Official 330 Sundancer Thread

Yep, I replaced all the OE Raymarine stuff with Simrad. I made a trim ring to cover the larger opening out of Corian material that I had left over from the cockpit table I made the year before. Worked out great.

Molson said:
Awesome! Did yours have the old Raytheon radar in it? I'll have to remove it first, I hope the existing hole isn't terrible to cover over. I may use starboard for that.
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wellswa said:
Yep, I replaced all the OE Raymarine stuff with Simrad. I made a trim ring to cover the larger opening out of Corian material that I had left over from the cockpit table I made the year before. Worked out great.
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Would you happen to have a picture?
 
I too replaced my aging plotter with a Simrad NSS8. While an older version it is great to have both buttons and touch screen. Also the Navico charts are nice. I like that I can also use the CMap cards as well. Overall I am very pleased with the unit, performance, and price. I do not have the broadband radar installed as the boat never had radar and after 8 seasons with out it i did not see a need to add it immediately.

Enjoy I had to enlarge my opening so did not have to create a cover. I believe that FP might have a cover plate to match the dash for that area... You might want to look there. I got a panel to cover the lower area when I replaced my VHF radio this season and took out the old GPS and radio. Replaced it with an ICOM.
 
Molson said:
Thanks Tom! I'll check FP.
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Here you go:
http://www.searay-parts.com/Sea-ray-dash-instrument-panel-p/fp-panel-1sf-330radar.htm
FP-Panel-1sf-330radar-2.jpg
 
Larry did you ever get those tpo2212df trim tabs? Did they bolt on with no mods? Effective improvement?

larrytbull said:
it is actually a replacement tab,
not a bolt on extension
going with the whole new tabs setup from bennett
part # tpo2212df which is 22 x 12 with down fins, tab only will bolt right on to actuaters and hinge no modification or drilling needed
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Hello everyone. Does a 99 330 have a 30 degree transducer? Trying to figure out which is the correct one to buy. I will be using raymarine.


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Was curious if anyone with a 92 sundancer generation could share some pics of where and how they may have mounted a flat screen tv on their boat? Thanks
 
Hey Everyone, I'm starting to look at 330's. This would be my 4th Sea Ray... I went from a 210 to a 240 to currently a 2008 280 with twin 4.3's. There is always weird things with the models/good/bad years for the boat. I'm starting to look at 2011 + Anything I should know? For example i know with my 280 in 08 they changed the light fixtures to stainless steel... Thanks!
 
Cranked up to leave the dock on Saturday evening and starboard engine seemed to be stuck in neutral. Upon investigation, the prop shaft is spinning inside the coupling. My mechanic says he can fix it by pulling the boat out of the water, removing the coupling and replacing the key that should be inside the coupling. Sounds straight forward but I don't get the impression he has done this before. I attached a pic showing the prop shaft going thru the coupling. I'm a fairly new owner. Any words of wisdom?
 

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So, I thought it was time tell the story of the 330 we bought and all of the work that has gone into it since.

In August of 2014 we decided we wanted to go bigger. We were able to sell the 268 within a week without any problems and the search was on. We looked at a lot of boats including some non-Sea Rays and finally decided that the 330 was the right fit for us. I will have to say that there are people out there that just really don’t give a crap about their boats. The majority of the boats that we looked at were just downright gross; smelly, dirty, and broken. When we first started looking we said we were going to find a “wash and wax” boat; meaning there would no fixing or repairing needed. Well, we soon found out that was not going to work for us. We ended up finding a 1999 at Skipper Bud’s in Port Clinton that had a lot of needs(see list below) and negotiated the price down to about half of what they were asking. This whole process took a little over a month. While we were in process of buying the boat we happened across a 1 year old LoadMaster trailer that would fit a 330; this has already paid for itself being able to move the boat in and out of the building while working on it.

