Hi All, Lord what have I gotten into

[RockinRick]

Never owned a boat, did just finish rebuilding motor and complete restore of a bayliner bass striker with a force 50 for a friend. While testing on the ohio river in Louisville I caught the bug. And went out and bought a 1985 Sea Ray Cuddy cruiser with a mercruiser 350, I think. guy said if you put gas in carb it would run a bit and die. I have no idea batterys are shot, so Im probally looking at a full engine rebuild. Just ordered manual today, buying battery's tomorrow. Group size? 34?

 

[bobeast]

Welcome. May the adventure begin.

As far as batteries are concerned, my standard recommendation is to get the biggest, baddest AGM that will physically fit. Nobody ever said "I've got too much battery capacity". That said, that era boat probably has an old charge system with a dumb charger. I'd look into a modern smart charger for when you are on shore power. It will really extend your battery life.

Pouring gas in the carb and the motor running for a bit is a really good sign. Maybe just a clogged filter and/or a bad fuel pump.

The real challenge in resurrecting an old boat is that you often don't have any reliable maintenance records. In order to get a "baseline", I'd perform all of the maintenance items in your manual, remembering the date and the engine hours on which they were performed. This would include a full tune up, oil change, fuel filters, and impeller replacement at a minimum.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Rick, +1 to what bobeast said above. Get a badass battery and it will last for years. Go with a pipsqueak battery and you'll get to do it again in a year or two.

"guy said if you put gas in carb it would run a bit and die."
Sounds to me like the boat burned up the gas in the carb, ran out of gas and died. But what the heck do I know?

 

[Wylie_Tunes]

Id get the cheapest group-24 wet cell for now. See what all the boat need to be seaworthy. No need to put a fortune in hi-end AGM battery(s), only to find the boats going to be down all season getting overhauled.

 

[RockinRick]

Welcome. May the adventure begin.

As far as batteries are concerned, my standard recommendation is to get the biggest, baddest AGM that will physically fit. Nobody ever said "I've got too much battery capacity". That said, that era boat probably has an old charge system with a dumb charger. I'd look into a modern smart charger for when you are on shore power. It will really extend your battery life.

Pouring gas in the carb and the motor running for a bit is a really good sign. Maybe just a clogged filter and/or a bad fuel pump.

The real challenge in resurrecting an old boat is that you often don't have any reliable maintenance records. In order to get a "baseline", I'd perform all of the maintenance items in your manual, remembering the date and the engine hours on which they were performed. This would include a full tune up, oil change, fuel filters, and impeller replacement at a minimum.

Agree, the manual is on the way. Ive got a lot of water in the engine compartment. Found the bilge switch just floating its little heart out. Its really a large boat to say the least, I guess if I'm going to get into boating go big or go home, I skipped the canon, john boat, and bass boat and went right for the 21 footer with a V8 . Im a pretty fart smellerand even if I had to pull motor ad rebuild I got a hell of a deal for $2300. But I'll bet anything boats are like that hirbo shuttle antique RC helicopter a "friend" gave me. Im about $800 in and haven't even started the thing. I apologize up front if any questions seem stupid, I'm just very inexperienced

 

[RockinRick]

Id get the cheapest group-24 wet cell for now. See what all the boat need to be seaworthy. No need to put a fortune in hi-end AGM battery(s), only to find the boats going to be down all season getting overhauled.

I'll most likely pull a battery from my truck and see whats what,. If I indeed get the symptoms Ive been told I'll just write "1. Fuel supply issue" on my to do list and start checking out the rest of the motor.
Looks like there use to be 3/4 something for walls on each side of the motor. How high up do they go? Made out of? and covered with?

 

[RockinRick]

Welcome. May the adventure begin.

As far as batteries are concerned, my standard recommendation is to get the biggest, baddest AGM that will physically fit. Nobody ever said "I've got too much battery capacity". That said, that era boat probably has an old charge system with a dumb charger. I'd look into a modern smart charger for when you are on shore power. It will really extend your battery life.

Pouring gas in the carb and the motor running for a bit is a really good sign. Maybe just a clogged filter and/or a bad fuel pump.

The real challenge in resurrecting an old boat is that you often don't have any reliable maintenance records. In order to get a "baseline", I'd perform all of the maintenance items in your manual, remembering the date and the engine hours on which they were performed. This would include a full tune up, oil change, fuel filters, and impeller replacement at a minimum.

The charger is some sort of dual 10 amp box, I wouldn't know new from original, but will look into it thanks.

 

[Ididntdoit]

I would make sure the stringers, transom and decks are dry before I even touched the mechanical (or even before I bought it) Its not like a car where you can easily see damage/repair - rotten wood hides under a thin layer of 'glass