn't hurt it.
I'm pretty happy that my bilge pumps are not auto, and did not pump that into the lake.

[milner351]

Good call John I would have let him do it too for the price.........I hope it is just a valve or gasket


On the boating front mine ruptured an oil cooling line and pumped around 8-10 qts of racing oil onto the bilge. What a mess, I just got the new braided line to make the new lines....just hope I didn't hurt it.
I'm pretty happy that my bilge pumps are not auto, and did not pump that into the lake.

EEEEECK! what kind of gauge / warnings do you have set up? I noticed while working on the old "black stack" that there is a brass pipe plug on the head - a perfect spot for a temp gauge - it's only on what started life for me as a $600 '78 crest pontoon - but the engine is worth way more than the boat - so - I think I will put a temp gauge on it to be safe.... every weed bed is a threat to clogging those water inlets.

I hope you get your boat up and going soon - man - cleaning that bilge must have been no fun at all! Yea - the EPA tickets for putting several quarts overboard would not have been good!

I have not heard from the shop yet about my truck --- another guy pointed out that it could just be a bent pushrod hanging a valve open - which is possible - I hope I would have noticed such a thing - but maybe not.... that would be a pleasant surprise though!

I hope to have pictures once Chuck gets it apart.... hopefully NOT revealing piston / bore carnage!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Two happiest days in a boat owner's life. The day they buy the boat..... and the day they sell it. The rest of time time they're a hole in the water, into which, you pour money.

I sold my last boat in 2001 (I have a penchant for flat bottom jets) and I think that boat cured me.... well, in all honesty, I have been looking at cabin cruisers - but those are different, right?

New outboards are breathtakingly expensive (5000 or more) ... so 950 for an outboard is nearly a steal.

[milner351]

that's why I picked up this old merc when I had the chance - the guy sort of knew what he had - it was one of those

"wife and I got divorced she got the house and I had to get all my stuff out of there quick - follow me to the back of this field here and help me get it off the trailer"

This poor guy had what looked like a well stocked workshop at one time - all wrapped in tarps and sitting on a car trailer in the back of a friends field - the outboard was on it's side - with the controll box sitting next to it - all the control cables wiring harness, heck - even the prop didn't look as if it had seen water for more than a few hours.

I felt bad as we were fighting off mosquito swarms to ask the guy for a more detailed inspection - I had intentions of doing compression checks using the pull rope, etc, but he was anxious - and supposedly had a bunch of other guys calling on it from his craigslist add.... in fact - he got one call while we were loading in my truck.

After flipping the engine and getting the cowling off - I saw what looked like a brand new engine underneath - overspray on the plastic parts, factory wires still labeled with the paper self adhesive wrappers, even the spark plugs had black factory overspray on them!

The engine turned by hand, no funny noises - and I could feel compression as I spun it - I figured $700 was worth the risk even if I ended up parting out - seeing as though the lower unit would probably sell for more than that.... and it looked pristine.

Last year all I had time to do was rebuild the carbs and fuel pump - and replace the plugs - BUHW nippondenso's - flat - no ground electrode... never seen that before. Over the winter I found a genuine service manual - an that beat the pants off the clymer manual I got at the local marina.

I'm venturing a guess that the motor was new - got little use for it's first few years - then the stator went bad and it got removed and forgotten about.

Hopefully I can make it dependable - and use it for many years to come --- one thing about outboards - if they are maintained properly - they last for decades. There are dozens and dozens of old outboards out on our lake in good working order - some with the old round tops dating back to the 50s, still in service.


STILL NO CALL ABOUT THE TRUCK!

[SuperBuickGuy]

the plugs arc to the piston - it's why you have to be so persnickity about timing them.... but they do run forever as long as you service them and don't let them freeze (winterization is of paramount importance).

You're right about the bottom end, my dad broke his off (literally) hitting a rock. It cost 400 bucks twice (shop closed without doing the work) in 1980....

they also are pretty economical. we went from outboards to jets and I think we went the wrong way... outboards are really the way to go.

[milner351]

the $600 'toon came with a 25hp evinrude two cylinder. We ran that a while - I rebuilt the carb and fuel pump, and of course put a new impeller in the water pump.... then the lower unit went. We were able to find another parts engine with a bad piston for $200 - we swapped over the lower unit and ran it that way a while longer. It was just TOO SLOW... yes - even a '78 crest pontoon boat can be too slow - so I was looking for a 50hp outboard when I came across this 90 and couldn't pass it up. Keeping up with our lawn lately has turned into a major pita - like every 3 days it needs to be mowed again pita - so I didn't get to re-timing the merc last night. After I get that done - I need to pull out the come along and raise the engine on the transom a couple holes - it's too deep now, I already nicked the prop!

[SuperBuickGuy]

so you'll put a water-ski roll bar on it? I wonder what it'd be like to waterski behind a pontoon boat....

[milner351]

well - no - although there are plenty of new "triple toons" out there with 200+ outboards that can pull a skier or three any time... but not through a slalom course. Wakeboarding is really eclipsing slalom anymore. I might try to fab something up to pull the tube, but the wake behind our old toon would destroy a skier.

Thankfully I have several friends with ski boats on the lake - I may not even get ours out of storage this year since it's already mid June and I don't have the roof on the boat house yet, and there's no sense getting it until I do.