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.
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.
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.
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.