1. The port engine had bad compression on 1 of the cylinders. I did some troubleshooting and compression test. Heads had to come off to investigate further. Found that a valve had broken at some point and scored the cylinder pretty bad. I pulled the engine and did a complete rebuild. While rebuilding I blasted and resurfaced the manifolds, risers and elbows of both engines.
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2. The starboard emblem on the arch had water coming out from behind it and when I pulled the emblem off a big chunk of paint came off. I found other bubbles and corrosion. I pulled the arch, sandblasted it then sent it off for fairing, prime and paint. Got it back on the boat and the color wasn’t even close so back off it came and back to be repainted. 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] time it was a lot closer. While the arch was off I discovered that the arch had been leaking and running down to the gunwales and has rotted some of the wood. I dug out the rotted wood and repaired.
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3. The deck above the anchor locker was soft. I don’t remember what the moisture meter read, but it was high. It seemed to stop right where the cabin started. We went back and forth on how to tackle this. Our first thought was to peel it from the top, but we didn’t like the idea of the gel coat never quite matching. So, I went from the anchor locker. I did all of the work from the anchor locker hatch, from under bow pulpit and the little bulkhead access panel forward of the v-berth. I cut the skin from underneath. This took a long time and was an absolute pain; I do not recommend this for the timid. I used marine grade plywood and West System epoxy. Now that it is finished I am glad I went the way I did.

4. A previous owner had struck bottom with the port running gear. Someone replaced the underwater exhaust, prop, strut, rudder, and shaft. The underwater exhaust, strut and rudder were leaking at the bolts(the workmanship here was horrible). So, while the engine was out I pulled everything. Pulled both props, shafts, and the port rudder and strut. Sent the props to Holland Propeller to be scanned and reworked. While everything thing was out I lapped the couplers and props to the shafts. The port strut was not low enough so the shaft did not line up with the shaft log and I ended up having to recast the strut mount with epoxy to get everything lined up. Also, I installed crossover cooling on the Strong seals. Adding the crossover cooling was quite easy; I drilled and tapped a hole in each housing and installed new barbs and added the hose.
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5. Moved the generator battery to the engine room just forward of the generator. Also installed a battery switch for the generator battery.

6. Installed battery boxes for all batteries.

7. The frame around the fridge was rusty and the paint was flaking off. Pulled the fridge and sandblasted the frame and repainted. Replaced the blower for the galley and head exhaust while the fridge was out.

8. The VacuFlush pump ran about everything 5 minutes. I pulled out the pump and vacuum tank. Checked everything and it all looked good. Reassembled and still the same.

9. The swim platform core was rotten where the ladder bolts on. I cut the skin from the bottom, replaced the coring and used West System epoxy to put everything back together.

10. While the port engine was out I was painting the engine room. I pulled one of the engine mounts and found the outboard stringer full of water. I drilled about 50 holes in the stringer and ran a vacuum pump and pumped dried compressed air into it for about 2 weeks. That dried it up. Poured West System into the holes and then plugged them. Since I found the stringer full of water I had to find out where it was coming from. I pulled the trim tabs to make sure they were sealed. I found all of the gel coat under them was crazed/cracked. It just flaked off. No idea what this was from. Actually, all of the gel coat under any metal that was below the water line was like this. It all had to be ground out and then replaced.

There were a few other things that I during this whole process such as replacing all navigation lights with LED, replaced the lights in the cockpit lockers with LED, replaced the VHF antenna, replaced the old chart plotter with a Raymarine A98, etc.
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Anyway, this whole project took me from October 2014 to August of 2015. We finally splashed on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. It took a long time, but I think it was worth it. We had only been out in the boat 1 time and that was during the sea trial. We are really looking forward to this summer. I will have a new list this spring of everything I did this winter.

