Wellcraft 170 Classic - Social Distancing

After I made an excellent financial decision in LS swapping my K5 Blazer, I wanted a new challenge.  I was craving getting on the water this summer.  I've always loved boats, but I've never had the means to buy one and store one until now, since I graduated college, got a job, and moved back in with my parents to save for a house.  They love having the boat in the backyard, I'm sure.  I enlisted my dad in knocking down the fence for the backyard and moving the fire pit while I hunted for a mostly working boat with a few issues that I could sort out in a week and be on the water.  That was optimistic, as I'm sure you already guessed.

Using the power of the glorious LS, I tore up the bushes with a tow strap.

Next, I tore up the fencing

Room for my Sierra, my Blazer, and a boat.

I picked up a 1988/1989 Wellcraft 170 Classic on Facebook marketplace.  The guy started it up for me and I bought it for $1900.  This was a gigantic mistake, as will be evident later. It's pink!

I did my due diligence and checked for excessive play in the gimbal bearing, which is basically a driveshaft center support, and checked the hull, chines, and strakes for damage.  Everything checked out, so I hitched it up and drove to papamilad's shop, where I would keep it until I had the parking at my house sorted out.

Now even though he started it up for me, I knew there were some issues.  The starter was sticky, and one of the solenoids for the outdrive trim was out--this was made clear to me before I bought it, so I went ahead and got the parts.  The parts man told me that usually when one solenoid goes, the other is right behind it, but I decided to chance it and I'd swap the solenoids if I needed to get it back on the trailer and it went out.

Old solenoid came out with no issues, and the motor trimmed down.

Wait a minute, what's that? The other solenoid went out right behind the first one.  Back to the parts man.  Speaking of which, the parts stores are not close by for boats like they are for cars.  That was another hour out of my day.

But I got the solenoid all figured out, and decided to run it on muffs (that's the hose hookup to run it on the trailer-this boat uses raw water cooling).  We brought it over to the hose hookup, and tried to start it up.  It took a day or two of trying and a couple jump starts, but it ran decently at higher RPM's.  It wouldn't idle though.  It sounded rough bringing it down to idle, so I decided to rebuild the carburetor and get any crap out of the jets and generally refresh it with a new float and needles, etc.  This is why my Wreck Racing friends call me a boomer, I know carbs and timing from the 350 I pulled out of the Blazer.

The carburetor rebuild went perfectly.  As I suspected, there was tons of dried up residue from old gas and gas with ethanol in it, so I was feeling pretty good about running it after the rebuild.

I highly recommend Carburetor Specialist in Alpharetta Georgia if you need rebuild kits.  He had it in stock the same day for a better price and probably better quality than eBay man did.

I screwed up setting the float level during the rebuild, and fuel was just dumping out of the bowl into the intake.  I fixed it up, and I was able to fire the boat off.  Didn't fix my idle issues, though.  I decided to save that for another day and fix my trim pump, which somehow inexplicably went out again.

I brought the pump assembly home, determined to fix it without buying a new one for $300.

It was covered in sludge from leakage, so I cleaned it up and brought it inside.  I took the motor off, and the pump impeller moved freely, so I took the motor apart.  The commutator was completely caked in carbon, so I cleaned it out really well and ran it alone on a battery.  Put it back on the pump and it wouldn't work again.  There was some sort of short between the housing and the motor, because it would run with the case off, but not on.  I kept working on it, and eventually it wouldn't even run with the case off.  I bought a new motor for a lot less than the whole assembly and put it in the boat.  Everything worked like it should again so I set out to find the cause of my idle issues.

I can't decide if these boat threads on here are making me want to get a boat more or less... 

Love that color!

Boat threads always remind me how much work they seem to be, and how satisfying they are when working well.

I fully support you in your endeavor.  I have a 1991 wellcraft eclipse.  They are great boats. 

Which engine is in yours?  

Just remember what boat stands for (Bust Out Another Thousand)

In reply to Norma66-Brent :

Not true! I've owned my SeaRay since I ordered it in the fall of 1978. On average it's required $500 a year in maintenance.  Most of the work I've had done rather than doing it myself.  
Not because it's complicated but because with racing, work on the house, and time with the family. I figure I'm allowed one luxury.  
 Realize that most boat mechanics are failed car mechanics and marina's that hire them for the summer season know they need to make enough in 3 months to cover the cost of lakeshore property, taxes, expenses for the whole year.  
Owning a 41 year old boat that's 28 feet long and basically a house that floats. Gallery, Head, 6 beds,  and space for up to 23 people on board. Plus it will do 40 mph speed indicated, clean bottom, fresh prop and one person on board. Typically I used to use a tank ( 105 gallons) or 2 of fuel a summer with water skiing, pulling tubes, cruising and just running around a giant lake. 
    Then it became a single tank and lately it's less than 1/2 a tank a year. Stabil and a fresh top off every spring. Keeps things running nice. Annual oil change even though it would have less than 500 miles on the oil. 

