J. Kelly's Boat Restoration...
Repower!!
OK, So I've got this great old boat...It's a 1972 Uniflite, 23' Open Sport Fisherman. It really is a great boat and will be lots of fun when I have it restored. It needs a lot of fiberglass work, and painting, and complete rewiring and controls, and it needs repower.
The original engine (I think it's original) is an OMC 305cid V8 with outdrive. The outdrive is trash. The engine is just a pile of rust (it's actually MUCH worse than it looks in this picture).
I wanted an inboard engine anyway. I don't like outdrives. Sure, I know they are popular and convenient...but I don't like them. Putting your drive train through two 90 degree angles and bending it to steer is a bad idea! I've had experience with an outdrive breaking down. I have much more faith in direct inboard systems.
I also wanted twin engines. Twin engines are more expensive. It will be a lot more trouble to install two engines. It will cost more to operate twin engines. But...I like the idea. I really want completely redundant systems (separate electical, separate fuel). I like the idea of the handling advantages of twin engines. I love the idea of the sound of two engines!
I hope you've found my web page useful (or at least amusing). If you're also restoring an old fiberglass boat I'd like to hear from you.
Please remember that I'm not advocating or recommending that you take any course of action. I'm just describing my experiences. I will not accept any responsibility or liability if you injure yourself (or someone else) working on a similar project. I'm not a professional boat restorer. I have no affiliation with any company mentioned on this web page except as a satisfied customer.
Cheers,
visitors since 15 September
2001
I know that this is a lot more engine than the boat originally had (430hp!!!). You wouldn't think I was crazy if I was installing two 200hp outboards on a bracket. But I don't want outboards. Will two 215hp inboards really fit in this boat? I don't know...
Like I said, the total horsepower doesn't seem completely crazy (it's excessive, but not crazy). The total weight is pretty reasonable. The open version of this boat weighs 700lbs. less than the cabin versions so with these engines I'll only be about 300lbs. over the maximum weight ever designed/built on this hull design. But what about the balance? I'll be moving a lot of weight forward of where the engine is now...
With twin engines I can use relatively small propellers (12") so the engines don't have to be as far forward as a single engine (pulling a bigger prop) would. Lengthwise the engines will fit (I think) inside the engine compartment. The engines will still be behind the center of gravity of the hull (but it will shift the CG forward and maybe forward of the center of buoyancy).
I'm not a marine architect, so I needed some professional advice. I called Padden Creek Marine (who restore/repair lots of Uniflites). The gentleman I spoke to very graciously spent quite some time discussing the repower of old Uniflite boats and my particular situation. He indicated that my plan wasn't completely nuts. In fact, he thought that a 23' Uniflite with twin 215 Mercs would be pretty cool!
Before I actually start the installation I'm going to check the balance. When I get the hull patched up I'm going to haul it to the nearest lake and launch it (with no engines in it). I'm going to put four 55 gal. drums in the boat and fill them with water to simulate the weight and weight distribution of installing twin engines. That should really tell me if this is going to work.
Meantime...I might as well get the engines running.
That's the starboard engine running on blocks on the driveway (see the water shooting out of the exhaust). I've had both engines running. Really refreshing to work on an engine with spark plugs and points.
New plugs, plug wires, points, etc. and the engines were ready. I still need carburetors (got them started with an old junk carb, but I don't want to trust it offshore).
But man! Those old American V8's sound great. Nothing like the rumbly growl of a big marine engine. With two of these puppies this will be the best sounding boat on the lake!
5 July 2006 -
OK...If you are going to repower an old boat, you will need to remove the old engine and put the new one(s) in place. This old Uniflite is a big boat. At the stern the gunnel is 7 feet above the ground. It's going to require a serious hoist to lift engines that high.
This A-frame hoist is at least as big as it looks in this picture (I built it). The main beam at the top is 12 ft. long and is two 2x8's laminated together. The legs are each two 2x4's 12 ft. long.
The hoist rolls over the stern of the boat and the winch cable is attached to the old engine....
It isn't really quite that simple. The pulley on the main beam has to be centered over the lift point. The engine has to be hooked up so that it will be balanced. You have to find ALL of the bolts holding the old engine to the mounts.
1 October 2006 - Since my static balance test showed that it was reasonble (balance-wise) to install the twin engines I proceded with the process. Of course, a major construction project like putting twin engines in this boat also requires some major "deconstruction"....
It's actually good news and bad...
The good news is that the old engine is out and I can really clean out the engine room and can repair the hole in the transom where the outdrive was.
