Finally took her out!!! But it didn't end well
 

Well finally I got to take the old girl out today for a test ride. Just took a little cruise up the river and stopped and let the kids poke the jellies. Had my dad launch his boat and go with us just in case something broke...which we will get to that.

My mom snapped some pics for me. Pulled out of her marina and she pulled along side us and took a few.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...psjrwchwsw.jpg

The green definitely looks good on the water. It's really grown on me.

Then I told her I wanted on of us going. Unfortunately their 20' Hurricane deck boat with a 150 Johnson couldn't keep up so this is the best she got.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...psuqeppty3.jpg

So guys I got a question. Is it normal for these boats to have those 2 huge tails coming off the stern? I messed with the trim on the motor and it never changed it. I've never had a boat that did it that bad. Anyways this biotch looks awesome cruising on plane. Definitely a head turner.

Of course we had to take a family selfie.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...psa5pxbsbx.jpg

Notice the swag I slapped on the E-Box. Perks of having my own vinyl plotter as long as I don't let myself get carried away with it.

So now for the bad news. When I bought this boat the guy warned me the engine was bad. He told me that it was just rebuilt and didn't even have 1 tank of fuel ran through it. I found the water pump to be bad and he unhooked the alarm which kills 3 cylinders apparently because when we hooked that back up it fired right up. There was low comp. on one cylinder 125 on 5 and 100 on 1. I pulled the head off back then and the walls were perectly honed except the low cylinder. It had some mild scarring. I decided F-it I'm gonna run it and see what happens.

About 2 miles of running 4000rpm I started hearing a faint knock about once every second. If I slowed the motor so did the knock. Decided to head back and when I got into the harbor I backed off the throttle and the motor made a horrible knocking sound for a few seconds and died. When I tried to start it the motor turned over a few turns then seemed to be trying to seize. It would stop the starter dead in its tracks and the starter would just buzz. It started back up and I pulled up to the dock and shut it off. I got the boat tied up and the kiddos in the truck and went back and hit the key and nothing. The starter engages and hums but the motor won't turn over.

I was in a rush so I left it in a slip (my mom runs the marina so I get hooked up with the empty slip numbers) and went to watch fireworks. Figured on my way home I'd stop to check on her. Put the key it and hit it and bam, fired right up. However it sounds horrible. Something is definitely banging around inside the motor. Guess tomorrow morn I'll pop the plug out and do a comp check on the existing low cylinder and see if it's changed. I got a feeling that piston is just whacking all around in there.

All well, looks like a repower may be in order. I really don't want to spend the money but I feel a Zuk DF-140 or maybe a Merc. 150 4-stroke may be in order. I feel the 200hp is unnecessary for me at this point. According to my GPS, with this knocking POS motor I was cruising at 49@4500. That's plenty fast for me.

I love the way the boat rode. When we got to the mouth of the river we had a maybe 1' chop and it rode like glass. Some d-bag cut across my bow and I hit his 2-3' wake at about 30mph and it sliced right through it. I gotta feeling I'm gonna love this thing. Looks like the fiberglass guy will have plenty of time to get the top fixed up for me now though. Looks like I'll be bumming mom and dads boat for the rest of the summer.

Great pics. Your boat looks awesome. That green machine is eye catching. Very sorry on the engine. :( If/when I repower I've already made up my mind that a 150HP 4 stroker will probably be the way I go. I love my Merc 200, and as long as she lasts she'll stay on the boat, but there's a lot to be said for the fuel sipping 4 strokers. Like $$$$ saved in fuel costs and reliability.

Yea there is so many benefits to a 4 stroke. Most importantly fuel consumption and reliability. Also I love the quietness and lack of odor that you get from a 50:1 premix motor idling. Gonna try and get some bills knocked out and free up some money then a trip to my local Merc dealer may be in order.

The boat looks awesome. i don't know what to say about those rooster tails. Mine doesn't kick up anything. My guess would be that the tabs were mounted too high and water slipping over the front of them is kicking up. (???)

Good luck.

Haven't put tabs on it yet. Only 1 transducer on the starboard side. Both sides are identical. Doesn't appear to be coming off the motor but hard to tell for sure.