Norma66-Brent said:

Just remember what boat stands for (Bust Out Another Thousand)

I have had mine about 10 years, and it normally needs about $500 a year.  Last year I replaced a ton of stuff and probably spent $1500.  Overall its been a great boat and I have been very happy with it.

My boat is way cheaper than that! Key thing is, instead of using it and finding things to fix, you just leave it sitting in the yard for years unused. 

In reply to Norma66-Brent :

Cheap boats, my friend.  Bust out another twenty.

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

I have the Mercruiser 3.0. More updates about that soon...

The boat still wouldn't idle.  It sounded rough.  It got really hot while just off idle on the hose.  I had been avoiding a compression test, but it was time. 

At first we thought we weren't screwing it down right.  30 psi doesn't make sense, right? You either have a bunch or none? Next cylinder. Oh good, this one has none, that makes sense.  Third cylinder-30 psi.  Fourth-130, good deal, makes sense.  But something's shot, so I started shopping eBay rebuild kits.  Got one for just over $100, had it by the next weekend.  Pulled the motor and got it on a stand ready to rebuild.  Got a case of beer.

Pulling this motor was literally 4 bolts for the mounts and 6 bolts for the outdrive, plus unwiring the coil, thermostat, choke, alternator, oil pressure sender, and shift interrupt switch.  It sits nicely on the mounts on the floor of the shop before we put it on the stand.

I got to dingleballing after we had the crank and pistons out.  The cylinders on the left are post-dingleball, and the ones on the right are pre-dingleball.  Highly recommend adding a dingleball to your repertoire.  Unfortunately, my dingleball ruined my pants.  How many times can I squeeze the word dingleball into a paragraph? Dingleball.

Thanks to mgfoster on here, I got a sloppy rebuilt head with freshly lapped valves while I was off buying parts and tools.

Oh, I forgot to mention why I had low compression in 1 and 3 and no compression in 2.  See below.

That used to be a head gasket.  How the hell did this thing run? It almost idled on one cylinder. Incredible feat of engineering.  We almost stopped there, but we decided to go ahead and do rings and the head.

It must have overheated really badly to have something like that happen.  Facebook boat man told me he had just replaced the impeller, so I assume that was why-no fresh water going through the motor to cool it.  Of course, when a motor gets so hot, the head and block deck might warp, so the head and block should be resurfaced.  I of course opted not to even check if they were straight.  The motto of this rebuild was "slam together and send."

Slam together and send we did, except for #2 piston--the rings did not want to seat properly and loosely in the ringlands, so I took a file to the ringlands.  I wonder if I ever cleaned the metal dust off? Too late now...

With the motor slammed together, it was time to send.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I'm convinced the reason people think boats are expensive is because they don't do the work themselves.  All the parts are cheap as hell except the big ticket items and everything is rebuildable in a garage... So far...  My only complaint is that the parts stores aren't close to me, they're all by the lake, so 30-45+ minutes.  That's OK for a day trip to the lake, but a bit tough to swallow for a part.

I approve of your boat adventure. A couple of weeks ago I spent Saturday with my head down in the bilge trying to figure out why all of the wires were the same color while replacing the float for my bilge pump.

Working on boats makes it cheaper, yes, just hope that whoever worked on your boat before you wasn't cheap and only had one spool of wire...

In reply to young_boomer :

People also tend to want to over-boat for what they actually want to do.  I've had several friends that, earlier in their lives, would regularly load up a canoe in the bed of their truck, grab whatever else they needed, and then get lost in the woods and go fishing on some lake they found.

One by one they started selling or trading the canoes and getting bass boats, pontoons, flat boats, and whatever fit their area.  One by one they all stopped taking their boats out because they couldn't justify everything involved with it when it was just them going out.  Just like anything else, when they sit they start to rot.

Living w/parents to save for a house...buys old (likely broken) boat.  LOL.  

Just kidding, I get it.  I'll bet that paint will also clean up nicely with a little elbow grease.  Make sure you check the tires and wheel bearings on the trailer.  

You're fortunate enough to know when you do actually buy a house it'll need to have room for your boat.  

SWMBWO has been pushing me to buy a cheap skiff or john boat.  The fact small boats are cheap is a +...but outboard engines can cost 2x 3x the price of a boat has had me a bit nervous.  I suppose this thread is a nice reminder that worst-case is still manageable.  

