geo737
Member
- Jun 5, 2012
- 150
- Boat Info
- 1979 sea ray 195 I/O, White over blue. no electronics as of yet. Pulled behind 2004 Ford Expedition
- Engines
- 228 Mercruiser - 5.0 Chevrolet engine w/Alpha Outdrive
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.
Last edited: