Side Projects - Two Hundred Dolla Holla

I bought a boat!

I've been working on a blog post about the house for a few months now. Not that it takes that long to write these. But it takes that long to find the motivation to do the work that creates the material for these things. Here's a quick project that has happened in the mean time. 

Continuing trend of buying cheap stuff.

I have an affinity for cheap vehicles. Cars, trucks, boats, ATVs, rolled over, smashed up, missing parts, I don't really care. It's just gotta be cheap. And occasionally these things are nice vehicles that need some love. Occasionally these are junk that should have been hauled to scrap. But this one...my goodness. This ones out of my league good. 

I don't know much about boats. I built that Jon boat that I wrote a post about a while back, but that hardly counts. This one is a real boat. I classify a real boat as one that has six to eight cylinders in a V pattern somewhere under a cover, with a steering wheel that fits nicely under a section of gauges, and a load of switches that do...well, boat things. 

Luckily, some of these real boats have what the rest of the world knows as a small block Chevrolet engine. They're a beautiful piece of craftsmanship that's been around for sixty years. You can still buy them brand new. Now these "marine motors" go for three-four times what a regular SBC goes for, but it's really just some gaskets and accessories that are different from their more available car and truck brothers and sister. 

Now that you and I know the same about boats and motors...

This boat is a 2001 Bayliner Capri 1950. It came with a 305 vortec engine and a 2bbl rochester carb. This setup didn't make it into too many vehicles(well, none really. they were all EFI) but that's alright because you can mix and match nearly all these small block parts together and get a running motor. 

Hidden under all these parts is a small block 305

The previous owner of this beautiful unit forgot maybe the only important part of boats. Winterizing. Honestly I don't even know the right way to winterize a boat. But I do know you have to make sure there isn't a bunch of water in the engine block before you let it sit in the cold. 

Here's the damage from not winterizing your boat:

Now I don't expect you to understand exactly what that means. But I think we can all agree that you shouldn't have holes in the side of your motor. 

And here's how you go about fixing that. 

Start by removing all the covers and upholstery that keeps the motor separated from your boating activities. 

 You should end up with something like this. A completely intact assembly with room to access all the stuff. 

And then you take it all apart. This happened really fast. I'm about 4 hours into the project at this point. 

I've worked on quite a bit of junk. This one happened to not be junk. That really helps with disassembly. I didn't find myself waylaying anything with a hammer or using that dreaded two wrench method to get extra leverage. 

The work was methodical and flowed like an instruction manual. The parts all made sense and there wasn't any of that crazy new engineering where you have to take off extra parts just to get that last bolt. 

I used a normal engine hoist but had to take two goes at it to reach deep enough down into the boat and then rechain to get high enough to clear the side of the boat. A proper shop with an overhead winch would have solved this. 

Out with the old, in with the new.

I searched and searched for a mercruiser 305 from 1996-2002. Not because any other small block wouldn't do, but because I wanted to do this the right way. Keep the boat in all of it's stock glory to avoid any unnecessary troubles on the water. 

I settled on a freshly rebuilt mercruiser 305 engine with stock GM 350 vortec heads and a small, but slightly aggressive camshaft. I wasn't initially excited about the wrong heads and a not-factory camshaft. But I also sourced a set of factory heads and I have the stock camshaft if I need to fix that later.  

Here's the new motor set in place with most of the front end accessories.

I cleaned up the engine compartment a little with a toilet brush and some dollar general brand cleaner. Removed the new motor's intake and distributor. Swapped over the oil pressure switch, oil drain plug, water drain valves, and water pump.

Removing the new motors intake was necessary for two reasons: it's the wrong one and I need the extra clearance to get the engine hoist close enough to clear the boat and my garage ceiling. 

A slightly better view of the ample work space and accessibility. 

 I added the intake and some more parts. 

And here it is with all of the electrical put back and those absurdly heavy manifolds bolted back on. 

Starting a new engine.

I'm not well knowledged in building engines. Or houses. Or really anything for that matter. But we have the internet and you really just need some comprehension skills after you realize that. 

I googled torque specs. I referenced the 5000 photos I took before teardown. I double checked that I did indeed remember how to set initial timing with a distributor. I looked for extra bolts and places that might need them. I made a list and checked it twice. This is the part you need to be thorough about. 

I added oil and turned the key. It cranked! And then it cranked more. And again. But no start. I took a break, decided to check the simple stuff. First thing to check: am I getting spark. I'm not. No power to the coil. Rack my brain for a minute and then...it hit me. I had the run switch set to OFF. 

Hit the key again, fired right up. Starts. Runs. Idles. 

 Making it look easy.

Generally these blogs make things seem easier than they are. But not this one. It was a sincere joy to work on. It really was as simple as it looked. I have a total of three days into this project. Maybe 20 hours total. And the best part: the boat was only $200. And the motor was less than $1000. To make it better, the unused intake from the new motor sold on ebay for $450 in less than 24 hours. 

Knee deep in vehicles.

I'm back on that full driveway game. I said I wouldn't do it. But here I am. The ford was free, and it runs great. The car was $500 and it's seen 30k miles since I got it. The truck was cheap and I needed it. The trailer doesn't need defending, that thing gets a lot of use. The old S10 was my first truck so I bought it back and I'll make a whole post about that. There's a wheeler in there somewhere too, and that things in need of some love but never really complains. And now the boat. Livin the small town dreams here.

The end isn't near.

The house is looking nearly complete on the inside. The house looks the same as always on the outside. I nearly have the mudroom complete(there is backsplash and crown molding and under cabinet lighting as you'd expect), the bedroom has been repainted and the bathroom remains untouched. The next house post is a bit of a milestone but we're still years away from the finished dream of porches and patios and vanities with lights in them. That's all I have for now!