'63 American Skier in Colorado

That's a good idea with the foil on a filter change!! I always use a couple of rags and Never catch all the spillage! I am due for a change and will try, thanks.

KC,
It's great that you changed the oil but you used the wrong stuff!! You want to use a oil with ZDDP. Valvolene VR1 is my choice on all my old flat tappet engines including my 312 Y block. I highly suggest you do another change before the cam is ruined. RR cams for the 312's are VERY hard to find.

BTW, I just put a baggie over the filter when removing it.

Dang! I hate being a newbie! Peter, what do you think of this as an option?


Thanks for the link Steve!

PS Fellow CCF (ers) with older Skiers, please post more pics. The diary pics are too small. Need more closeups     Thanks!!

Good point. Thanks Peter.

ArtCozier wrote: If it's totally obsolete, they can suggest a retrofit.

The impeller is not obsolete. It's a very common size. The pump on the 312 is a dual cavity. I just changed mine out several years ago.

I've used the baggie method for many years now, works very well. I always feel like engineers that build oil filter mounts anything but facing down must have never changed their own oil!

Art,Pete changes impellers when he changes points,whether he needs one or not

I worked on cleaning the stringer / bilge area yesterday and stripped deck parts for fiberglass work.



Looking for opinions / knowledge on a couple of things.
Best way to pull the steering wheel? It's already cracked and I really don't want to break it

Is the dash emblem glued on or does it set with pin holes? Because there are no nuts on the back side.
Again, I don't want to break it.

Also, anybody know what this decal on the intake was / said originally?

Dang! I had this written and accidentally pushed "Backspace" and deleted it! Here we go again:

It is likely that the stringers are clear fir. However, in those days of operating in bankrptcy, if there was mahogany in the stockroom and we would have had to buy fir, the priority was to not spend $$. I have to say, your photo does look like maghogany. Have someone who knows woods have a look. All I know for sure is that you don't want to use pine.

The spots where the woven roving is missing look like perhaps the floor support originally extended to the main stringer and someone cut ot the portion over the exhaust well and didn't patch the glass back in. My guess is that the hull was built for some other engine and they had to cut the support out to accomodate the 312. It looks as though the plywood bulkheads in the front of the exhaust were put in later.

I have an owner's manual for a 1965 312. The decal on the intake manifold reads as follows:

Recommended owner procedure for
FIRST 25 HOUR INSPECTION CHECK (this line in large bold print)
Ignition timing -- use timing light   (Strange; no spec shown!)
Set valve clearance -- .020    (my '65 had an alternator)
Set spark plug gap -- .030
Set distributor points -- .018
Tighten generator belt   
Tighten engine mounts
Align engine
Change oil
Firing order: 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2

When I first started on this site, someone had a photo posted of a really beautiful restoration of a 312. All the decals had been replicated and it looked 100% original, exact color paint and all.   

I have two and a half 312s which I hope to make into one restored one. Please let me know if you find a source for the replica decals.

If you want a copy of my owner's manual, I will be happy to copy it and mail it to you. I don't have a scanner good enough to do it and I don't know how to post attachments on this site. I could take it to Kinko's / FedEx and have it done on a professional scanner and email it to you. Let me know. PM me please.   

Art

Steve Hilpshe makes repro Interceptor decals. I've bought several set of them. Very good quality. I can post a link to his site tonight or you can search for him at marineengines.com

When you pm Art,give him the serial number too. When he gets a chance maybe he can look it up for you.

We used a lot of mahogany in the wooden boats, and they were just being replaced by glass in '63. After the WWII years, mahogany was nearly impossible to find, but through some of his ministry connections, W.O. Meloon was able to go to the Phillipines and make arrangements to buy it in large quantities, so we became one of the few boatbuilders that could get it.

As Gary said, I can try to find some history on your boat if you want. Our 1963 records are very hit-and-miss, so I would say there is about a 50-50 chance of my finding the info. I guess you know where the hull number plate is; on the port-side stringer between the front and rear enigine mounts.

In those days, again due to the bankruptcy and need for $$, we would make almost anything that a buyer wanted. Many boats were started as one model and converted to another. For example, some years the Mustang and the AmSk were the same hull, different deck. If a customer wanted one or the other, the sales guys would tell them that whatever was ready to go could be finished out as the other model. That is partly the reason there is such a hodgepodge of hardware on the classic boats. Also the fact that we used whatever was in the stockroom.

I love the old mechanical steering systems. Wish we still used them. No slack, no lost motion, and they always steer with very little effort. I had a boat that the owner had put a very heavy steering wheel on, and you could "throw" the wheel and let it spin lock-to-lock at docking speeds.
Art      

ArtCozier wrote: "SEVERAL years ago??????" You believe in living on the edge, don't you? I recommend that folks change impellers once a year -- it's the cheapest insurance you can buy! :) Art

Art,
The new impellers were more that 20 years old!!    I installed them before I brought the X55 to GL. The old ones looked pretty damn good for their age and I never had a cooling issue. I even posted pictures in a thread. The vanes had some set to them but showed no signs of wear and as Gary mentioned, I went the same # of years on a point set.

KC,
A PO has hacked up the fuel line between the two YH carbs. It should be hard piped. I HIGHLY recommend hard piping before you end up with fuel in the bilge.

Is it possible that the secondary stringers were added at a later time? My 63 Nautique which is a wider boat, did not originally have secondary stringers but they were added by the P.O.

-Phil