The bad news is that when I pulled the old engine I found that the stringers were rotten under the engine. Obviously, all the places where holes were drilled through the fiberglass allowed water to get in and the wood is rotten.
It was too much to expect that a boat in this condition wouldn't need to have the stringers rebuilt. Oh well, the lumber is already on the way...
So I fired up the Sawzall and started removing things.
Those two big engines won't fit into the hull through the little hatch that was in the forward part of the engine room. So I cut a bigger hatchway.
Those nice steps down into the forward cockpit took up too much room in the engine spaces so they had to go.
Those tubes (PVC) where the wiring came through the bulkhead are going to be in the way and need to be shortened.
That little fiberglass flap separating the forward bilges from the engine spaces is loose anyway so it came out.
The stringers will be in the way of the new engines so the Sawzall went back to work and big chunks of the stringers came out. Don't worry too much yet. There will be new stingers installed to support the engines and maintain structural integrity.
I cut a piece to fit the hole where the steps were removed from the bulkhead at the forward end of the engine room and glued it into place.
Then I got out the big disk sander and ground the heck out of everything. All the glass was ground back until I had clean solid surfaces to work on. The stringers (where parts were cut out) were sanded round and smooth so I could put fiberglass over them.
There were also some areas where the tabbing holding the bulkhead in was coming loose so I ground that down to fiberglass over.
The inside of the hull along the port chine also looked like it could use some reinforcing. I suspect that the port fuel tank still had gas in it when it rusted through and the gas leaked out and soaked into the hull. No problem. A couple of minutes with the sander and a couple of layers of new glass and it will be better than new.
So then I started slapping fiberglass on everything. (Not really quite that cavalier about it. I applied the glass as carefully as I could).
Once the old stringers are glassed over where parts were cut away I'll build and install the new engine stringers.
16 October - I cut the new engine stringers out of white oak planks and started to install them in place. They are sitting on some closed cell foam so there won't be any hard spots in the hull. Right now I'm glassing the new stringers into the hull. The new stringers straddle the original stringers (which were cut down to allow clearance for the engines). The 1x3's across the stringers are just there to hold the stringers in place while I fiberglass them into the hull.
As soon as I put the new engine stringers into the hull I noticed a problem...
When I removed the parts of the original stringers to allow clearance for the new engines I cut the stringers down at an angle and allowed plenty of space to overlap with the new stringers. The stringers aren't just the supports for the engine(s), they are also the major longitudinal structure for the hull. At the aft end of the new engine stringers there is plenty of space to overlap the old and new stringers. I'll fiberglass everything together solidly and I think this will be plenty strong enough to maintain hull integrity.
In the picture of the inboard stringer (lower pic) you can see where I glassed new wood into place to replace the the rotten portions under the old engine.
When I checked my measurements again (easier to check with the new stringers actually in place) I discovered that the nice angles and overlaps on the old stringers wouldn't clear the forward end of the engines. Length is critical in this application so I can't just move the engines aft. So, I cut the old stringers off square with just about 1 inch of overlap with the new stringers.
Those stringers aren't just supports for engines, decks, etc. Those are the main longitudinal structure for the hull. I don't want to be pounding through an offshore chop and have one of the engines go through the bottom of the hull. I'll need to add some serious reinforcement to transfer longitudinal stresses between the old and new stringers so there aren't any weak points in the hull.
12 November 2006 -
I've spent almost a month fiberglassing in the stringers and reinforcements. I still worry about whether everything is strong enough. But, I tend to overengineer/overbuild everything. Especially when it's something I don't have a lot of experience with (like fiberglass and boats). I don't need this boat to make my living. I'm not going offshore racing with it. It's a really solid hull. I'm probably just being paranoid.
When I decided there was enough fiberglass on everything I sanded down the rough spots and painted the inside of the engine room. It isn't real pretty, but it will protect the fiberglass/epoxy from UV damage and it will make it easier to identify problems (leaks) if they occur. Besides...it looks nicer.
The big butterfly shaped spot really is a butterfly that didn't recognize wet paint.
That's pretty cool anyway. New console. Gauges and controls all installed. The gauge panel is originally out of a '68 Pacemaker. I cut it down to fit this console. The throttle/transmission controls I bought real cheap because the chrome was pitted. A little wire brushing, some good metallic epoxy paint, and some new knobs and they look great. Even have a cool monkey fist keychain on the key (I made that too). Then things went south...
The engine started right up. Then I noticed it wasn't pumping any water. I shut it off and looked at everything. Started it again and it burped into the bucket I was using as a water supply. Darn, I got the hoses hooked up to the seawater pump wrong. I looked at them carefully. I read the markings on the pump. I STILL hooked it up backwards. So wrestle the pump out of there, switch the hoses, wrestle the pump back into place.
