Thread: The project

As long as the carb is mounted about level, or at the prearranged angle (often involving a tapered base plate), it doesn't matter if it faces the water pump or flywheel. In fact I have an old Chevy intake that has the 4 barrel mounted at about 35 degree angle to the centerline of the engine. The idea with this was to get the secondary bores aligned with the runner centerlines for better fuel distribution, in upper RPM ranges. It truly sucked in the low RPM ranges.

The wiring loom has been run through the boat and has now been checked out and everything works as it should. The only thing that it was suggested that. I have now done is to put a battery isolation switch in between the battery and the starter solenoid from where the whole power supply for the instruments and starter circuit is connected.

i have also put an in line fuse in the feed to the starter switch battery feed and another in the circuit for the bilge pump.

Today I mounted the skipole although I am not entirely happy with the fit after the hole saw so I will make a collar to fit around it.

Tomorrow I will lift the rocker covers and lube up the valve gear and tip some oil down the push rods to lube up the cam and lifters prior to filling the sump. I still have to find a dip stick with the sealing cap fitted. The previous owner just wrapped some insulation tape around the dipstick to seal it in the tube. A bit agricultural.

Some progress has been made on the boat over the last week but the weather is now very hot. Too hot for work on a hobby outside. Yesterday was 39 at 3pm and by 4:30pm it was close to 41. I decided to clean the swimming pool from in the pool. That achieved 2 things, clean pool and cooling off.at the same time.

i have worked out a throttle arrangement that I am happy with and that seems to work satisfactorily. It may need some fine tuning once the boat is running and on the water.. I used a morse cable with some self designed and made brackets for mounting on the inlet manifold. I purchased a proper mount for the pedal end of the cable and made an extended lever for the pedal which had to be mounted on a pedestal rather thn cutting another slot in the floorboard and mounting the cable under the floor which could a problem if it needs adjustment out in the water.
i have filled the oil filter, well put some oil in it. The way that the old school canister mounts means that filling it will mean that there is likely to be some being spilt into the bilge.
I might investigate an adaptor for a remote oil filter that can be mounted such that spills are pretty well eliminated.

tomorrow looks like a cooler day max 23 so I'm thinking of taking the boat down to a relatively local ramp and launching it.

this will be rather momentous as it will be the first time I had the boat in the water and probably the first time in about 10 years that it has been wet.
im excited about it. It will only be a floatations test to see if it does!
i know that it is likely to leak and am prepared for this. Today I'm going to put some water in the boat to start the swelling process in the hope that it will take up a bit before we hit the ramp.

The float test today has been put off until next weekend for a number of reasons.
I decided to put some water in the boat yesterday. After doing that there was a veritable rain storm under the boat. I put about 4"/100mm of water in to see how watertight it really was.

Well, it's not! I was not surprised that the was some leakage after all this boat has been out of the water for quite a long time.
I have a piece of the original windscreen with a NSW Waterways registration sticker showing that it was last registered in February 1993. So that means it is 21 years since it was last registered and probably over 22 years since it was last wet. No wonder it won't hold water.

After about 2 hours some of the leaks up near the bow have started to slow. After 3 hours these had almost stopped. The is one area that leaking a lot 3/4 the length of the boat on the port side. I haven't checked this morning as to how it's taken up. I may have to tighten a couple of nails and roves in that area. The worst that may have to happen is that I may have to replace a couple of nails and roves.

I am now planning to get the boat started this week so that when I do launch it we will be able to go for a slow cruise to see how it goes.
there are still a few things to do before starting.
Remove the distributor and prime the oil system, replace the distributor, remove the plugs put a squirt of oil in the bores and then turn it over on the starter and see how easily it turns over, mount the battery. Then put the spark plugs back in, prime the carby, connect up to a fuel supply and hit the starter switch.
After it fires and runs successfully. It will then be time to mount the fuel tank.

It will then be filled with water again to continue the wetting out process.

Wish me luck.

The oil priming didn't happen as I did not have the correct tool, so instead I removed the spark plugs and cranked it over on the starter for about 1 minute then it started to spin a bit more freely. I replaced the plugs. Made up a rudimentary fuel system filled the fuel bowl, checked that the pump jets were squirting. Gave it about 6 pumps and hit the starter. It tried to start and backfired. I had a fire extinguisher handy in case something untoward happened. I checked the plug leads and I had a couple on the wrong spark plugs.

Second try with the leads on the right plugs, a bit more fuel and some choke and VROOM. After at least 5 years it roared into life. Because I didn't have it connected to a hose to keep it cool I only ran it for a total of just over a minute in two sessions. I will now have to make a flushing system so that I can run it for longer.
I now have to mount the fuel tank hook up all the hoses, check for leaks and then we are away.

A test drive next weekend to see what we can break and then I'm almost ready for the Yarrawonga Australia Bash and cruise.

The launch last weekend didn't happen again this time due to the weather. It was just too damned hot. This weekend looks like being better weather of the first outing.
I have been tidying up all the loose ends and making sure that all will be OK. A couple more things to purchase and we are away.

This is the boats first time back in the water for at least 22years. It was last registered in 1993 so it's safe to assume that that was the last time in the water.

The launch went well although we didn't actually go any where except by paddle.

Congratulations looks great and trust you enjoy firing her up

She looks great and can't wait to see some shots of her zooming along!

Congratulations,well done indeed.

The first outing of the boat at the CAWPBA wettogether on the Australia Day long weekend at Yarrawonga. For those that don't know there is a quite large man made lake there, Lake Mulwala. This us fed by the Murray River and the Ovens River.

The cruise up the Ovens meant going out into the lake to follow a channel marked out between all the trees that are still standing. We went past a little town called Bundalong and then for about another 40 minutes up the Ovens River. We met up with a group of about a dozen older style classic fibreglass boats. So in the little lagoon off the Ovens were 12 wooden and about the same number of 'glass boats.
A riverside BBQ and then back to the motel on the banks of the lake.
the boat ran really well for its first outing. There are a number of things that need to be fixed or changed. All up it ran for about 3 hours over the weekend.

I was really happy with the way it turned out. I'll try and put a video up when I get it