Another Classic Sea Ray almost ready to float again

As the summer is rolling to an end, I am finally getting everything sorted out. I solved my steam issue with the left bank of cylinders- the riser gaskets were leaking allowing water into the manifold for the left bank of cylinders. (5.7 ltr small block-1,3,5,7 cyls). I installed the new style block off gaskets for closed water cooling along with a stainless steal block off plate. I used two gaskets with the stainless steel plate sandwiched between them. I also used a light "skim" coat of #2 permatex as a sealer on each gasket surface. I used a mill file to dress the sealing surfaces on the manifold and riser to help provide a more flat surface for the gaskets. So far, problem solved. The other issue I was having was ignition related. I was not having success with the electronic conversion kits I was using. When I bought the boat, it was fitted with a first generation Pertronix. It worked well, however I noticed it was starting to hiccup now and then. After I rebuilt the engine, I went with a Pertronix unit again. Perhaps some of it was installation error, but I was not having success with the new unit. I went with a Mallory E-spark conversion, as the installation was supposed to be compatible with my original wire harness with a resistance wire set-up. Well the first unit I fried by not hooking up the coil wires correctly and it went south. The second unit worked well after I installed it and the engine ran great on the muffs. Took the boat to the lake the next day, launched, started the boat, ran great during warm up, put it in reverse to back away from the slip-engine dies and wouldn't restart. Put it back on the trailer, took it home, did the fault isolation matrix provided by Mallory and sure enough- the second unit fried itself. Called Mallory tech support to try to ascertain what happened and unfortunately I wasn't able to get anywhere with the tech person I was dealing with. I know Mallory makes good products, but where are the folks that know how to T/S something and give good suggestions? I had the feeling that the person assisting me was merely reading from a spreadsheet/fault chart and giving "canned" answers. I finally got a burr under my saddle and ordered an old school Mallory Marine points distributor. Got the distributor, set the points, stabbed it in the engine, timed it and we're off and running again. I'm not knocking modern electronics, some of the issue may have been me, some of it may have been the equipment, but I have always had good luck with points. they have never let me stranded(previous experience with older vehicles). I know I can 99.9% of the time "limp" home on them. Yes, they are a bit more work, not as efficient as the electronics, but after the issues I was having, I'm done with electronics for awhile. With the points,the engine pulls good to well past 5500 RPM. A bit too high of an RPM, but the eng was originally built to take high RPM. I wouldn't run it that high continuously, so I may need to change the prop. The engine is a little sluggish at lower RPM's. I'm running 27-30 MPH at 4200 RPM. When I kick in the secondaries, the boat really jumps and I can hit 43-44 MPH, but the RPM is high- over 5800. I'm running an Alpha 1 drive currently with a 14.5x19 4 blade aluminum prop. Any suggestions to bring the RPM down and maintain good performance? I understand that performance is trade-off. I would like to get good mid-range performance with a good cruise speed at a 3000-3500 RPM range. The speeds were attained using a pitot style pick-up. I haven't installed my Lowrance unit yet, so I cant give an accurate comparison to a GPS- I am also wondering how accurate my tachometer is even though it is a new unit. I haven't had the chance to compare the readings to another tach.
 
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Geo, sorry I wasn't there for your manifold issue. I was traveling quite a bit and missed your post. Glad to hear you got it straightened out. You prop seem a bit off. Mine is standard 15X19 three blade. WOT is rated at 4800 but she will run up to 5600 on flat water at 43-45 MPH. I can use some more pitch to bring it down.
I'm not sure how a 4 blade prop would perform but you should see a 200 RPM decrease for every degree of pitch you add. Going from a 14.5 to a 15 will help in my opinion.

The fuel tank you added, is it standard or did you install it into the ski locker in the floor.

Great job on the rebuild!
 
Hi OldSkool, good to hear from you, hope your trip went well. Thanks for the prop recommendation I'll look around and see if I can find one that size for a good price. I would really like to get the RPM's down to save wear and tear, although it is fun running that fast down the Saratoga Passage. Went out Sunday for a quick run and I was hitting 6200 RPM on smooth water. The fuel tank is the standard tank installed just aft of the ski locker, so it is in the stock position. Sure seems like quite a bit of weight aft when the tank is full and with all that cast iron from the engine sitting there. I'm on the fence as to the right bank (cyl's 2,4,6,8) for changing out the riser gaskets. I think I am running against the clock, as I have the same gasket installation as I had on the left bank that started to leak. I have all the pieces to do the replacement, so I should just go ahead and do the change over. I haven't put any antifreeze into the cooling system until I got her sorted out, so now might be a good time to make the swap and fill her back up with 50/50 before the cold weather sets in. I'm hoping that I am finally at the last of the mechanical issues, other than routine maintenance items. The next item to address is a small soft spot fwd of the ski locker where the rainwater over the years leaking past the center windscreen pass thru has done its damage and putting in an updated interior.
 
