Turd Polishing

[snagged in outlet 3]

35 minutes ago, MrGiggles said:

New float switch took care of it. Ran like a champ tonight.

Nice!!!   

[fishinwrench]

Hallelujah!

So the vapor separator was flooding, and dumping the excess fuel where?   Into the crankcase?

Or it was running dry and failing to maintain a level of fuel ?

[MrGiggles]

19 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Hallelujah!

So the vapor separator was flooding, and dumping the excess fuel where?   Into the crankcase?

Or it was running dry and failing to maintain a level of fuel ?

It was running dry. 

In theory there's no way for this setup to flood the engine. If it overfills, gas will hit the vent switch, set an alarm, and the PCM will shut down the lift pump until the vent switch is cleared. Which is both smart and stupid, it will likely never fill the crankcase with gas and blow the powerhead, but a vent switch failure could leave you dead in the water.

[fishinwrench]

So then, as long as you kept momentarily squeezing the primer bulb, it would have kept running flawlessly?  

[MrGiggles]

9 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

So then, as long as you kept momentarily squeezing the primer bulb, it would have kept running flawlessly?  

That is what I have been doing to get back to the ramp for the past couple of months.

[MrGiggles]

I guess it's been long enough to post an update, even though there really isn't much of one. 

Aside from a couple of dead coil packs, I haven't had any more issues with the Merc. Doesn't seem to leak or burn any oil. 

The weight kinda sucks. I've thought about trading it on one of the Tohatsu 60hp triples, as I've heard they are pretty lightweight for a 4 stroke but haven't pursued it any further. There seems to be a big weight penalty going from a 60 to a 75, more than 100lbs in most cases. Going from the 75hp Suzuki, I gained 3-4mph on the top end. 

The boat porpoises terribly, which has been an issue with every motor that's been on it, although it's worse now. The point at which you get trimmed up, the motor starts to sing a little, and the steering lightens up, is also when it starts to bounce, there isn't much overlap there. I have raised the motor up on the transom nearly as high as it will go, which made little difference. I'm not sure that much could be done about it.

[fishinwrench]

Slap a hydrofoil on it.  

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

How much lighter is the Tohatsu? Might be cheaper to just buy lithium batteries and keep the bigger motor, I put lithium's in my rig and lost speed. When you have a 100lb troller on the front and take out 70lbs in the back it screwed mine all up lol.  Like wrench said though a foil might do the trick, i used to have a 175 tracker and all those guys were using them and said they worked great.  I dont have any 1st hand experience with them though

[MrGiggles]

4 hours ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

How much lighter is the Tohatsu? Might be cheaper to just buy lithium batteries and keep the bigger motor, I put lithium's in my rig and lost speed. When you have a 100lb troller on the front and take out 70lbs in the back it screwed mine all up lol.  Like wrench said though a foil might do the trick, i used to have a 175 tracker and all those guys were using them and said they worked great.  I dont have any 1st hand experience with them though

215lbs or so. The Merc is around 360. I have considered lithium for a long time, they're getting cheap enough now to be worthwhile.

4 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Slap a hydrofoil on it.  

It's got one. I had always been really pleased with them, but it didn't seem to do a whole lot on this motor.

[MrGiggles]

The Merc hit the road today, I feel like I did pretty well on it. It was still running fine and had no issues, but the weight was starting to cause problems. Cracks starting on both sides of my transom brace. 

The game plan now is to find a cheap 50-60hp motor, slap that on the Turd and it will likely hit the road too once I strip my goodies off of it. 

From that point on I'm not sure what the plan is. I had considered getting something like the Starcraft Chieftain aluminum cuddies. That would be cool, but a big compromise in terms of fishing. May run up north and grab a walleye boat like I wanted to start with.