Take a straight edge and put it along the bottom of your boat running fore and aft. Check that there is no gap from the transom to a few feet forward. I'm wondering if you might have a little cupping in your hull. (Cupping is caused by too short a trailer not supporting the stern properly so over time the hull actually bends down a little because of the weight of the engine). I highly doubt it, but since you don't have any tabs, and only one transducer on one side it's about the only thing I can think of. :head:

I'll take a look at that soon as I can. I know for the past 15 years it was kept in a boatel and I'm sure they knew how to support the hull. But then again who knows and there's still 22 years before that something could of happened also. I actually dropped it off today to the fiberglass guy to finish the top off so I'll talk to him about it too. He will know what to look for.

What amazes me is the speed I read about from assorted posters......

If I read correctly, you recorded 49 mph at only 4,500 rpm with a less than perfect 200 hp outboard.

That suggests to me that full out / approx another 1,000 rpm you'd be around 55-60 mph.

Impressive.

That's according to a late 90's/early 00's GPS. But I did pull away from my dad like he was sitting still and his hurricane will do 38 or so. Not sure what prop I have yet. Never bothered to look.

I don't doubt that a 200 would push a V20 to 50 mph. My uncles V20 cuddy with an old 225 Yamaha is scary fast. Granted i didn't check the speed with a gps but it's way faster than my 22 footer.

Lean condition making more HP which melted a piston?
Maybe the tach is off?

Not doubting.......... I have a fine running Evinrude Etec 200 HO on my 96' V21, and it pushes to just over 49 with 3/4 tank......50 light on fuel. But that's at 5,600 rpm, tabs up, motor fully trimmed out on dead flat rippled water. Motor is said to produce 218 hp at the prop.
Some V guys reporting considerably faster which is amazing.

Again this is all off of a 15 year old GPS that was already in the boat. Not sure how accurate it is. Once I get her rebuilt or repowered I will get a more accurate reading.

Do you have a good Merc guy? Luckily I have a great one who loves older Mercs. He is in Gloucester down by Farm Fresh, off 17 a bit(I can give you his name and number). My 2.4 200 had low comp on 1 cylinder when I bought it. I didn't run it, took it directly to him to rebuild. Around $1500 later she was done and has been running her *** off for what 6 years now(7 maybe, I cant remember). This past Sat (best day of the soggy weekend) I was loaded with 3 kids, me, wife, cooler and 3/4 tank fuel turning 6000K on the way in the creek (racing a new-ish 24 Regulator) I got him, but just as I grabbed the throttle to bring her down....spun the prop. No biggie, just glad it happened where it did after I shook the rope at him!

Long story short, these old Vs love those old lightweight 2 stroke Mercs, maybe worth a rebuild?

my 200hp merc will turn 48-4900 rpms with a 19pitch prop the fastest i have seen on the gps is 43. With my normal load of people and gear i get 38-39.

mines also a 81 so its not making 200 at the prop, boat also has bottom paint

Yea my guy loves the old Mercs too. Talked to him yesterday and he said it'd be $1300-1500 assuming the cylinder doesn't need sleeved. Said if that's the case it'd be cheaper to find another block. Me and the wifey been talking it over and between this boat and my Striper I'm just about over dumping thousands in old motors. Really thinking about getting a new 150 Merc. I live 1/8 mile down the road from Swords Marine, he's our Merc dealer, so it'd be nice to have that for any future work needed.

Gonna pull the head off again and see how bad the carnage is and we may go from there. My guy is extremely busy and has a newborn so I don't know when he'd get around to rebuild it if we went that route so I may get that guys contact info from you.

10-4, just let me know. Swords does great work also I hear

That is not the range your motor should be in at WOT. 5200 to 5800 rpm is what I have been told all my life.

The OLD V200 2.4 L Merc would turn 6100 as they didn't have limiters back when.

Motors never run stronger than right before they pop.
Lean run 2 strokes run real well. Ever notices what happens when a chainsaw starts to run outta fuel.. She definitely picks up some rpm right before she dies.
The piston got hot due to predetonation caused by a lean run condition. That is why she wouldn't turn over hot, the piston was all swelled up and melting. Once cooled down, that piston will often shrink and the starter can turn the crank again. The melting piston leaves deposits of aluminum on the cylinder walls which then gets cleaned off by the piston rings. Stick a ring and well, game over. I still love 2-strokes but the technology is helping to make the 4-strokes lighter all the time. Fuel infection and all, I am coming around to the technology because it works..it ain't cheap, says Captain Obvious..
Best of luck 3 Squids. Been there and done that with Johnrude and a Merc or three...

