decisons with an old donk! what are your thoughts!

[Casey Ison]

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o245/casey398/IMG_20140103_094856_447_zpsa21d996e.jpg (http://s122.photobucket.com/user/casey398/media/IMG_20140103_094856_447_zpsa21d996e.jpg.html)

well above is a pic of my pride and joy. I restored this cruise craft reef ranger from trailer to hardtop 2 years ago.
The old donk was going great until recently. I was coming home from a day off DI and an over heating temp alarm went off. Went down to tin can today and spent a few hours with the mechanic checking things. Results were not as good as I had hoped. took thermostats out they made no difference, pulled leg off and inspected inpella, was still in good working order. He assumes it will be something to do with water jackets etc. Cost roughly $250 dollars for gaskets and new inpella while the leg is still off. The big question is I have already spent quiet a bit on this donk but not sure when to stop spending. I am currently wanting to sell the boat and upgrade in a couple of years time as I work away anyway. As it sits the motor runs fine except for the alarm. What do you think the boat is worth??

Cheers for any input.

[Chimo]

Whats the motor Casey?

I had a similar issue with one side of one of my V4 115 Evinrudes and you wont believe how easy (and cheap) it was to fix once I worked out the problem.

Cheers
Chimo

[Manaroa]

It does not sound good but perhaps running the motor for 1/2 hour in a strong vinegar solution might open up some of those areas in the waterjacket. Get onto the Hull truth to see others that rescued motors doing this

[Scalem]

To me, if it was anything like my cars, I buy them new or as close to new as possible and keep them for a looonnggg time, way past when people would have bailed out and traded in on a newer car. There was a time everything failed within a short time frame, clutch, fuel pump, radiator ( top tank seal), alternator, timing chain .... but its not cost me anything for many years, just did my 2nd timing chain at 430,000 kms.. But marine is different. If i had the same approach to my boat, I would feel unsettled every time I went out knowing the donk was getting old unless your mechanic found the problem and can vouch for its mechanical soundness. You can't really get out and push and to grab a tow from VMR is either expensive or start thinking about membership if you are not already a member. It was unsettling with my old boat, I bought new and can relax knowing I am very likely to get home.

Scalem

[airlock]

the old ones are pretty simple, but it wont be worth a lot more all fixed up then it would be if it was a bit broke tbh. Ive just bought an old CC myself and i wasnt prepared to pay any extra for the outboard due to its age so if it were me i would keep it as is so long as its not going to be a fatal problem. but then again most boat buyers are probably more reasonable then me. i guess u need to know the problem and see if its something you can happily run with, got to be happy to puddle about in it untill you sell it after all.

[Fed]

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?196234-outboard-fuel-economy-gone-bad
So what happened here Casey?

[Noelm]

It would probably help a bit if we knew the brand, HP and year model.

[Casey Ison]

cheers for all the replies.

CHIMO - the motor is a 150 evinrude XP. Ears open let me know what your thoughts are mate!

MANAROA - to easy mate I will give that a try once I have bolted the leg back together.

SCALEM - Yeah mate I couldn't agree more about the old motors just don't have 20 k for a new one at the moment. cheers!

AIRLOCK - yeah mate I know exactly what you mean about the old donks and don't add anything to a boat price when buying, a fair statement!

FED - yeah mate, the mechanic basically came back to exactly what you said about the water deflectors. after checking all of the obvious things.

NOELM - yeah mate 150 evinrude XP

[Chimo]

Casey

Not sure of the yr but for eg a '91 is '91 Evinrude 150 XP (VE150SLEIE)

Take the thermostats out and stick the same finger in the hole ie into the thermostat housing. You will feel a rubber circle into which the thermostat fits / slides. The thermostat is held against the dimple on the rubber surface by the spring contained inside and under the thermostat cover plate.

If the rubber circles are not the exact same size ie one is smaller the thermostat is held too tightly and the second stage cooling ie when the thermostat is pushed back and more water flows past the outside of the thermostat body does not happen and guess what the the engine gets hot on that side and the motor goes into slow mode.

The expensive fix is to replace the rubbers after puling the heads off and then reassemble

My cheap fix (done perhaps 10 years ago) on my still running great motors was as follows.
Remove thermostats, fit a suitably sized cone shaped stone on the end of my power drill and enlarge the small rubber circle so the diameter is the same as the others. Change finger and select correct sized one as your measure! After your happy with your holes sizes take a small triangular file and score groves into the rubber to replicate the dimples that exist on the others. This is because you cannot make dimples but you need to have a way for the water to flow past the thermostat when the greater cooling flow is required.
The icing on the cake is achieved by shortening the spring that holds the thermostat against the rubber. One method is to cut the spring but that's too extreme for me so I use the thin stainless steel that you get in the centre of windscreen wiper blade rubbers and use this as wire to crimp 2 coils of spring together which shortens the spring so the thermostat can move more easily to cool the motor.

I also got racing water inlet scoops to fit on the leg so as well as the impeller pumping I get a boosted flow which is probably overkill. It works fine in Qld but not sure if it would be so good in Tas as the motors might never heat up?

Anyhoo, pull the thermostat covers off and stick your correct finger in, after you remove the thermostats, and see if this could be your issue.

Cheers
Chimo

[Casey Ison]

Cheers CHIMO. I fly out Monday morn so I wont have a chance this RNR. but when im home next I will have a look at what you have said! However the mechanic did take the thermostats out of the motor and we took it for a run and the alarm still went off? Correct me if Im wrong but in doin this would that not rule the thermostats out?

Thanks again for your advice I will definitely be checking all of that when I pull the motor down if I end up doin so!

[Fed]

Did you do the water diverters yet?

[Scalem]

SCALEM - Yeah mate I couldn't agree more about the old motors just don't have 20 k for a new one at the moment. cheers!



I guess the other part of what I was trying to say is that you might know what you have and spent money maintaining it, and if this is the 1st issue you have had, keep your 20K for something else! Hopefully something simple....

Scalem

[Chimo]

Maybe? Check the hole sizes anyway. If it not then guess you pull the thing down and check the guts.

C
C

[stevej]

a few hundred to try and get it working again
or $16,000 for a replacement

you have to decide when you don't trust its reliability anymore

[Casey Ison]

FED - yeah mate I am about to go down that path was just checking the other few basics first mate. I will let you know how I go when I finish pulling it down and clean them all out!

CHIMO - yeah mate I will definitely do your check and see how it all lines up. appreciate your input 100 %. cheers mate.

SCALEM - yeah mate I guess ill spend the couple of hundred and get it going again. the motor has had all electronics replaced so basically the only thing left is the head gaskets. and it still has plenty of compression. will get me by for a bit longer anyway. Cheers for the input mate!

STEVEJ - yeah im going to have a crack and see how it goes.


Well cheers for all the input everyone. back to WA for another swing then ill start pulling her down!

Casey.