The engine started right up again. Now it's pumping water. But, the alternator isn't working. Check all the wiring. It isn't working. OK, I guess it was just too far gone to rebuild. I'll have to replace it.
So, the engine is sitting there humming along. I'm warming it up so I can change the oil once more before installing it in the boat and blat...two big thick chunks of rust blow out of the exhaust. I'm talking 2"x4"x1/4" thick. Obviously some part of the exhaust is seriously rusted inside. It was getting cold and dark so I shut it down to wait for morning.
10 February 2007 - You know...if it isn't one thing it's another. Sometimes it's three or four. The new risers and alternators arrived and I installed them on the starboard engine. I put that engine into the boat with no problem (none worth mentioning). It fit!
Then when I had the time I started to install the port engine. Before I got it off the ground I remembered that I hadn't finished working on the engine mounts. Those nice adjustable mounts have been in the same position for at least 10 years (maybe 20) and need to be taken apart, cleaned, and oiled. While I was working on one of the rear mounts I decided to take the riser off so that I would have more room. I've got the new risers and they need to be replaced anyway. No problem...
But, if you forget to drain the water out of the riser and manifold when you pull the riser then water runs into the manifold and then possibly into the engine. So it requires another 6 hours of work to pull all the sparkplugs on that side, spray WD40 into the cylinders, wire up the engine again, start it up and run it until it's warm (and dry) and then disconnect everything again.
But with a little effort the engine is ready to install and is hanging from the crane.
There they are! Twin V8's! They really did fit.
Now THAT'S an engine room!
Very early in the process of installing the running gear I realized that the shafts weren't really straight. That's not a big problem. I bought the shafts used (really cheap) and I wasn't real surprised that they needed to be straightened. I was surprised to learn how many machine shops don't seem to be capable of straightening a small shaft. One machinist told me that it wasn't possible since stainless steel isn't heat treatable (he didn't even ask what stainless alloy it was). One machinist asked how bent the shafts were and when I told him he said that he couldn't get them any straighter.
What the heck!?!? I've got a couple of V-blocks, a dial indicator, and a hydraulic press. I'll straighten them myself. It turns out that it wasn't real difficult. With the shaft on the V-blocks the dial indicator showed any bend and it was pretty easy to straighten it with the press.
But when I installed the shafts in the boat there was still a lot of wobble. Then I realized that the faces of the couplers weren't square with the shafts. So...back to the V-blocks and dial indicator. I slipped the couplers onto a mandrel and faced them off with the lathe. It took most of an entire day (it was raining anyway), but I got to the point where the runout on the face was under 0.005". That's pretty straight.
Yes, that's layed out on a pool table. That was the only surface I had available big enough and flat enough for this job.
I've got the engines in place. They are lined up where I want them. The shafts are straight and in line with the engines. There are new cutlass bearings in the struts. Now I need to install the struts so that they line up with the shafts.
I mixed a batch of epoxy putty and spread a layer on the bottom of each strut. Then I covered it with a layer of plastic (a piece of drop cloth) and pressed it up into the bottom of the boat with the strut in the correct position. This way the strut is fit perfectly to the boat.
It wasn't really quite that easy. One of the struts took two tries to get it just right.
Of course, to put the propeller shafts through the hull it was necessary to drill holes in the hull. It's a little scary to drill a hole that big in the bottom of a perfectly good boat.
The lines drawn on the bottom of the hull are just for reference and aren't supposed to indicate where the hole should be.
While I was working on things I decided to go ahead and install the props. I won't really need them for a while, but it looks so darned cool.
These are 12" props, but I've actually got enough clearance that I can go to 13" props (maybe even 14") if necessary.
Some of you have probably recognized that there's a problem here. Yes, a problem. And it's because I made a mistake. A very small error in geometry and the props wound up about 4" farther aft than I thought they would. The props are still completely under the transom, but there's no room to install rudders behind them.
So now what? It isn't possible to move the engines farther foward. I guess I could try to find a pair of shorter struts and cut the shafts shorter to move the props forward. I think what I'm going to do is just mount one rudder on the centerline between the props.
I know that isn't the way it's usually done but I think it will work. The rudders I have are larger than necessary for this boat. I was going to cut them down and reshape them but I'll just install one large one. When the boat is underway the rudder should work fine. At low speeds there will be very little rudder effect, but it should be possible to steer with the engines. If it doesn't work...I'll just patch the hole in the bottom of the boat and start working on a system for mounting the rudders outboard of the transom.
