Finally got the Superboat out....

[ndaniels]

I took it to St. Mary's lake for a shake down run... motor ran great, idles like a pussycat and has great docking manners. I noticed on the way out the steering felt pretty loose, but not ever driving an i/o I wasn't sure how it was supposed to feel... I got it up on plane and holy shiz it was loose! I knew I should have taken loose the external cyl and checked the gimble out . I putted around and got to the swim area dropped anchor and enjoyed the sprinkles with a couple of cold ones. It started really raining so we went back in. Got home and checked it out... you guessed it- top clamp was waaayyy loose. I did some reading on it and torqued it to 53ft.lbs and it actually tightened up and looks good now. I know that some damage is probably done to the upper mount, but it looks good now, so I'm going to go run it again today to see. There is a guy that does repairs to gimble rings by cleveland I found: www.jrmarine.com . When I need to get it repaired, he'll probably get my business (I have heard nothing but good things about him).

Other than that everything else worked great!

Well, I'm off to the lake to check it out... hope everyone is having a good weekend!

 

[ross]

hope it works out for ya! keep us posted

 

[justincase]

x2

 

[ndaniels]

Still tightning the upper clamp some- brought along the torque wrench. I stopped and re-torqued it about 4 times during the day. The last time I didn't really gain much, so I'm hoping that everything is setling in, I dunno...by the end of the day it was getting much better. I saw 71.9 on the gps, not really trying and the steering was feeling like it needed re-torqued (this boat will chine hard with loose steering!) If it takes a new transom assembly I might consider some other options... I'll run it some more to see if things get settled in....

 

[ndaniels]

After repairing the gimbal ring a while ago, I finally had a chance to really lean on it some last weekend. Just me and the gf, full load of fuel (60gals), and all my gear. 25p mirage plus, 2ft chop, 77.7 on gps.

I got the wrong prop on it though- rpms were low, or the tach is off- only showing around 5200, I think. I was watching the boat more than the tach, though. The slip numbers don't calculate right and I didn't bring along my mount, so I couldn't see speed and rpm at the same time. I have a 26p bravo and a standard 27p mirage. I bought the 27p to get labbed- probably get worked down to a 25p (the previous owner said that he got the best speed with a worked 25p mirage) This thing drives sweet, kinda like driving a large version of the CM- it flies the bow nice.

 

[ross]

 

[ndaniels]

This thing is def not as luxiourous as a Checkmate, but I kinda like it!

 

[ndaniels]

more

 

[ndaniels]

and

 

[ross]

give us some specs on it
i love this thing what mota? year? length? ect....
77 top speed?

 

[ndaniels]

Its a 96, 24ft, light layup Superboat with a genVI 454Mag that was built up some by Boyd motorworks in upstate newyork. Dynoed 499.8hp at 5700rpm and 502ft.lb. of torque at 4700 and 4800 rpm, according to the sheet. Motor built 6/15/01. The bottom end is stock- it was just inspected when it was apart. Alot of headwork was done on the stock heads. It uses a demon 825 carb, victor jr. intake, and imco exhaust, msd ign. The last owner had it for 4 years and never did anything to the motor other than oil changes every 20hrs (thats funny, it doesn't have an hour meter).
Everything looks really good and I pulled a couple of plugs, because he never changed them, no signs of wear, so back in they went for now. I don't think that it was run hard the last few years because the steering was so loose- I mean it was waayy bad. I'll change plugs and do a compression test soon.

The boats dry weight is 3260lbs, I figure it weighs apx 3750 with fuel and gear. Supposedly the top speed it ran was 84.6gps by the owner that built the motor... he a really good guy, we talked quite a bit on the phone before I went to look at the boat. He now owns a 30ft Superboat with a whippled 496 in it. It had 3 different owners after he sold it.

 

[ross]

wow thats clean

 

[175checkmate]

Great looking boat and an engine compartment you can eat out of.

 

[sim]

Shweeet!

 

[smallblockford]

the repair are you talking about the tiller to the gimbal ring used a steal spined square head. they make a kit to fix it and ther will be to pipe plugs on the side of the gimbal ring..

you might want to put hydraulic stearing on it to save from doing that fix again.

I used an imco setup on mine.. works good easy to install and a lot safer

 

[ndaniels]

Yeah I fixed using Ron Bender's method (www.jrmarine.com) saved a ton of money and, imo better than the merc method. There is a thread about it here: http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15308 . The gimbal was cracked and tiller arm worn- waaayy scary, check out the photos.

I have hyd add on steering on it, not full hyd. I have some parts to do a full hyd conversion, minus the helm (parts came with boat). I'd def do it if I add more power in the future...

 

[justincase]

Nice boat !

 

[dfarina]

I haven't figured out why, but I really want a 24/7 hull. That Superboat looks great, especially with the swim platform.

 

[Big Red]

Sounds like it runs good,, pics also look good