81 V-20 CC ..... The Free Boat story
 

Hey folks.... I've been looking at this welly cc on craigslist for weeks and telling everyone I could about it but nobody was biting....The fellow was selling his trailer and giving away the boat. Well I'd held off as long as I could and I couldn't stand it any more so I sent off an email... A few days later I borrowed a trailer from a friend and brought her home. He had replaced the stringers and the deck 5 years ago (did an excellent job btw) and discovered that his engine was toast.... He brought it from ME to IN and it has a faint outline of FL numbers on it so it's traveled a bit.

She is missing lots of hardware, the tackle center, back panel of the console, and the bilge access panel along and a few other odds n ends. She has no wiring or instruments whatsoever when but does have the cc and a windshield along with all the hatches...

In the same week I found an 80's 16' viking with MAJOR rot on a trailer with a 75 merc 115 tower o power and a CMC tilt n trim unit... Bought the whole rig for $70!

Had not run in many years and the spark plugs were out for years! YIKES... engine wasn't seized tho so I sprayed some penetrating oil in the cylinders and put the old crusty plugs in. I cranked it over for a minute (15 seconds at a time) and pulled the plugs to do a compression test... ranged from 135-156... not stellar but fair and I suspect that it'll even out and improve a bit with some run time..... So a few hours later I had her running on the old nasty gas that came in it! Shut it down replaced the impeller and mixed up a gallon of fresh gas.... I've run it on the hose for close to an hour now and she fires right up and purrs like a kitten. Someone butchered the transom clamp brackets on the engine tho so I need to find some good ones to swap in later... I now have the CMC and the engine hanging on the V20 and have the cables rigged but I need to find top mount controls.... gave a real nice set away a year ago... dangit

Sooo with fuel figured in I now have about $200 in it and will be selling the trailer from the viking soon.... Anything over $200 puts me at a negative cost!

I'm not expecting any speed records with the 115 but I think she'll do well enough for use here on the ohio river


I have a couple gazillion posts on iboats.com with the same username but the fellow who gave me the cc told me about this site so here I am.... gobs of good info here btw
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From your description of getting that Merc started...when I die, I'm gonna come see you cuz you can RESTART ANYTHING!!...yer new CC looks pretty good!!...keep us posted on how she do and thanks for the pictures...:clap:

Fantastic find I'd say....boat looks pretty darn good sitting on the trailer from what I can see. I recognize your screen name from Iboats......I think you do have something like a gazillion posts. Welcome to the madness. Cant wait to see some more pics

cool boat by the way.Im not an outboard mechanic but if your lower compression on a cylinder is 135 psi and the top end compression is 156 psi then your not with in 10% so thats not good for the motor.

nope not ideal but it's not uncommon for an engine that has set for an extended period to get better with some run time..... I haven't rechecked yet but it has gone from missing and shaking to running very smooth so I suspect that it's already improved.... I just made a deal with a guy for another 115 tonight... a 79 power trim model so I now have more options.... guess I'll be selling the CMC after all.

BTW thanks for the welcome guys

Great find there Smoke. Love the old tower of power Mercs. Boat looks great. Where you gonna be boating on the Ohio River. I generally take a couple runs in the fall season between Lawrenceburg, IN and Cincinnati, OH or Madison, IN area.

thanks... I'm about 12 miles up river from louisville ky... I haven't traveled more than 12 mi up or down river because my other boat EATS gas.... will be nice to be able to sight see a little

You are not gonna have any money in that rig at all. LOL Making the rest of us look like we been duped something fierce. Nice score indeed. Your boat looks real nice. I have a few miscellaneous items in the shed. Deck plates, battery trays, maybe a gauge or two. I think the handrail will fit after seeing the pictures. Bust Out Another Ten. instead of Thousand. That is refreshing, Way to go. I'm thinking twin towers o power...

awesome, thanks..... yeah I'm poor but stubborn and creative so I just keep plugging along till it's done lol

my last project took two years of scrounging craigslist to complete but this one looks to be coming together much faster...

twin 115's are tempting as heck but I'd probably need to find another parts motor for that so I'll stick with a single for now and see how it works out. I keep reading on here that these hulls really don't want to go fast anyhow. although I DID read the 12 page "hitting 60" thread... nice!
then there's my big reason for picking this one up.... Fuel economy..... I HOPING that this single 115 will perform decently and do much better on fuel than the 1mpg I'm used too.

Well I just noticed a signature pic that looked familiar... I knew the p/o was on here but didn't know his screen name..... it's "Slightly_Twisted"

Welcome to the boards Smoke.........

What most of these guys wont tell ya is that chicks dig CC over the V:hide:

Ive been deeper in my CC than a proctologist lookin for a polyp, let us know if we can help........

Hey SMOTW,

Welcome to the site. Already enjoying your posts....

rkc

Welcome great find.
Hate to burst your bubble but the old merc tower of power is a thirsty anamil.I have a 1977 merc 150.but IMO you woun't find a more reliable engin

thanks guys I picked up the other 115 today... it has no spark and I haven't tracked down why yet although the p/o said it needs a distributor because the trigger is bad. the power tilt does work tho and the engine wiring is in perfect shape. It also has a water temp sender added and a fitting for water pressure. Bought it for $50 :D
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no laughing at my bobcat!:you:

Once ya splash her, name her "Stole It"...cuz you DID!!...LOL!!...:clap:

I think I like where that is headed.....maybe some other form of that..... rip off, snatched, piracy, plundered.................. HMMM

Well it certainly seems you have the sources for incredibly cheap boats and motors.....the rest should be easy.

crap crap crap..... I got distracted wrenching and FORGOT this! I sprinted to the house and fired up the computer.... tried like heck to make a bid in the 14 seconds I had before it ended but just couldn't get it done.... missed it by about 10 seconds :cen:

well the new engine has been torn down... turned out that to swap power tt for manual correctly the best method is to just pull the lower unit and powerhead. I now have the new midsection hanging on the boat and a couple new holes drilled... will have to remove to glass the old holes and seal the top edge of the transom but I'll get the engine back together first..

