Liveaboard possibility #3?

J3ff

Dream_Inn said:

Great looking boat Jeff!  I’ll be in Florida next week, too bad it’ll be further away. I’d have to visit!

Let me know if you make it this way! 

J3ff

So I guess the 270 will go up on the market in a couple months. The only major issue I know of is one of the cylinders has low (but not 0) compression. Apparently it's been like this from day one.  Oddly enough I had a rather eccentric friend who came on the trest ride right after they installed the new (reman) 383 and he swore to me that it was missing or that something was wrong. 

Only years later did a mechanic in the keys say he didn't like a spark plug color and did a compression check. 

Here are the results:

• Compression test

•  1) 90psi 2) 156psi 3) 157psi 4) 161psi 5) 154psi 6) 158psi 7) 151psi 8) 153psi

• Compression average (147psi) * Note that testing was done with engine “Cold” and that cylinder #1 may come up when warm. 

I have never felt or seen a loss in power.. she's been able to get up to about 37/38 with the stock props and 34/35 with the 20p hill marine. However, when you replace that one spark plug you can hear/see a slight difference in idle, with the motor just being more smooth. 

From the first day I have always smelled a bit more gas smell at the dock than others. Guess we'll go down the route of getting that fixed first. I did contact mercury about it via email and did not hear back. Wish I would have taken the smell more seriously. I did pay for the extended warranty but of course that's gone now. 

PickleRick

Maybe you'll get lucky and it will just be a valve issue. 

I'd say normally having a head sent off to be checked/valve job is about a 24-48 hour job and a few gaskets but you are in the keys.  

J3ff

So what do you think this boat would be fairly priced at with that kind of issue. Keep in mind it has a 1 to 2 year old B3 Seacore.. 

Sure I can have someone come check valves real easy, but if it's worse than that, maybe I just throw it up for sale with the cylinder issue? 

Wow, I just looked at what peoples ask are for this boat (2004 270) and it seems a little nuts. 
 
I paid 25k 5 years ago and the lowest I've seen so far is 34,900. Maybe I throw it up for 25k?

J3ff

Aqua_Aura said:

Do you have any picture to post? I don't remember I saw the listing you had originally put up. 

Going to clean her up today and take some pictures.. the marina it's at has a broken pipe so water use is limited, but she needs some soap! 

Liberty44140

Congrats on the fly! Great looking boat, lots of room, good deal, I’m jealous! Living in the keys on a boat, what a great life!

I would get the compression looked at to see if it’s just a valve/head and get that fixed, then sell for market price. 

J3ff

Thanks , yeah going to figure that out.

On the 'new' boat, we have some leaking from the rudder stuffing boxes, I hear it's normal, it's a little more than I like though.. although it would have to over run 3 bilge pumps.. hmm. The question is do you mess with the nuts and make it possibly worse, or just leave it alone till it comes out whenver that will be. 

Liberty44140

Did it just go in to the water recently? My rudders always leak at launch but within a week it’s dry. I’m told normal. 

Aqua_Aura

You can tighten the nuts if there is adjustment left or you can also replace the stuffing in the water if it's real bad. Doing it in the water isn't a recommendation more saying it's possible and won't leak that much while doing it. I've seen prop shafts done in the water both stuffing and dripless types. 

For reference my rudder shaft box just stays slightly moist. 😂. But seriously mine may have a drop of water every day. 

YYZRC

Aqua_Aura said:

For reference my rudder shaft box just stays slightly moist.

Quoted for posterity. 

PickleRick

What motors do you have in the new boat?

J3ff

Liberty44140 said:

Did it just go in to the water recently? My rudders always leak at launch but within a week it’s dry. I’m told normal. 

Been in for 2 years without pulling out. Im going to wait to ask the PO if he ever adjusted them. Didn't want to bother him on a Sunday. 

J3ff

Aqua_Aura said:

You can tighten the nuts if there is adjustment left or you can also replace the stuffing in the water if it's real bad. Doing it in the water isn't a recommendation more saying it's possible and won't leak that much while doing it. I've seen prop shafts done in the water both stuffing and dripless types. 

For reference my rudder shaft box just stays slightly moist. 😂. But seriously mine may have a drop of water every day. 

Yeah, this is too much salt water to be correct. I will take better pictures of what it looks like tomorrow, but here's a 6 hour difference. Keep in mind it's a super small compartment but it's still too much..




As you can see the water line means it's been doing it for a LONG time.. my guess is the guy didn't realize he could fix it OR the bolts are frozen.. going to investigate tomorrow but will not do any real adjustment. Do not want to do it on a day where the marina manager isn't in. Want to be able to pull it on the fly if I adjust something and it goes south. Was thinking maybe I could just spray this on it for now. 

J3ff

PickleRick said:

What motors do you have in the new boat?

454's will take pictures soon, too busy cleaning/moving in...going through all the stuff he left on the boat. There's a full assortment of power tools, paint, oil, parts, he must have left 5000 dollars worth of stuff on it. He left some kind of zodiac in there too.. just havent taken it out of the bag yet. 

One thing that would be unbelievable, a captain friend of mine who has run real big boats his whole life came down and took a look. Both fuel gauges read FULL at the upper station and then he looked at something on the actual tanks and said that it's reading full as well, even when tapping on them he said they sounded full.. each tank is TWO HUNDRED gallons.

aero3113

Do you have any pics of what needs to be adjusted? Maybe spray down with AeroCroil and let it soak some before you do anything.

Aqua_Aura

I agree with aero that stuff works great. That is definitely more water than I expected but still shouldn't be a hard fix just take care of some general maintenance that's hasn't been done. 

My bilge is dry as the water comes in so slow it basically evaporates. 

Aqua_Aura

I agree with aero that stuff works great. That is definitely more water than I expected but still shouldn't be a hard fix just take care of some general maintenance that's hasn't been done. 

My bilge is dry as the water comes in so slow it basically evaporates. 

PickleRick

While it's not 100% accurate you can get an idea if you have a ring or valve issue by doing a cold compression test in the low cylinder by first taking a dry reading.  Then squirt a little oil in the cylinder and repeat.  If your numbers shoot up you have ring issues.  If it doesn't you likely have head gasket and or valve issues. 


A leak down test would be best but I don't think that's going to happen on the water, in the keys.

J3ff

PickleRick said:

While it's not 100% accurate you can get an idea if you have a ring or valve issue by doing a cold compression test in the low cylinder by first taking a dry reading.  Then squirt a little oil in the cylinder and repeat.  If your numbers shoot up you have ring issues.  If it doesn't you likely have head gasket and or valve issues. 


A leak down test would be best but I don't think that's going to happen on the water, in the keys.

Thanks. If it's a ring issue, engine out right? That'd be annoying. I figure the marina that installed it did no kind of break-in as they mentioned in the work order that they had it up to the top RPM in their test run. Which I have no idea if that's okay or not, but I wouldn't have done that. 

J3ff

aero3113 said:

Do you have any pics of what needs to be adjusted? Maybe spray down with AeroCroil and let it soak some before you do anything.

Seems that I may be wrong here, there was no water flowing at all with the fresh water off and the AC off.. really kicked up when the 2nd ac came on, crossing fingers that it's a raw water exit leak for the AC

J3ff

yup. ac raw water exit is about 6 inches to the left..

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gXQaJUH3phWxVRR58

PickleRick

J3ff said:

PickleRick said:

While it's not 100% accurate you can get an idea if you have a ring or valve issue by doing a cold compression test in the low cylinder by first taking a dry reading.  Then squirt a little oil in the cylinder and repeat.  If your numbers shoot up you have ring issues.  If it doesn't you likely have head gasket and or valve issues. 


A leak down test would be best but I don't think that's going to happen on the water, in the keys.

Thanks. If it's a ring issue, engine out right? That'd be annoying. I figure the marina that installed it did no kind of break-in as they mentioned in the work order that they had it up to the top RPM in their test run. Which I have no idea if that's okay or not, but I wouldn't have done that. 

.the block would have to be pulled for to deal with a ring/piston/cylinder issue.    Hopefully it's just a valve.   I just went through this on the disco.  I have a set of heads off of a motor with some 85,000 my miles.  Had the head shop make sure they were true/flat.   No need to fool with the valves with that low of mileage right?  Everything should be almost new right?  

If compression drops less than about 95psi many of your newer engines can pickup on the missfire from a low compression cylinder and will throw a CEL for the low cylinder.  I had a cel for cylinder 5.    

Had to pull the head right back off and do a valve job.  Ruined a head gasket and intake manifold gasket.   

Fun times.   

The valve wasn't bent or damaged or abnormaly worn,  just had enough carbon build up where it wouldn't seat fully.  

You have cast iron heads.   Unless you've over heated and blown a head gasket you most likely don't need to have them resurfaced.  You can just run a feeler gauge on a straight edge and do a valve job on a picnic to table.  If you have the valve seat cutters and a little lapping compound.  A spring compressor is less than 25 bucks.  The valve seat cutters cost much more. 

J3ff

Walked in to a dead fridge yesterday... that was great. 2000 to replace.. not likely. 

Lake_Bum

Much cheaper to FIX it, and probably pretty simple.  Refrigerators are actually pretty basic.   

J3ff

Lake_Bum said:

Much cheaper to FIX it, and probably pretty simple.  Refrigerators are actually pretty basic.   

Ughhhh I dont even want to think about that. All the "repair kits" were 1000ish. 

Lake_Bum

Wow......I've completely rebuilt refrigerators for a couple hundred bucks a few times.  I guess we can thank Fauci for the inflated Covid prices on EVERYTHING. 

J3ff

LoL not going to get political... might have something to do with companies claiming inflation, charging 30% more for everything and then making record profits. I'll tell ya what, the boat sure wasn't inflated!! 

PickleRick

I want some of these....how you say....record profits.   Our msrp on parts and equipment keeps going up but the profit margins are shrinking 

GMSLITHO

Profit ???????? We’re just trying to break even at this point .

PickleRick

I'm putting in for fortune 500 CEO positions. My resume just says "Montgomery Burns vibes".