1977 Ski Nautique Rebuild

Chris,

I have done some research on those sleeves ( I dont have any experience with them) and I have a couple of questions. Have you or any one else out there used one for the harmonic balancer? Also I have seen some videos and its seems there is a lip that rides behind the seal. If this is the case how can I get it behind the seal? I'm also assuming I can do this with the timing cover still on!

Thanks Allen

Allen,
That lip is needed to install the sleeve. The body (where the seal rides) is very thin so the lip gives you a surface to use the installation tool to drive the sleeve on.

Chris is correct. They do work. I've used maybe 6 or 7 of them over the years and never had a problem.

All right guys, I have gotten my sleeve and seal kit to fix my oil leak. But as you all know there is always a catch. I opened the box and noticed that the seal has wick lines in it similar to the rear end of the crankshaft. I purchased another seal that does not have those lines in it just in case. I check my seal in the boat, which came with the "felpro marine 351 gasket kit" it also had the same wicking lines. I know someone posted that seal are not rotation specific but this surely doen't look right to me. What do yall think. I have posted pictures of both seals here.

Here is the one with the wicking lines.



Here is the one with out.



Thanks Allen

Thats what looked funny to me and I email Tim and he mentioned the same. I think I am going to go with the one without the wick lines.

Well guys we made a little progress yesterday. M Mabe was gracious enough to come over and help. We got most of the running gear installed. Got the engine cradle installed and started on the carpet. Oiled up the swim platform and polished all the metal.

We will get back at it tomorrow.

storm34 wrote: Looks great! Must be nice to have CCFans close!

Yeah it is very nice! I met Marty through this site and he has helped me on several projects.

That will work!

I was hoping to keep everything off the floor, but the steering cable and one of the V drive cooling hoses have no other place to go.   The middle of the steering cable might sit in water, but the end is the part to try and keep dry. I had the luxury of test fitting everything first and got the end as high as I could. I would like it even higher, but everything I tried caused it to run into something. With it adjusted correctly it doesn't move around so I wouldn't worry about securing it if it was close to something.

storm34 wrote: Looks great! Must be nice to have CCFans close!

Ditto, Looks great. And yes sometimes you need the extra set of hands but other times it's just the motivation that someone that can testify to your work is coming by and it's time to put your A game on and things done

Well the progress has been slow. Been doing a lot of work on others boats. I will be setting the engine on Saturday so I have been getting ready for that. I hope the weather holds out and we can get it in with little trouble.

I did get the two ring and fingers back from Courtesy Metal today. Take a look at one of the before pics and then after.

Glad they did a nice job on your rings and fingers. Seems the turnaround was pretty fast.

Just read through this whole thread! Amazing job so far man, I love the old Nautiques!!!

74SkiNautique wrote: Just read through this whole thread! Amazing job so far man, I love the old Nautiques!!!

Thanks Chris,

It has definitely been a labor of love. I have learned so much about these boats and life in general. I am excited that it is finally coming together and I can see some of the fruits of my labor. Hopefully the engine will go in tomorrow.

HatterBee wrote: The engine sits a little more to port than starboard but I'm fairly certain it was like that before.

An alignment should handle that. You have plenty of adjustment in the engine mounts. One reminder is alignment starts aft at the strut. If the engine was "like that before", then maybe it was misaligned. Keep the shaft pretty close to center in the log when the shaft is "happy" in the strut/cutlass.

Marty is the man!!

Well guys after three years of working on the ’77 SN I finally got to put it in the water. Went to White Lake on Saturday to do a water test. I have never had this boat in the water and I would say the venture was a SUCCESS!! I have a few tuning issues to work out but all in all I am HAPPY. I will give you guys a rundown on the things that seem funny to me and see what y’all think.

1.     I’m not sure if I have an overheating problem or not. Just sitting in the water idling and some light revs the temp stayed around 150 or so (I really think I have the 160 degree thermostat in there but I’m not 100%). When I would get on it, it would rise very quickly to about 180 or 190. I would stop at this point and it would cool down. I put my IR thermometer all over the block and heads and the block would be close to 200 and the heads about 240 (this was around the exhaust manifold). The intake manifold was very close to the Temp gauge. Is it normal for the block and heads to be that much warmer? Could I have a circulation problem?
2.     Timing seems to be a little off and might be the reason for most of the other issues I will list. My initial timing is 14 and at 3000 RPM its only 24. Tim says it should be around 36 or so. I can only get about 30 MPH (Acme 540 wheel) at 4500 RPM. I never got over 4500 because it would backfire and I just didn’t want to push it.
3.     Many of you know about the noise in the transmission and it is still there but didn’t seem to affect it at all in my opinion. It definitely makes a ruckus. I will look into rebuilding maybe over the winter.
4.     I cant get the shaft or rudder packing to leak at all. I can loosen the cap nuts and water will start coming through the threads but as soon as I tighten the jam nut it stops. Neither one seemed to get hot though.
5.     Once the engine heated up and after a few runs of higher RPM’s the carb started to drip a little from the rear jets causing it to flood after shutdown and to raise the idle. I really think the engine is running rich as well. I will call the guy who worked on it and ask him what he thinks. It worked fine for a while and didn’t leak until after I used it a while.


Thanks for all who have helped. Marty Mabe has come over many times to help. Many of you have offered ideas and solutions. Tim you are awesome and this project would not be this nice without your foresight, and willingness to help a complete stranger.


I will try to post a small video of it running later.