34C Engine room restoration.

[madhatter1]

I have owned this 34 since 1992. Did a cosmetic restore in 96 and another repaint in 08. Mechanically it came with 440 Chryslers, one of which needed a rebuild. Yanked it and had an auto shop rebuild it. Crank was bad. Replaced with new. Problem was it was the reverse rotation engine and with the wrong crank I built an oil pump at the rear main seal! Moved to FL and had an oil leak on tranny shifter. Was quoted XX$ to pull tranny and rebuild. No way on putting in any more $ on these old things. Found a pair of Merc 454's new at a decent price. Gave the perfectly running 440's to a fixer upper guy who gave me the $2 seal that was leaking in the gear and was an easy fix. Original gear guy was a rip off.

Repowered in 95 with the almost new Merc's. But had the Diesel bug. Repowered in 98 with the 270 Cummins in her now. Engine room was Freakin New!!

But work, life, whatever got in the way and although had proper oil, zinc, gear oil changes the ER has gone to total $hit. Engine isolation mounts are collapsed which doesn't help the old school stuffing boxes sealing the shafts. Spray guards constantly falling off. Back of gears and couplings are a rust horror show. Oil crap everywhere from several "incidents". Yeah, I'm a bit ashamed to admit all this.

I "inherited" Esperanza and with life a bit more under control have maintained this pristine ER to at least as good as I got her. The 34 is now run (gifted) to my sons but they are stuck with all my follies. So we are going to fix this.

 

[madhatter1]

The plan.

On a barter deal I will sign over ownership of the 69 45C that we will never restore. It has very little value in todays market. Along with it go the 3 480HP 5.9QSB's we were going to use 2 of to power our budget cruiser. They came out of a triple engine Fountain that went partially under. Not much water ever touched the engines, they are fine. Reason they were replaced was no way brand ne boat owner of less than a month was going to live with these. So they are most of the $ value of the deal. I overpaid on the 45 but we bought all 3 engines for only $4500.

Barter guy is extremely qualified.

Each engine will be lift up with an A frame. Aside from multiple service items the engines will be cleaned and painted while suspended. The ER below will be completely cleaned and painted. Gears restored/repaired/painted. Couplings replaced. Stuffing boxes replaced and upgraded. Bulkhead insulation replaced. In other words, new again. Then engine lowered and reinstalled on new isolation mounts. Move to other side and repeat.

Engines while old are not tired. I bet they go another 20 years before they are sad and really need a rebuilt. Starboard has eaten 2 turbos over the years due to constraints of exhaust design but we will live with that rather than give up the water lift mufflers. Port had one turbo go bad, nothing to due with exhaust. Only "large" repair bill came from a belt break that caused instant overheat. Cracked the head and the belt took out a couple other $$ items. Other than that trouble free and super reliable.

Hoping to undertake this early spring.

 

[Boatsb]

Sounds like a sweetheart deal for the guy.

Those engines would make my 41c fast with a back up.

Ill give you the $4500 for them if he doesn't work out.

 

[madhatter1]

Boat hauled. Project started. Decided to remove wood cockpit (teak was weathered beyond repair, soft spots) to clean and paint underneath plus install new fiberglass panels. Good thing we took this on. Found the main support beam for salon bulkhead is rotten and needs to be replaced. This will be quite a project but now is the time to do this. Surprisingly no sag at the center where the doors are. Also a good time to replace wood board for rudders and steering ram.

Anyone ever do this? Sort of have a plan to support floor and either build up a new beam one piece at a time in layers out of epoxied plywood or cored fiberglass sheet. Yard can make me 4X8 or 5X8 Divinecell sheets. That is what we are using for cockpit.

All thoughts are appreciated.

 

[micky]

Pictures!!!!!

 

[madhatter1]

Pix as requested

 

[dsharp]

Pulling the engines with an a frame is pretty straight forward. Cut some 2/4’s to brace the deck from the engine beds to the deck. You might want to build a cradle for the engine then put a couple of 2x12’s under the cradle and push it out the door on some pipe or pvc rollers. It will make it so much easier to get in and out of the engine room without an engine hanging over your head. It always made me nervous have an engine hanging over a worker. How are you going to attach the glass panels to cockpit frames? You may want to cut the outer edges of the frames down to allow for a gutter on the cockpit sole. Try to save the rudder board to use for a pattern if you can.

 

[madhatter1]

The A frame work and all supports will be by the guy doing the engine removal and work. He definitely knows his stuff so no worries there. The cockpit frame is going to be replaced with new frame built out of fiberglass square tube stock I can purchase through the yard. 4"X4" 1/4" thick hollow square stock. Not sure of actual name but easy to work with. We will build new framing, cut glass sheets and install, and grind seams and do rough glass work to tab seams (at the direction of yard). Then they will take over for hatches, hatch drains, and finish work. Yard will also take care of rudder board replacement.

One cool thing we thought of is since we are starting from scratch is to keep a forward center hatch to access fuel manifold and bilge drain tube and rather than another small hatch center rear by rudder board we are going to do one long center hatch for super easy access that will double as a removable fish box. Boat is mostly day fished so it will be a simple light box that can be removed to clean. Adding access plates over all tank fittings as well.

 

[dsharp]

They make some pretty cool fiberglass shapes with the pultrusion process. I was always curious what the dies would cost for a the side window frames.

 

[madhatter1]

That's a great idea. Replaced glass and frames in 96 and they show their age now. So maybe while we're at it!!

 

[jim rosenthal]

If all this doesn't work out (and I hope it does) you can get a lot more than $4500 for those three engines.

 

[madhatter1]

Making progress. We are going to pull both engines and the generator out so we have plenty of room to replace the bulkhead beam. That turns out to be made from 3 3/4" pieces of plywood sandwiched together. After discussion today we are going to rebuild the same way but better. We can restore ER all at one time as well as work on the cockpit without slowing holding up the mechanical work.

For cockpit we found 4X8 cored glass sheets called Carbon-Core that we can get at very reasonable price and reasonable shipping. Since the shipping is a set fee I'm adding thinner sheets for interior salon floor (next winters project). That needs to be redone since my cork floor did not hold up. Salon gets either wet bathing suits from beach time or wet feet fishing so that will be made more like an exterior deck.

My son is doing a great job of learning and working. He will help swing engines out and back in. Many boaters can not even imagine removing an engine from the boat. He will be "been there, done that". Good stuff.

 

[micky]

I can show him how to do all of that

 

[madhatter1]

Maybe I'll fly him out to help finish yours!

 

[madhatter1]

2nd engine out.