Power to the People..errr, ...Higgins.

Not as cool as some of the other projects being worked on here , but thought I'd post a few pics of my Higgins. Finally got the motor back in the hull over the weekend.

Im replacing the original Gray135 with a Gray188..



man...is this thing Heavy!!



Almost "home"...


A long time in the works....



now....just a "little" more assembly...
   

That looks SWEET Wood!!

peter1234 wrote: is higgins named after the landing craft guy? or was it p/t boats

   They built both during WWII. After the war thety started building pleasure boats. They supposedly were bought out in 1963, ending the line.   

FWIW.. a couple of other interesting facts:

1) The first generation Ski Nautiques were copied from a late 50's Higgins hull.

2) most Higgins were painted. This 62 is one of three boats I've seen that were stained.

If your looking for more info, heres an interesting link on Higgins History

Higgins
Higgins produced 199 78-foot boats. The Higgins boats, built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana, were 78-foot (24 m) boats of the PT-71 or PT-235 or PT-625 classes. The Higgins boats had the same beam, full load displacement, engine, generators, shaft power, trial speed, armament, and crew accommodation as the 80-foot (24 m) Elco boats. Many Higgins boats were sent to the Soviet Union and Great Britain at the beginning of the war, so many of the lower-numbered squadrons in the U.S. Navy were made up exclusively of Elcos. The first Higgins boats for the U.S. Navy were used in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands (Attu and Kiska) as part of Squadron 13 and 16, and others (RON15 and RON22) in the Mediterranean against the Germans. They were also used during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. A somewhat odd footnote is that even though only half as many Higgins boats were produced, far more survive (seven hulls, 3 of which have been restored to their World War II configuration), than of the more numerous Elco boats, thus seemingly demonstrating the superior construction of the Higgins boat. Of the remaining Elco boats only three hulls (one restored) are known to exist at this time.

Very few of these exsist today.
It is sad that after the war the Navy burned most of the fleet of PT boats.

Steve Keep up the very nice work on the old Higgins.
Jody

WOW Jody.. great history leason! Your right on the fact that most hulls were burnt after the war. Cheaper than bringing them back home. Very sad.

BTW, There is a steel hulled Landing Craft, said to be an Elco of 1965 vintage, I saw it a few years ago moored on the Mississippi in the Muscatine area. I think a friend has some pics of it.

Steve,   Planted the wrong engine!

Crusader is way prettier.   Side drafts make better anchors.

DrCC wrote: Steve, Side drafts make better anchors.

Al,
Why? I've never had a problem with my YH's in 30 years!

Looking good Steve but I really must call foul, if you have more than one 60 watt light bulb and can walk all the way around your boat that's cheating.    I'm going to be afraid to pull the Hurricane out of the bat cave into the light and see what kind of work I've really been doing.

EDIT, And a chainfall no less..indoors!

62 wood wrote: Pete, The 188 had been setting for ten years. When I tried to start it, I had it setting on the floor supported by jackstands. Needless to say time wasnt kind to the carbs. I wasnt too excited about raw gas running and collecting directly below the distributor. I do have a set of adapters Im going to run that mount on the carb throats. They have "O"ring seals and change the flame arrestors to a raised horizontal position from the normal verticle position. Should keep any raw gas from finding its way out in case of float or choke problems.

Steve,
Yes, the latter 312's had modifications to the aft carb inlet/flame arrestor too. Interceptors idea was to replace the aft arrestor carb adaptor with a new casting that went down to the valley. Then incase of a stuck float the gas would go into the valley where it would be drawn back into the carb when running. Maybe I've been lucky with mine but I also know that some don't fully understand how the YH carbs work. If you have starting problems are are making multiple attempts at starting you will get raw gas. This is due to how the accelerator pump works. They are vacuum assisted so each start stop vacuum is gained/lost activating the pump! So, you want to make sure you have a good starting engine - Mine always was even with the 28 year old points!!!!

Looks good Steve. Not all those old engines came with only side drafts. Our 312 has a downdraft marine manifold. Correct Craft built the motor boxes up to accomodate the difference in height. Keep posting pics of that boat!

Pete,
The nice thing about the 188 I bought is, it already has replacemant Barr Marine manifolds on it. The original manifolds from the 135 had holes 'blown' out of the back off them at the rear, as well as one of the "s" pipes!

The 225 I bought from Alan has some really cool Gramarine manifolds I wouldnt mind running, but the "S" pipes bolt solid and dont swivel. I'm not sure how they will align with the exhaust in the boat. (btw, The "S" pipes in the pics still need to be rotated to the inboard side of the stringers.)


And Alan...you ever try a 100 watt bulb instaed of that 60?

nice boat!!!
but is that a fram oil filter there? LOL...

62 wood wrote:    btw, I'm still trying to figure out how not to spill oil all over when changing it!Some brilliant technology,ehh?

It may be more brilliant than the location on the side of the block? The oil should drain out of the filter when the engine isn't running!

How's the shaft alignment going?

I was wondering about that filter, too. Would you use a filter with a rubber diaphram to keep the oil from draining into the engine which would be better on startups, but make a mess or would you use a regular filter that would drain out?

Speaking of oil, this weekend was the first time since I own the boat (10years) that I was able to drain the oil using the oil drain hose through the hull drain plug, man should have solved that way before!! its so easy...