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Well, the boating gods have seemed to have frowned on me this weekend. Decided to tackle draining the water and filling with a 50/50 coolant mixture, as well as replacing the gasket stack on the right bank as I had done with the left bank. I pulled the right side apart, cleaned everything up, put everything back together and that"s when the fun started. I did an initial fill with coolant and started the engine, as it warmed up, the temp kept climbing until it hit about 210F, then I shut her down. Popped the exchanger cap carefully, allowing the built up pressure to bleed off- it was all air, no fluid. Continued this cycle several times until I was finally able to get it to the normal temp of 130-140F. As I was running the eng trying to get coolant into it, I didn't think about all the air pockets that were in the system and the amount of time it would take to work them out of the system. One thing I did notice was how hot the exhaust manifolds were when the air was working its way out.... after the temps settled down the eng was running well and things looked good. As I was sitting watching the gauges, I noticed steam in the exhaust. I thought, here we go again. After letting the engine cool over night, I started it this morning to see if the steam was merely due to the heat generated during the air purge or if it might be something else. well, the boating gods must be angry with me again-I pulled the the right bank riser-the only thing I changed looking for water and didn't find any, so I figured well, I'll pull the left side again just to make sure- nothing-dry as a bone. Great...whats leaking?? No water in the oil, no external leaking noticed. The one thing I can come up with is I cracked a manifold due to the lack of coolant flow during the refill stage after emptying the system. I'm thinking that when the manifold gets hot from running, a minute crack opens up and allows coolant into the exhaust. The other thing might be I didn't give the sealer enough time to set up before running the eng and the water because of the steam pressure in the system, pushed its way past the riser gaskets. I put everything back together today with new gaskets and fresh sealant(Sunday) and I am going to let it sit for a few days before I mess with it again. I'll update everyone when I run it again.
 
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After a week of 12hr days and before going to work this weekend (I work second shift), I finally had time to play with the boat. The results were interesting- I pulled the plugs on the #5 and #7 cylinders as, I knew there was still water in the manifold from when I changed the riser gaskets. After clearing the cylinders, replacing the plugs, I fired her up. It ran well with no evidence of steam. Great! I thought I dodged a bullet. Unfortunately, my happiness was short lived. I shut the engine down for a few minutes. I let it sit for 6-10 mins, then started it back up- lo and behold, after a minute or two or running, I had steam out the exhaust. At this point, I'm making a guess that as I have suspected, I have a cracked manifold. On the first start of the engine, its cold a and the crack self seals enough not to leak. After running and getting warm, there is enough exhaust pressure to keep water out of the mainfold. After sitting for a bit, the crack opens and is allowing water into the manifold until it burns out. So, has any one else experienced a similar scenario and did a new manifold correct the issue? The good side is that I am not getting any water into the oil, so that helps rule out other potential engine issues. The other question I have is are the bolt patterns the same for all the center rise manifolds? I'm curious to the riser mounting in particular-I understand the eng side, but not sure as to the riser mount pad. Are all the manufacturers using the same pattern? Thanks for the any input.
 
Hey guys and gals, been awhile since I've updated this post. wanted to pass along the latest with my progress in getting my gal back to looking good and running good. My wife and I named her the "Molly Dora" after my and her grandmothers-might be a little silly for a smaller boat, but we figured with them watching over us, it'll help keep us safe when we're out on the water. Performance has been good so far. With advice from the forum, I installed a 15x23P prop to help with the speed/economy of the bit more powerful engine. With my wife and I, a full tank of fuel (30 gal), and properly trimmed, at 3200 RPM, we're hitting 27.4 knots per the GPS and showing 30 MPH on the pitot on smooth water. This seems to be a nice comfortable "sweet spot" for the boat. The wife can enjoy the scenery and the wildlife we spot along the way at this pace- I asked "is this speed ok?",not wanting to upset the 1st mate LOL . Took a couple nice runs Mon and Tues for the unofficial "sea trials" and finally starting to feel more comfortable with the engine and the boat (cautious, yet gaining experience). On Monday, we did Oak Harbor to Everett (52 nm rd trip), using just under 19 gals of fuel. On Tues Oak Harbor to Coupeville for breakfast then to the Swinomish Channel entrance and then to Deception Pass Bridge then back to Oak Harbor ( appr 49nm rd trip), so we put some good runs on the equipment. Hit the 20 hour mark on the fresh rebuild, so I'm ready for the first oil change. I was happily surprised that during the break-in period, I didn't have to add any oil- the dipstick level didn't move. The shop that did the rebuild did a great job putting together a good engine. I think we're ready to fully enjoy the boat after the time and $$'s spent on the mechanical aspects and some appearance items along the way. Just need to reupholster the interior and we're good. Hope everyone has a fun, safe boating season.
 
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well congratulations, just read this whole post and I must say very impressive, being that patient with all those issues, my hats off to you. here's to your Molly Dora
 
Great to hear that you got her up and running. You boat in a beautiful area - post up some pics of your adventures!
 
Its been quite a journey and with the help and encouragement from the folks here on CSR, they helped me get thru it. There are others that have taken on, completed and are in the midst of larger projects than what I've done and its been very interesting to follow along their journey with them. I'm hoping that the lion's share of mechanical issues are behind me-I know something will always poke its head up, but hopefully they will be minor in nature. The next step is the cabin revamp- new lounge seat,carpeting and jump seat recovering. I found out this week about the price of getting items recovered. I dropped two jump seat cushions off the be recovered and I was quoted $400 for getting them done. Ouch! Is this a reasonable cost or should I start shopping around for another shop?
 
Well, guess I spoke too soon with the mechanical issues being over with-got a nice surprise this weekend when I went to change the oil for the first time. Pulled the engine cover off looking forward to using the new vacuum oil changer I purchased and when I looked into the bilge, there was a nice red pool of fluid in the bottom staring back at me. As soon as I saw the fluid I knew what it was- the power steering pump. After investigating, I found that a seal for one of the bolts that attach the pump unit to the reservoir was leaking. I pulled the pump, flipped it over and when I removed the bolt where the leak was, out came half the seal. (The bolt I removed is for one of the pump mount brackets that attach the pump to the eng) Of course its 8 PM on a Sunday night, so all the parts stores are closed. Monday morning, its off the O'Reilly's for a power steering pump O ring/seal kit. $13 later, a few new seals and with a new mess to clean up on my workbench from all the fluid that I didn't get out of the reservoir and with the fluid in the bilge, we should be back in business. Good news is I managed to finish the oil change...
 
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