Lake Michigan Crossing to Beaver Island, '25
- Thread starter drewm3i
- Start date
Thanks Denny, we are now at Munising/Pictured Rocks and had a wonderful day kayaking and diving some caves. Lake Superior is out of this world cool.
You may be interested in my restoration thread--at least the recent updates:
You may be interested in my restoration thread--at least the recent updates:
The water in your engine where it didn't belong reminded me of mine.I was doing my decomition at the end of one season when I found some water on my #2 spark plug when I pulled it out. So a good friend of mine (this was beyond my pay scale) pulled the heads. In 1985 Chevy wanted to lighten up their 350, so they put on aluminum heads, and guess what. Being that steel and aluminum do not like each other, the rust eat the gasket which let water into my #2 cylinder. Luckley it did not hurt the cylinder walls, they polished up. My friend is a very talented Mechanic. The way that he set the tappets was, when he took it apart, he said that he counted the threads. So when he put it back together, he counted the threads.
Put the valve covers back on, started her up, ran like a well oiled sewing machine. Today with 2006 hrs on her, she still purrs like a kitten.
Iggy
Active member
Than you will love AIS.Got to love those GPS's
It is even more fun at night.
Iggy
Active member
As the 3 stooges would say. Garslow Or in other words, go slow.Got to love those GPS's
It is even more fun at night.
Great story. I also can't believe your boat has over 2,000 hours!--mine only has ~845.
As my flat tappets and pushrods were identical (and checked by the machine shop so I didn't know what went where anyway), I did not bother with such a task as replacing everything as it was exactly. That was 5 years ago now (and probably ~120 hours ago) and all is well. These basic carbed engines are pretty damn reliable when taken care of.
Hey, who you callin' small?!
With a VHF (x2), GPS (x2), trim tabs, and some other basic safety gear (manual bilge pump, etc.), I would take this boat many places along the coast of the Chesapeake, East Coast, Great Lakes, and Florida. She really is great for short-term (4-5 day) "adventure boating."
Though the wife and I actually just acquired a live aboard sailboat that we will be refitting over the next few years with long-distance cruising ambitions (at least coastal cruising Maine and/or the Caribbean if we can make it happen) though!
SST
Well-known member
boat is literally humming across the water. I chide my mechanic and ask him, “What did you do to my boat? I can’t find anything wrong with it!” He smirks.
Current hours are 1641.1 while sitting on the lake. The sky is clean and clear. 100+ miles visibility. No smoke.
But it does love gasoline! Had to place an order to fill it up
Current hours are 1641.1 while sitting on the lake. The sky is clean and clear. 100+ miles visibility. No smoke.
But it does love gasoline! Had to place an order to fill it up
Gas, spark and a little compresion is all you need, and you don't need a computer to tell you which one you don't have.
Very nice indeed! My big block sure drinks gas too.boat is literally humming across the water. I chide my mechanic and ask him, “What did you do to my boat? I can’t find anything wrong with it!” He smirks.
Current hours are 1641.1 while sitting on the lake. The sky is clean and clear. 100+ miles visibility. No smoke.
But it does love gasoline! Had to place an order to fill it up
View attachment 2294
I never get into my 4's my average speed is probably 18 - 20 MPH. Other than some skiing and wakeboarding.
My 33 year average is less than 6 gal an hr. I keep a ledger, so just for grins and giggles when I have a chance I will look it up and see how many gals I have gone through.
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Sheesh! I'm out here cruising upwards of 35 mph all day (as sea state allows). I am sure I am into my secondaries from ~3,000 RPM on.
Yesterday we basically ran 40-41 mph the whole time. With my big block, that's typically in the 3200-3750 RPM range. My boat doesn't feel like it "wakes up" until it hits at least 35. It really feels like the sweet spot for this light high-performance hull is about 40 mph. What's your top speed? I hit 52.8 mph once on GPS in mine.
My 4's kick in at 3100 I usually run between 2700 -2900 which will get me to the low to mid 20's, depending on people and water conditions. When I first got her with 180 hrs on her she did 48 and the standard 30 mph at 3000 rpm's with her 350/260 Then through the years when I started adding stuff and adding hrs, she now gets 45. She rides light so I tend to put her nose down to get threw the 1 ft waves on lake Erie.
Ok here we go. Here are the numbers from the past 33 yrs.
Average gal per hr. 5.9
Average cost per gal on land $247.6 1st yr $118.5 Last year $396.5
Total gal purchased 10,297.4 which = about 194 - 55 gal drums (I was told that they only put in 53 gal because of expansion)
Total cost $24,198.46
It looks like a lot, but I do not believe these numbers are achievable today.
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