Adventures in deferred maintenance...

[duckhunter]

Last summer my wife and I decided to get back into family boating. We have an awesome little 13 Whaler, but it is obviously limited in capacity and capability for a lot of the things we want to do. I tried hard to talk Mama into a 22 Classic, but it just wasn’t very practical for toting around my 8 year-old daughter and her friends and we started looking at other options. While driving around after lunch one day my wife said that she saw a Donzi bowrider on the boat lot that we just passed. I thought she was mistaken, but did a U-turn anyway and headed back. Sure enough, it was a 21LXR that had been consigned to the local ski boat dealer in our small town in northern Alabama. We spent an hour or so checking out the boat, which was in amazing condition, and I made an appointment to come back for a sea trial. Ended up buying it and running it on the TN River last season and it has been a great fit for our family, and I love the fact that it’s a Donzi.

This winter I have been tackling a lot of major and minor issues that just seem to materialize even on well-maintained boats. Last night I started digging in under the hatch to get ready for the upcoming season (and the Gorge run in June!). If I hadn’t Conan’d the risers and broken two of the bolts I could probably have gotten another season or two out of the exhaust, but it is pretty crusty even though this is a low-hour fresh water boat. So I’m thinking my best option at this point is to cut my losses and throw some new manifolds and risers on there.

I’m leaning towards GLM aluminum replacements to lose some weight in the stern and because I don’t feel like inducing a hernia trying to line up new cast iron manifolds while contorted in the engine compartment. Does anyone have any feedback on these things? Dennis Moore has small block GLM complete kits for $650 on his site, which is the best price I have found. Any other vendors or alternatives out there before I drop the hammer?

So bottom line I’m whining a little about unplanned boat expenses and looking for some input on the exhaust. Thanks!

duckhunter

[zelatore]

Seems like you're taking the practical approach with the new exhaust. Certainly cheaper to put it on now than to try to milk a couple more seasons out of the old stuff and have a failure.

No problems that I've seen with the GLM aluminum stuff. There's plenty of alternatives from stock replacement to crazy expensive, but you're not going to find extra power in the exhaust alone so I can't see a benefit in spending more money unless you're planning to build a sleeper out of your bowrider.

And yes, it never hurts to loose a few pounds (on the boat!) and the aluminum parts are sooo much easier to install.

[olredalert]

----GLM stuff is pretty good and Dennis is (in my experience) very easy and good to deal with!.......Bill S

[BUIZILLA]

this week I ordered my GLM manifolds from Dennis for the Flying Couch, if your getting risers he needs to know if it's for 3" or 4" hose, I didn't need the risers... one thing to remember on the GLM's is to tap every threaded hole, and take a flat file and sweep the gasket surfaces since the paint texture can be inconsistent, I think it's a great product for the price...

[duckhunter]

BUIZILLA

"this week I ordered my GLM manifolds from Dennis for the Flying Couch, if your getting risers he needs to know if it's for 3" or 4" hose, I didn't need the risers... one thing to remember on the GLM's is to tap every threaded hole, and take a flat file and sweep the gasket surfaces since the paint texture can be inconsistent, I think it's a great product for the price..."

That deckboat is pretty sweet and it is kind of cool to have a non-standard Donzi. I have gotten a lot of thumbs up with the LXR because it is something you don't see very often. Not a "Flying Couch," but maybe the "Flying Recliner."

Current exhaust is standard Merc 4" and I have a Corsa captain's call diverter setup (the loud button). As tight as the diverters are to the transom it would be fairly difficult to adapt any of the cool (and expensive) aftermarket stainless risers. At my hp level I don't think it would make a difference anyway.

Good advice on chasing threads and checking mating surfaces with a file, I will do that for sure. Thanks.

[BUIZILLA]

if you add a 4 bbl intake and a 650 marine carb it will put out about 290-300 hp, and you'll need a 21" prop, we have about 5-6 new and used Turbo props when you need that item... where you run WFO mph wise now will become your fast cruise speed after the carb and intake upgrade...

[duckhunter]

Guys,

Thanks for the input. I really hoped that the stock exhaust would live to fight another day, but with two broken bolts and a good bit of corrosion it just isn’t worth it. Unfortunately this will put a big dent in my boat slush fund.

Speaking of the depleted slush fund, I have a brand spanking new SEI 116 drive sitting on the workbench. The original Alpha had a lot of gear whine even after the dealer replaced the gimbal bearing. I pulled the top cover and the gears were good but the bearing and race were corroded and there was an alarming amount of bearing material on the drain plug. After comparing the cost for a rebuild I went with the new drive for warranty and peace of mind.


The motor is a 1998 350 Mercruiser 250hp; 2 barrel, Vortec heads, and roller cam. From what I can tell in the Merc manual it is the exact same specs as the 350 Mag that year other than the EFI. I was planning to put on a dual-plane high rise aluminum intake and 600cfm 4 barrel because it seems like it is starving for air on the top end. I think another 25hp would really wake it up and make a noticeable difference on this small stepped hull. Also need to re-prop (have a 19P Merc Vengeance on there) but that can wait until I throw some horsepower at this thing and have a good baseline. Unfortunately the fun stuff will have to wait until I take care of all of the “gotta have” stuff.

At the end of the day I just want a fun, reliable boat. This thing would be a sleeper for sure with a 383, but I am going to run what I’ve got until it needs a rebuild. Don’t want to even contemplate what a pain it will be to extract the motor from under the hatch…

duckhunter