Back At The Cobalt

Problems aside ..what a gorgeous boat. Those seats are beautiful. Really, really nice work. I hope you get the 'quirks' ironed out soon.
 
Thanks All....

While I was at Lake Guntersville a couple weeks ago for Hydrofest I met a guy also from the New Orleans area that used to race hydros in the 280 class. He gave me the name of a shop in our area that is the Gulf Coast Service Center for Sea Star Hydraulic Steering. I went to see them last week and they confirmed my thoughts that the assist actuator is bad. I have ordered a new one and it should be here today. Unfortunately that part is buried behind the stern seat and a fuel tank with about 180 pounds of fuel in it. It will take me 30 minutes to change the actuator and 4 hours to remove and replace all the crap in the way. I'll report back when fixed.
 
Nice work all around. You have made yourselvvan awesome boat . I would love to take on my helm with new gauges. Switch panels in aluminium or wood and something lighter in colour for the vinyl which is burgundy now on our 89 268Da . Any insight you can share would be appreciated .

Dave
 
Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Being an anal retentive dickhead I'll never be completely happy with it but I'm pretty close and all of your comments mean a lot.

The new steering assist actuator showed up late Tuesday so I thought I'd see how far I could get without moving the fuel tank. A friend came over Tuesday morning and helped me remove the seat. There really isn't anything too difficult in swapping these parts out. There's the 2 hydraulic lines (very messy), the keeper for the steering cable nut, the steering cable nut, the nut and bolt for the outdrive steering arm as well as the same for the cable end to the actuator ram and the 2 threaded hinge pins....one on the top and one on the bottom. So I just started taking things apart to see how far I could get. Thirty minutes later I have the whole thing in my hand.

I get the new (used) actuator and lo and behold, 30 minutes later it's back in. I started the priming sequence which consists of turning the wheel lock to lock slowly pausing for a few seconds and the end of travel each way, first with the engine not running, top off the fluid then repeat the priming process with the motor running. Before I could get to the engine running part the sky opened up and it's been raining buckets. Even though I have it in a nice carport rain still blows in. So here I sit waiting for the weather co-operate. Looks like it might be clearing....
 
I keep saying it, but nice work - I am a Cobalt fan - I can almost see a road trip to LA to see her and get a boat ride!
 
Bill, you come to the Big Easy for a few days and we will show you around and take you for a boat ride or two. October for the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival is always a blast. And thank you....
Shawn
 
Well…. finally got the boat in the water this past Saturday morning. The plan was to test the steering repair and test out a new SST prop. So, boat off the trailer, head out on to Lake Pontchatrain, get up on plane and the boat is no longer listing to port and the steering issue is much better. I think I may need to bleed the system one more time.

Like the new prop, WOT RPMs are close to where they should be BUT, the engine was sounding funny like it was only running on 7 so turned around and headed back in and when I pulled back the throttle to idle it was running really rough like a plug wire was off or something (I checked. Nothing seems amiss, visually). I could also smell raw fuel so I knew all the fuel is not all being burned. There is a miss somewhere. Put it back on the trailer and came home.

I took the boat yesterday to Pier 21 Marine in Kenner, LA. They found the miss. They started it and like I told them it was only running on 7 cylinders. Further testing showed 0 compression in cylinder #4. Valve cover off and the discovery was a bent pushrod and a stuck exhaust valve. Really weird cuz 3 years and 3 engine hours ago I had the heads done at a machine shop in California before I moved here. The valve appears to be stuck in the guide. There is literally about 3.2 hours on the motor in that time. When I got the boat I gutted it and first focused on all the running gear before putting the rest of the boat back together.

So out comes the double helm seat, the engine cover, intake and exhaust manifold and the closed cooling system so the head can come off. Then to a machine shop the see WTF and maybe determine a cause, check the other valves then put it all back together. They have one week and I'm leaving for 8 days of vacation and they'll be stuck with it until I return.

It's an hour drive across the lake to the shop but I think I'll head over there in the morning. I really trust these guys. They're all boat racers and hydroplane guys and we sort of bonded. The owner, Billy Allen called me no less than 4 times today with updates and that was appreciated. I also want to take a look at the exhaust manifolds. They are IMCO PowerFlow Aluminum manifolds and 12 years old but really low hours and I want to scope the one that is off for corrosion. We'll see what the machine shop says about this head and determine what to do with the other. Any hint of an issue with other valves, springs guides or whatever, the other head is coming off too.

This sucks....I see summer slipping away and all I've done is work on it. I need a drink, or 2...
 
Yesterday I took my borescope with me and went to the boat shop to look at the exhaust manifold that is currently off the motor. I then realized what a dummy I am as I remembered that the aluminum manifolds are fully cooled by the closed cooling system and have never had raw water in them. The raw water from the heat exchanger is introduced into the exhaust at the elbows which are stainless. Everything was clean with no corrosion visible. Just saved myself $1500.
 
Another update. We heard back from the machine shop. All of the exhaust valve guides are too tight and the guides on the intake valves are too loose. Pulling the other head Monday and they are both getting new guides and seals.

I had this done 3 years ago, at what I thought was a reputable machine shop, in California. Really glade I found out about it now and having it done by what I hope is a more reputable shop. Does anyone take pride in their work anymore?
 
So I get a call today from the shop that has been working on my heads. He starts the conversation with, "Well, I have good news and bad news." Not usually the way I want to start a conversation with my doctor or the guy working on my boat.

The good news was the motor is back together and they were ready to start it. The bad news was, when they tried to start the motor the starter would "chunk" out....his term. So they checked and found about an inch of teeth missing from the ring gear on the flywheel and upon further inspection found more teeth cracked and ready to come off. Now the motor has to come out.

How does this stuff happen. Three years ago A machine shop in California had all of this apart....heads, coupler, etc. How could they have missed the wrong size valve guides and cracked teeth in the ring gear. I thought all of my running gear was ready to go and here I am at the beginning of August with the boat in the shop....still. As much as I think it's kinda cool having a 383 Stroker motor in this boat I swear I would trade it straight up for a stock 260 HP Mercruiser.

Thanks for letting me vent.
Shawn
 
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