BTW the new engine which also hasn't run in years has been compression tested and ranged (with a low battery) from 128-135 psi so it should be a fine spare powerhead.
It also had new never fired plugs in it.... oh yeah I AM that cheap lol

IMO you dodged a bullet...my old saying goes; If it ain't under warranty, PRE-MIX the oil...I've seen too many auto-oilers fail for too many different reasons...all lead to perfectly good power heads becoming TOAST!!...

Check out auctionsniper.com....

rkc

Looks like you are doing well with the "free" boat, but I can tell the temptation is growing to spend some cash.

Looking good Smoke. Welcome to the Cult. I love finding deals. After a while people will just start bringing ya stuff. I had to talk my neighbor into keeping his Chris Craft Scorpion (basicly the same hull design and setup as a V20 Cuddy) until I could free up some space. If you were closer and had joined a few months ago I had an old 115 Merc I would have traded to ya for a 12 pack of Busch Light.

Well I have the engine back together and have mounted the new engine harness that came on the second engine... looked like it was brand new
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see anything wrong with the old one?

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got her fired up again and ran a gallon or so through her at idle getting smoother all the time... I might have mixed in a bit too much oil though

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looks like that harness was cobbled together once before.Why they didn't even use original wire colors. A job like that is never a perminet fix.

The thing I love about the Merc 1150 TOP engines are they are so skinny that you can mount two of them side by side in almost the same space that you would use for a 200 JohnnyRude or Yammy...plus since the tilt pump and reservoir are inside the boat there's even less clutter on the outside of the transom. I actually have one sitting in my yard from a boat that I scrapped...much like yours it sat forever.. took a little coaxing at first to get her fired up, but just got better and better from there. Pretty sure I have a new set of hydraulic hoses for it also.. Plus controls... Some day I'll find a sweet little Whaler or a 17 Wellcraft CC to mount her on. :head:

sooooooo how bout some ideas folks... What should I put in two holes in the interior of the bow....6.5" square and 6" deep possible

P/O said there were speakers there and I guess I COULD cut out the holes bigger for 6x9's but there are already cutouts for 6x9" in the console and that's more than enough for me.

I spose I could glass em over too... A sink of some sort would be nice but I don't know of anything that would fit. Brainstorm time :D
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Here's a shot of the trim pump.... it was a MAJOR pain... after getting it mounted I had to lay on my back with my head under the splashwell and hook up the 4 hydraulic lines completely by feel with my shoulder in a bind and my hand going numb..... UGH
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Thats a idea, a pair of inlines on the back of a V, that would look cool. BTW, check with CDI, they have new wire harnesses for older engines

Pair, Inlines, Yes..

SSI makes some nice inset pieces for drink holders and such. Maybe not such a good spot for drink holders. 8" Pioneers are good speakers.

If the picture of the harness is the new one, you win the sarchasm award for the week.

Yeah I actually found a site last night with some cool stuff..... I'll look at ssi too..... nah that's the old harness... the new one had an inspection sticker from 1998 but I suspect that it was NOS just installed very recently when they were trying to diagnose the no spark condition

Well today I've done a bunch of grinding..... I now have the top of the transom closed up and waterproof. ...... I need to figure out something to cap it with at some point to make it look nice but at least it's not gonna rot now. I also patched the old engine mount holes..... she'll almost float now!
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still need a couple more coats of filled epoxy and some sanding....

had to build a lil tent.... temps were falling and second coat wasn't set up... put a 500w halogen under the tarp
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AHH the joys of working on your boat.

Inspires me to post up Mr Speckle-Face again!!..now where'd I put that picture?...hmmm...

Today I took her to the carwash for a little bath.... then to the river. I backed it in and ran the engine for a while and then said heck with it and backed it off the trailer... immediately I remembered that the thruhull for the front fishbox was broken and zipped back on the trailer lol DUH.... I dug around and came up with a suitable repair and then backed her off again... I headed up river and gave here full juice.... I was trimmed too high and she just blew a hole in the water. I backed off and found the wires to trim down a bit.... put the screws to her again and she JUMPED right up in plane.... That lil 1150 is a heck of a motor... Plus it sounded so nice, almost don't even need a radio.

I didn't have any speed measuring device w me and I only opened her up for 30 seconds or so, thus I don't have any numbers for ya but I at least know that this combo is worth working on:sun:

All told she was off the trailer about 5 minutes but that's all I needed to feel REALLY good about this project.... Oh and I did get to bust a decent sized wake at speed.... got the little thump thump I was hoping for instead of getting slammed.... great riding hull.

Now to park her and get to work on other stuff for a while. I am definitely hooked tho...

Thanks, The second engine had a new one on it already so I'm set there.... unless I DO get silly and go to twins one day :D

It's a good feeling to have an unknown motor run that well and push you across the water like that!!...glad to hear she runnin' that good...now your task is to get everything you need installed and ready to fish...and consider weight on everything you do...try to keep as much weight down as you can...it'll help the 115 keep the zip...:clap:

Who needs a radio when you have the sweet sound of a tower of power :clap: