George Desmond

The Donzi Arneson Project By George Desmond

Last fall I was dialing in my X-18 for the best performance, different props, etc. When I realized I was investing a lot of time and money into a discontinued drive. I thought my Volvo Speedmaster was a great, however, I could see myself, in the future, having machine shops custom making parts which were no long available. I thought about putting a Black Hawk Drive in, but Mercury stopped making it. I was about to buy a Bravo drive when I came across an ad in Powerboat Magazine for a pair of Arneson’s. Several people told me the Arneson would not work on my boat. Others just laughed. I bought the Arneson ASD6 drives for under $ 2,000.00. I figure how could I lose. Well, they sat in my garage for a month while I contemplated the project. At times the money seemed stupidly spent. I started the project January 10^th, 1999 . This whole project was done by myself and many phone calls, thanks for everyone's help. This is a brief description of my project and would happily talk to you about it. E-mail mighty.mouse@pop.snet.net.

Step one: Remove engine.
I never removed an engine before. So I made a list of things to do and started.

First I drained all the fluids, degreased and wash the bilge, labeled and disconnected all the wiring. Since most of the rental shops wanted $ 45.00 a day for an engine hoist, I just purchased one from B.J. Wholesale Club $ 299.00. Then I purchased an engine balancer,( adjuster), which enables you to tilt the motor. Four bolts attach the engine to the hoist chain. Next, I removed the Volvo 290 drive, unbolted the engine coupler from the drive, removed the exhaust pipes, unbolted the engine mounts, and pulled the motor. Then I removed any pumps, filters, the trim tabs, speedo tube etc from the bilge and transom.

Step Two: Plug transom
See George's Transom rebuild article

Step three: Setting Drive and engine.
While the engine was out of the boat, I install a power steering pump for the new hydraulic steering, added a larger oil cooler with four ports, (two for engine two for steering), relocated the alternator, repainted the oil pan and installed new Glenwood engine mounts.

I called Arneson and they sent me a mounting template. I taped the template to the transom, followed the directions, drilled the holes for the drive, steering ram and trim ram and test fitted the drive. An Arneson uses an external transmission. These drives came with Borg Warner 72C ,in order to fit into the bilge, the engine would have to move forward 10". I did not have the room with out remounting my fresh water cooling . I chose to have a direct drive set up and figured if need I could always add a tranny later. My engine ended up 1" closer to the stern and 2" lower than the Volvo 290 location. I wanted to have very strong stringers so I sandwiched them with 3/8" marine grade Aluminum. The backing plate at the rear of the boat were made out of 3/8" 6" angle too allow for mounting of trim pump and bilge pump. I shimmed the aluminum plates and set the plates and the stringers with a resin, chopped mat, fiber, paste. A Glenwood front engine mounting plate and a Glenwood bellhousing with engine mounts were used to mount the engine. After lowered the engine into the bilge, I made an alignment tool to slid onto the Arneson output shaft, with a flat end on the other side, which I could site against the PTO. After aligning the engine with the help of the hoist I blocked up the engine letting the weight of the motor sit on wood blocks in the bilge. I double checked the alignment. Then I marked the holes for the engine mount brackets, pulled the motor out, drilled the engine mounts into the stringers. Reinstalled the motor and bolted it in. Took measurements and marked out the new exhaust holes and drilled the transom. I scoped out the locations for all the engine electronics, oil cooler, trim pumps, filters etc. Removed the engine to facilitate the installation of these items.

Step Four: Prep for Final Installation.
I installed all the components; remote oil filter, ignition system, trim tab pumps; added Stainless Marine Trim indicator for the tabs & drive. Custom made a bracket for the lifting ring; combination trim ram backing plate and bracket for remote high performance oil filter all in one. Then removed the drive painted the transom with a brush and enamel marine paint. Reinstalled the drive dropped the engine back in. Hooked up hoses wires etc. The boat look "good"; a future project is a new paint job

Step Five: Testing.
No passengers. No interior (one seat, one Lifejacket). Radar gun. And GPS. After one month of playing with props and an Arneson horizontal stabilizer the boat runs as if it was on rails

George Desmond 08/21/99