86 Exciter Resto

[SippyRat]

WOW very nice Ram

 

[john lamon]

Mint!!! boat looks awesome

 

[Rob B]

Those seats from wildman match perfect with the color combo!! Your boat turned out really well!!

 

[EricK]

Alright, lets try this again.

She is running and ready to go. Tomorrow I will splash her and take a test ride

When I first ran the engine, I had slightly high water pressure, so I called the engine builder. He said it should be ok so go ahead and do a water test and take it easy to see if it clears up. (that was Friday night) Saturday morning I got a call from him saying after thinking about it, he would rather me check a few things. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it I had the whole engine apart again looking for some kind of blockage. Long story short, I dismantled and rebuilt the engine three times before finding the problem. Dismantled, rebuilt and test ran (I mean power head off, lower unit off, mid section off, adapter and exhaust plates out) three times since yesterday. Each time I was looking for something different but found nothing. Turns out it was a faulty poppet valve. I found this out on a hunch and by reaching up under the power head and trying to move it by hand. It was locked in place, so I swapped it out with an extra I had and presto! Perfect water pressure

Frustrated I went through all of the work I did, but glad it is fixed and a simple one at that. I will post pics from the water test tomorrow

Here is a cell phone pic from today.

First off, boat looks GREAT! What a nice job all the way through and it paid off with the end product for sure!

I was wondering about your water pressure numbers, what were they and what did you have before?

My motor has always had 'higher' water pressure numbers then most other's report, and when I put a new water pump in it this spring, its now a few lbs higher then it was last year across the board. Seems to cool just fine, has good tell tale, etc. Reason I ask, is because we have virtually the same motor...

 

[Ramifications]

Those seats from wildman match perfect with the color combo!! Your boat turned out really well!!

Thanks for the compliment

I only put the side bolsters on as a temporary thing until my new interior is done. My upholstery guy is making new to match the front seats. We sat down and found the exact same fabric from the two Checkmate seats I hope it will be done for the Chesapeake bash, but is unlikely.

First off, boat looks GREAT! What a nice job all the way through and it paid off with the end product for sure!

I was wondering about your water pressure numbers, what were they and what did you have before?

My motor has always had 'higher' water pressure numbers then most other's report, and when I put a new water pump in it this spring, its now a few lbs higher then it was last year across the board. Seems to cool just fine, has good tell tale, etc. Reason I ask, is because we have virtually the same motor...

Thanks!

At idle it was around 10-12psi and would go 25-30psi when reved up. Now it is around 7-8psi at idle and 12-15psi while running.

The tell tale usually doesn't have much flow until the T-stats open. If you have too high of water pressure, it will push through the T-stats before they open, giving you a strong tell tale. Most of your water runs through the poppet valve and out through the exhaust.

If you would like more info, shoot me a PM.

 

[ezstriper]

great job !!!! awsome...

 

[BADBK]

Turned out GREAT! Love the colors and metalflake!!!!!!!!


Time for a new wheel tho

 

[Ramifications]

The last few items are on their way to me. Two new control cables (since one broke I'm going to replace both of them) New control, two brushed cup holders for the dash, new seal kit for the trim (looses a little when it has a load on it IE driving) After this, I will only be waiting on my upholstery guy to get the back seat and side pads done. I will install Hydro steering later this year or over the winter.

I will be out this Saturday and Sunday, so provided nothing goes wrong, I will have some water pics and hopefully some action shots

 

[Gimme Fuel]

looks great Ram! Love the seats!

 

[Jetmate]

Beautiful

Great looking package, Ram. Paint, new seats, gauges, floor, all turned out super nice. You can be proud of that 'Mate and all the work you put into it!

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[Ramifications]

Here are a couple water pics. the rest of them can be viewed in the other thread. Thanks Sim for the photography!

http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?p=567323#post567323

 

[Ramifications]

So... I noticed some stress cracks in the splashwell area after this past weekend. They were not there after the first trip out, but this was a much longer day and I pushed the boat a little hard trying to beat the rain storm. They are not where I thought they may develope, but nevertheless they did appear. They are in the splashwell along the back of the boat and the second step level.

Here is a pic of the area


Did I make a mistake by not installing some 1708 on the backside? I installed solid blocking between the area of the splashwell where there engine bolts up, but not on the upper area where the cracks are appearing. Should I have installed some kind of filler/blocking in that area as well?

This winter I'm going to cut the back of the splashwell out, and glass it straight to the transom. This will do away with the problem of having the small buffer space between the transom/hull and the top deck/splashwell to contend with.

On a better note, I picked up my new bimini top yesterday. Thanks JLN

 

[Rob B]

You gotta picture of what it looks like now?

 

[Ramifications]

This pic is looking straight down into the splash well. Sorry, crappy cell phone pic. The deeper center area where the engine mount bolts are has solid material behind it. I didn't do anything in the area where the splash well steps up because I didn't think it needed it. This is where the cracks are developing. I knew I should have bit the bullet and gone lipless on the splash well. Oh well, at least I know what I'm doing this winter

Similar cracks on both sides. thoughts?

 

[Rob B]

Must be flexing pretty good for the cracks to surface like that. The only thought is that you reinforced the corners only to have flexing in a different area. I would watch it over the summer then go lipless during the winter.

 

[Ramifications]

Must be flexing pretty good for the cracks to surface like that. The only thought is that you reinforced the corners only to have flexing in a different area. I would watch it over the summer then go lipless during the winter.

My thoughts exactly... nothing I can do about it now, it already cracked. It's not like the engine is going to fall off, but it does look terrible

Oh well, I will just have to fix it this winter. I'm going to crawl around under there and see if I can figure out a way to prevent further cracking

 

[Ramifications]

Was out again today and finished up with the break-in on the engine. I need to get in more seat time to get good (comfortable) with driving through the chine walk, but I did drive through it one time and she was flying! She spun the 23p right up to 6900-7000 rpms! I wish I had a GPS on board to confirm the speed, but I'm going to say 65-70 mph.

I also installed the new Checkmate decals before splashing her today! I will post up pics this week. Thanks Ezstriper

 

[KearneyClunker]

How far up are you running the motor? My 25" Trophy is running 2.5 under the pad and the chine walk is much better... still there but better. Want to try a Tempest or Fury to get the bow up.

 

[Ramifications]

I'm not sure exactly on the height since it is a hydraulic JP, but it should have been somewhere around 2-2.5" when I ran it up. I can go from 1" below to 6" below the pad. I currently have a 23p prop on , but I'm going to try my 25p Tempest plus again. I was having some issues getting up on plane with that prop, but I have since removed the plugs in the prop and plugged some of the exhaust relief holes. I hope to get out one evening this week and see how it works. If it doesn't, I will will be looking for a 24p Tempest.

What engine do you have and what kind of numbers do you see?

 

[atc250r]

How high were you running the prop when trying to plane? Running it higher will make it plane faster and easier.