496HO to 502

[yeller]

Kind of wasted my time with the Gel/Paint because I ended up covering it up anyways.
I bought 2 4x8 sheets of plastic chrome checkerplate to put in. Of course this required a line bender to form it properly, so it started another project for me. Making a line bender. I stole the heating wire out of my wife's hair dryer. (I do NOT recommend doing this. The wife wasn't very understanding). Anyways, I stretched it out into a piece of aluminum u-channel, built a table for it and connected it to a 120/24v transformer. Transformer is a bit too small, but it was good enough for this application.

[yeller]

So, another little project pops up to waste time. Because I am using -10 lines for my oil, I couldn't find a fitting that would fit my oil cooler. I needed an Inverted Flare to -10. I looked locally and searched the net, but the biggest I could find was a -8.

What I ended up having to do was buy an Inverted Flare fittling and a -10 fitting. I cut them both in half and brazed the (required) two ends together. 2 fittings...made to order.

[yeller]

Just in case anyone is interested, I took a few pics of the Eddiy Young modified fuel rail that came with the engine. Pretty easy mods that anyone can do, but necessary in higher hp applications if you want to use the stock rail. The stock rail feeds fuel in one end and the pressure regulator is at the other end. Because the rail is only feed from one end, the cylinders at the other end can end up starving for fuel, which you know, can lean things out and melt pistons.

Eddie feeds the rail from both ends. The stock regulator is disconnected because an aftermarket regulator is being used. Eddie left it in place, but it was interferring with my temp sensors on the T-stat housing, so I removed it completely, tapped the holes and plugged them.

Because the stock reg isn't used, the feed line and return line of the rail are no longer connected, so Eddie drills a hole in the center of the underside of the rail, through the return rail, into the feed rail, then plugs the bottom of the rail. He also drills the hole feeding the #8 injector larger. (It's either the #8 or #7 injector. Can't picture it my head, which one it is). From the factory, the hole for this injector is much smaller than the rest.

[yeller]

This motor is a V-belt setup, and I hate V-belts, so I wanted to swap over to a serpentine setup. Things worked out easier than I anticipated on this little project. A local altenator rebuilder swapped the altenator pully for only $10 and I purchased a power steering pully from a wrecker for $15. The hardest part was trying to find a spot where I could mount the power steering pump, altenator, and tensioner. (I'm using an electric circulating pump and crank driven raw water pump, so those didn't need to be included). Because of the size of the S/C mounting hardware and intercooler, space was limited. I ended up putting both on the starboard side. I fabbed a template for the mounts out of 3/8 plywood and once everything looked good I cut pieces out of 1/2" aluminum plate. I was too lazy to polish these mounts, so I just painted them black. The piece I was most concerned about trying to fit in was the tensioner. Luckily the stock V-belt tensioner would work and it bolted into the exact spot I needed with only a minor adjustment. All I had to do was cut one side of the mount off, rotate it 180deg and weld it back in place. Bolt hold spacing, and location was perfect.

I don't have pics right now, but will add some later.

[yeller]

Another small project: I didn't have any mounts for the oil cooler, so I needed to make those also.
Used a piece of aluminum angle and pipe. I cut the pipe in half to use as a cradle for the cooler and bolted it to the angle aluminum. I ground the bottom of the cradle piece a bit to allow clearance for a hose clamp.

[Ed Donnelly]

A lot of bling going on there Macgyver
I get tired just reading all that you have done

But it will be so worth it when you are blasting away in the ocean....Ed

[yeller]

Sure hope it will be worth it Ed. It'll be next year now, before I'm boating.


Forgot to mention, I did end up solving my fuel pickup problem. Don't have a pic of it, but it's as simple as enlarging the end of the 3/8 npt fitting to accept 1/2" OD copper tubing for the pickup. (Soldered the tubing to the fitting). RT pointed me in the right direction and Brian Orlandi told me how to do it. Thanks to both for giving me the solution.

[yeller]

As usual, I haven't accomplished much on the boat lately but here are some pics to go with post 79.

First 2 are of the power steering bracket I made. Pretty basic and not very pretty, but it does the job. The studs holding the bracket in place are just temporary. I'll get proper spacers machined and then use SS bolts. The 3rd pic is of the belt tensioner. The bottom bracket of the tensioner is the one I spun 180deg and rewelded. I was amazed it lined right up to existing bolt holes and fit exactly where I needed it. It's pretty rare something works right the first time. The last pic is of the setup with belt.

[yeller]

Only other project I finished was a minor one. I added a pvc tube to hide the wires/cables coming into the engine bay.
I painted a 4" pvc pipe (yellow of course), then cut it length ways and used a heat gun to soften it up so I could open it up. This way I could use the bolts that are in place for the deck/hull joint to hang it and if I need to run a new wire, I won't have to fish it through. I can simply drop it in from the top. This is another one of the "not so pretty, but it works" projects. And for those that zoom in to look at the details, yes I know, it needs a paint touch up and it's not fully bolted in place. It is now, just not in the pics.


........and no comments about the messy garage please. It's not easy fitting the boat and all my crap in a 2 car garage.

[yeller]

I really haven't done much else, which is pretty pathetic actually because I've added even more work to the schedule. I've decided I'm going to strip down the engine and check everything. I had CarlC check it out before I bought it, but he was only able to see it with the heads off. It looked good, but I still want to mic everything. I'm cautiously optimistic everything will check out, but I'll be putting in new rings and bearings regardless. I'll never feel comfortable using it if I don't.

My new (umpteenth) deadline to finish is April. I want to say end of March, but I know that will never happen. If I can get it all done sometime in April, I'll be happy.

[Carl C]

You can pop off the oil pan and check bearing clearances with plasti-gauge. I don't see any need to re-ring it unless it rusted. Get it done and go boating!

[Ed Donnelly]

My brothers birthday is May 1st and he will be 73
Your boat will be ready then so celebrate his birthday by going for a blast...Ed

[yeller]

Carl, I may just do that. I would really like to install new rings/bearings......just because the engine is already out, but I suspect I will get impatient to get boating and skip it.

Ed, goal is May 1. We`ll see.


For the last while I've been finishing off the engine by redoing the wiring harness, fuel lines and miscellaneous items. The wiring takes more time that one might think when you are soldering so many connections. I moved the ecm to the back of the engine to try and keep most of the wiring out of direct view. I was 99% finished and decided to mount the headers to get a visual of what it was going to look like.

Turns out my drive lube bottle, master circuit breaker, some relays, fuel regulator and fuel splitter block all interfered with the silent choice and y-pipe. Aaargh!!! Now I'm back to being only 60% done on the engine. Trouble is, I don't have a lift that can get the engine high enough to be able to drop the engine in for a test fit, so I have been "eyeballing" the placement of most everything. I could work a lot faster if I was sure of what fits where.

So now I have to fab a couple new brackets and rewire a good chunk of the engine.

[yeller]

In my quest to have the most bling for the least amount of money, I`m looking at getting some of this:

http://techflex.com/prod_cxn.asp

For well under $200 I could wrap every single hose and plug wire. Stainless Steel look on the cheap.

[yeller]

I haven`t been looking forward to hand sanding the transom. I have all the necessary sanding air tools, but my compressor can not keep up with air sanders. I have always wanted a compressor that would never run out of air. After years of always looking, but not buying, I finally bit the bullet and picked up a 2-stage IR. This thing will outlast me.