I know I don’t post much on here, but I read every day absorbing a lot of information and I really appreciate everyone that contributes. Before going I need to thank a few specific people on here:

MasterFab – I read through your blog a bunch of times while working on the boat. I hope you don’t mind, but I copied some of the custom tools you made. The cutlass bearing puller was a great idea and I actually made a couple of other pieces to go on the threaded rod to use as a cam bearing installer when rebuilding the engine. I also used the same piece of threaded rod as a slide hammer to pull the prop shafts.
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Fwebster – Your engine alignment tips really helped out and put my mind it easy that I was doing it correctly. Creekwood – Thanks for the shipping print.

Well, sorry that was so long. I really should have been documenting all of this while I was doing it. I know everyone is going to ask for pictures; I did take a few and will put them up when I get to it.

Thank you to everyone that posts such great information.

This was pulling it out after only 1 month in the water.
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Wow! Sounds like you've earned some well deserved down time on the water! I hope your projects are all done now!
As far as the vacuflush goes, it sounds like one of two most likely problems. Duckbills, or the ball seal in the bottom of the bowl. If your toilet is retaining the water, I'd check the duckbills. As they get old & "used" the opening tends to morph from a tight slit to more of an oval shape making it more difficult to maintain a tight seal against the vacuum. The rubber also tends to lose elasticity as well. Good luck & enjoy your time on the water thus summer!


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Todd
 
Todd,
This year I took everything apart again. I replaced the duck bills, bellows, bowl/ball seal, flush ball, and flush ball shaft.
While I had the vacuum tank apart I was looking at the switch and found that the small socket head bolt that holds the seal plate against the diaphragm was loose. I tightened this up and put everything back together. I bench tested the vacuum generator and it held 11" HG for over 24hrs. I was happy with that so I put it back in the boat.

Well, back in the boat I am still having a problem. The pump comes on about every 15 minutes. I have listened for leaks and tried the shaving cream trick. Water stays in the bowl. Still no luck on finding the leak. I am going to take the toilet apart again and test the vacuum at the hose and then the toilet base.

I will be glad when I get this figured out.
 
JohnGordon said:
Well, back in the boat I am still having a problem. The pump comes on about every 15 minutes. I have listened for leaks and tried the shaving cream trick. Water stays in the bowl. Still no luck on finding the leak. I am going to take the toilet apart again and test the vacuum at the hose and then the toilet base.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

I will be glad when I get this figured out.
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Don't want to distract / hi-jack, but what's the shaving cream trick? I had to clean the seal / opening and ball valve a couple times last year to keep water in the bowl. Just reading and learning. Thanks.
 
I had issues with mine. Same thing, about every 20-30 minutes. Replaced the duckbills, new bowl seals, new bellows, checked everything. If your bowl is holding the water, then the problem is not there. The one thing I did not check is where the problem was. The floor flange seal. I would check that. I replaced mine and now the only time the pump runs to build vacuum is if I had the head breaker off for about a week or so and after each flush. And it runs for the normal 20-30 seconds.
 
JohnGordon said:
Todd,
This year I took everything apart again. I replaced the duck bills, bellows, bowl/ball seal, flush ball, and flush ball shaft.
While I had the vacuum tank apart I was looking at the switch and found that the small socket head bolt that holds the seal plate against the diaphragm was loose. I tightened this up and put everything back together. I bench tested the vacuum generator and it held 11" HG for over 24hrs. I was happy with that so I put it back in the boat.

Well, back in the boat I am still having a problem. The pump comes on about every 15 minutes. I have listened for leaks and tried the shaving cream trick. Water stays in the bowl. Still no luck on finding the leak. I am going to take the toilet apart again and test the vacuum at the hose and then the toilet base.

I will be glad when I get this figured out.
Click to expand...

Well, it definitely sounds like you've narrowed it down to somewhere after the ball valve in the bowl & before the vacuum generator. That leaves the floor flange as stated above, the hose & the hose connection points. Is there anything else between these two points?


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Todd
 
The HG should be 9-9.5 -10 would would be considered too high-a new vacuum switch might be in order
 
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