In reply to Hoondavan :

In hindsight, I should have paid way less for this boat. But I look at it more as paying for a lesson in what to look for when buying a boat now that I've essentially rebuilt everything except the outdrive. That being said, I'm not going to lose much money at all when it gets sold since everything works now (spoilers for the thread). I haven't taken it on the water yet but hopefully nothing too bad happens out there.

As far as outboard vs inboard... Inboards are based on car engines. Plentiful cheap supplies. Outboards are purpose built. If I had to do it again, I'd pick another inboard. I've always preferred inboard to outboard though for better wakes and a cleaner looking transom.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, replace the impeller in the lower unit before you hit the water.

Don't trust facebook boat man.

Just because it runs on the hose, doesn't mean it will pull water up to the motor when it's in the water.

Cheap insurance!

BTW, I had a '92 186 Wellcraft Eclipse with the 4.3 liter 4 bbl. Great little boat.

I should buy a boat

maschinenbau (I live here) said:

I should buy a boat

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/boa/d/atlanta-1966-alumacraft-model/7141543884.html

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/boa/d/woodstock-1976-sea-ray-srv-180/7141232507.html

https://athensga.craigslist.org/boa/d/forsyth-1977-mako-classic/7142311369.html

SaltyDog said:

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, replace the impeller in the lower unit before you hit the water.

Don't trust facebook boat man.

Just because it runs on the hose, doesn't mean it will pull water up to the motor when it's in the water.

Cheap insurance!

BTW, I had a '92 186 Wellcraft Eclipse with the 4.3 liter 4 bbl. Great little boat.

It's on the way right now, along with a new thermostat.

She's gonna clean up nice. Top is wet sanded with 1000 grit and buffed with rubbing compound. Bottom is only buffed. Right for your consideration. All of the red is dry in the picture, so I'm not tricking you with nice shiny wet paint

If you didnt know, commercial floor polish makes faded gel coat look awesome for minimal work. 

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

Glad to know that.  I haven't heard of anyone using it, would you apply it after wet sanding/compounding in place of wax? Or in place of wet sanding and compounding?

The rebuild went well, fired up and idled third try.  Didn't let it idle for long since I need to get it in the water to seat the rings with a couple of decent pulls.  Before I can hit the water, I need to sort out why it isn't going into forward gear...

Mysterious internet boat forum men had the answer.  The lower shift cable is to blame when you lose a gear.  So, back to eBay I went for a lower shift cable.  Got the budget bin one, got a special tool (extra-deep well thin-walled 9/16 socket) that Mercury doesn't sell to unscrew it from the drive, and got mgfoster and papamilad over to make fun of me for owning a boat, which was an essential step.

Shifting theory: Upper shift cable runs from helm to bracket on engine.  Lower shift cable runs from bracket to outdrive, through transom.  Bracket grounds ignition coil to kill spark for a split second to unload the dogs in the gearbox and allow the gearbox to shift. Whew. Now that that's out of the way and you know what a lower shift cable is,

You have to take the outdrive off to access the bolt inside of the transom assembly.  Not a big deal, six bolts and you're done.  Now when you have the drive off, you're supposed to inspect the gimbal bearing to ensure that it turns freely.

Wait.  That's a muddy, rusty, seized gimbal bearing.  If you run the boat this way in the water, you'll crack your transom assembly and sink the boat.

I'm theorizing that water got in here not through the bellows which is what seals the driveshaft from the water, but through the old cracked and broken lower shift cable sleeve and maybe if the engine overheated, a blown exhaust gasket in the outdrive.  I inspected the bellows, and it looks like they're if not new at least not old or torn.

I was getting ready to drop $100 on the fancy Sierra bearing because everyone says not to cheap out on this one, when I checked Facebook marketplace and found one for $10.  Hell yeah.  The bearing is press fit to the transom, so with a slide hammer and pilot bearing rental from Autozone, we were able to get it out without too much trouble.   The new one got a good coating of grease, we cleaned the bellows out well, and aligned the grease marks.  Using an alignment tool, I checked bearing and motor alignment, and everything checked out.

Back to the lower shift cable, we were able to get it done with only one mishap, very easy install.  Everyone on boat forums whines about it taking 4 hours, but it went very fast, probably about an hour, and most of that was screwing around.  Drive went on, and the boat shifted, albeit poorly.  I came back the next day and took the drive back off to put a new gasket in and work the shift shaft a little bit to free it up.  It shifts well now, and nothing is left to keep it from going in the water at this point (or so I thought).

Here's a pic of my dirty boatthole