[QUOTE=jamesbalog;228171]my 200hp merc will turn 48-4900 rpms with a 19pitch prop the fastest i have seen on the gps is 43. With my normal load of people and gear i get 38-39.

mines also a 81 so its not making 200 at the prop, boat also has bottom paint[/QUOTE

Yours likely too much prop...........you need 5,500 rpm and will likely get 45-48 mph while the motor will work less hard too.

I agree with Ridge and BGreen. Light boat, just me I turn 6300 WOT, she likes it, I don't keep it there long. At 6300 I am around 53-55 mph. I load her down and she still turns around 6K WOT. You should see better top end. Try some different props

squid, i was in the same boat(pun intended) 2 years ago. i fought the lure of 4stroke until my 20 year old merc oil injection had a hiccup. it;s a different beast, lotta pluses and a few minuses. the way i justify it, old 2 stroke burns around 11 gph, 4S around 7, ive put 240 hours on mine, so i've burned 1680 gallons vs 2640. thats a savings of 960 gallons @ $3.00. so about $1500 a year in fuel savings. it will pay for itself in 8 years.

this is the logic i have used on myself and it works so far.

if you want to offset the cost a little, i'll take some of those decals

ill give some different props a try.

I dont get to run wide open very often here but id like to see what she can do

Thanks for all the input guys. Guess it all depends on what I find when I pull the head. Of course it looks like I'll be pulling 16 hour days all this week so may have to hold off til the weekend. If I can get it rebuilt for say under 2K I may just do that for now and save up for a 4 stroker in the future. I hate having to finance anything, especially boat related and I don't exactly have $12G laying around to spend on a motor. An old man told me once only kinda of boat you can love is one that's paid for. I've taken his advice for 15 years and even though I've had downed boats at least they weren't down and I was paying on it.

Draglink, are you taking about Mr. Belvin? Also are you running your oil injection? Mine was bypassed and I mixed the fuel 50:1. I really hate having to do that but my Merc friend said its the way to go. He also wonders if that's why it leaned out. He said whenever he bypasses injection he's had to jet up the carbs. This was indeed a freshly rebuilt motor so I wonder if they didn't do that. I also plan on pulling the carbs and taking them to him to see if he thinks that may be the culprit. Just wondering if anyone else has heard that.

Hahaha hey DragLink apparently you know my Merc guy. Troy told me he knows you. He was telling me over the weekend he had a buddy with a V-20 that'll run its *** off come to find out he was talking about your rig. That's funny.

Troy as in TEE-ROY Richardson? Hell yeah, we call him Poppie these days(Charleston, SC strip club nick-name LOL!). We just hung out this past Sunday. Love me some Tee Roy!

Yes, my guy is Bernard Belvin....awesome guy as well. I premix, always have, hasn't been as issue for me.

Yea I grew up with TEE-ROY. He said Bernard taught him everything he knows about Mercurys. He said he y'all talked about my boat Sunday but he never put 2 and 2 together. I said well how many lime green V-20's in Mathews are there to talk about?? Haha. He's a goof. I popped the head off today and he's gonna run by and see if he thinks it needs sleeved. If not he agrees Bernard is the way to go. Said I'll never have to mess with it again.

EXACTLY! He called me this morning when he realized we were talking on here. The only things I have had to mess with after my rebuild are normal stuff like trim motor, stator....I think I had a switch box go out. Between BB and TeeRoy, they will fix you up. BB wont just spend your money, he will give good, honest advice before he does anything.

I need to work on the details of the decal as for some reason my program isn't vectorizing it correctly. It's kind of choppy and skewed but I didn't really have time to mess with it. Only reason I made it was we were about to pull out of the driveway with it when my dad pointed out I didn't have any registration decals on it. That would of been a quick stop by the marine police. I had a little wasted space on the vinyl so I snuck it in there.

I'll play with it some and get some to ya. If anyone else wants some just let me know size and color and I'll see what I can do. I pretty much keep the main color wheel colors on hand. Just so happens I have lime green and purple too...total coincidence. Depending on size probably looking at $5-$10 max shipped. I don't charge near as much as the vinyl shops. Pretty much just material and shipping.

Deal, thanks