keltik

I SUCCESSFULLY DID BOATING TODAY!

Julia's been charging you too much mate

Have replaced the tiny steering pulley, run a new steering cable and greased all the moveable bits. Then I spent waaaay too long painting the hull. Grandad taught me well. You see, the secret to a good paint finish is all in the preparation. First you buy thick paint, then keep building up layers until it looks good. Let's take a minute to appreciate where not much effort and barely adequate skill has gotten us. From here; To here; Engine accessory drive belt is short enough that the tensioner actually does something now. Another test scheduled for this weekend, let's see what breaks next.

Once bought an engine from a wrecker and it ended up having oil consumption issues. So they got me to take it to their closest authorised 'mechanic' for inspection. He told me the best fix was to "put a little jiff down the carby to scuff up the rings a bit".....and this was on a 2008 Subaru. /thread derail

And since your cam hasnt turned to custard, we can assume the plastic oil pump is pumping

Bit of schmoo stuck in the rod perhaps?

The big end bearings on my GN have had nothing but max RPM abuse since I've had it and they are absolutely fine getting a little bit knocky. Its still an amazing engine IMHO. More usable rev range than a Lifan 125 and the 5 speed makes them possibly the best shitty 125 you can buy. Have also heard stories/read somewhere that having a greater piston to wall clearance means the piston heats up more as it cant effectively transfer heat into the cylinder walls through the oil layer around the skirt. Then the wrist pin thermal mass causes the piston to expand non-symmetrically and things get all scuffy on the sides. I don't think your issue is too much clearance, too much abuse or too lean....I think it has to be crappy oiling to the piston. I'm assuming these things don't run a piston squirter oil jet? Have you been running the same rod/crank for all of the big bore kits?

I think I learned something today. Found a safety bulletin from maritime NZ about the dangers of badly set up wire rope steering systems. The wire has a minimum bend radius related to its diameter. Any pulley it bends around needs to be greater than this radius or the cable will eventually fatigue and fail. So this one which has clearly been replaced recently and is half the diameter of the others is no good. Time to buy some more wire rope.

Mate, it goes like a going thing on going day. AND you can turn it off when hot and it will start again.

I believe we both know a gentleman with some colortune plugs in a suitable ancient thread/hex size

A ski slope was probably involved

You'll notice in the previous post, I omitted the step where you start the engine to make sure you haven't fucked anything up. So got to the boat ramp this morning, invited my dad out again as safety boat. Got off the trailer and the engine wouldn't start at all. Not a single fart. Went home, did some actual diagnostic work and figured out the electric box bits weren't getting any juice. Turns out I'd knocked a crappy plastic crimp on terminal loose from the EFI relay. Phoned up the old man but felt super bad asking him to drive another 45 mins over to the lake. So I went to meet him at Ohiwa Harbour since that would only be a 5 min drive for him. The wobbly wheel bearing decided to grenade on the way there. Stopped at Mr VG's house to pick up the axle he had welded up for me and slammed it in there before the wheel fell off. Decided to undersling the axle to fit my new wheels under the guards...Then at the boat ramp discovered the extra ride height means I need to park my Ute mostly in the sea. Anyways I finally got to go boating and the harbour was rough as guts. Steering cable snapped about 200m short of the boat ramp. After sitting there doing donuts at idle for a short while, I climbed onto the engine cover and sat hanging off the back so I could steer the nozzle with my feet. Now to figure out why the cable snapped and sort that out before next weekend. Better flip that axle over too and massage the guards.

I think you'll find it's a lying thing. My last Chinese clone Honda motor was supposed to be 50cc but was a sneaky 70

How to replace the crank position sensor on your Commodore v6. Step 1, remove the firewall/engine compartment front cover. Step 2, use the historical artifact Hart Holden genuine GM service tool to pull the harmonic balancer off. Step 3, remove the plastic cover around the sensor, unbolt it and install a brand new Chinese knockoff sensor for $24. Reassemble all components applying some black goop to the crank pulley bolt and tighten to max ugga-dugga with the compressor red lined up to 130psi. Hopefully if the weather plays ball and I can get a safety boat to come along I'll give it a test tomorrow morning. Lessons have been learned tho and I will return to the boat ramp once the engine is hot and attempt to restart it there.

What if you put a valve on the exhaust for each cylinder? Then you could use a blower for forced induction, shave the head by half an inch and replace that pesky spark plug with a unit injector. Its the only 2stroke design i'll accept.

Fits like a glove

Well....testing was a bit of a mixed bag. The exhausts don't leak any more....but a new big leak showed up under the fuel tank....but it was easy to fix with a blob of sealant. For about 20 mins, had some picturesque boating bliss. Then Mr Greer had some power issues and headed back to the shore. So I came to a stop and attempted to restart the engine to check how much cranking it needed, and it wouldn't start. Good thing I invited along a safety boat. Got towed back to shore and spent the next hour trying to figure out the issue while VG futzed with his carburetor. I'm pretty sure it's the usual 3.8 issue of the crank angle sensor being shit. So I'll go back out next weekend with a new one in there and a spare DFI module to swap in if the sensor doesn't change anything.

Got the new plates all welded up by my genius engineer friend. Put everything back together and checked to make sure I hadn't fried the ECU or done something silly. Gonna hit the lake tomorrow to see how many leaks are left.

So I removed the RH/starboard exhaust today and stripped back all the bog in that side of the stern. Discovered the exhaust outlet on that side was cracked half way round and the seam between the stern sheet metal and the bottom of the hull had cracked in one place and been buried under bathroom sealant. So I cut out the existing exhaust outlet and what I'm guessing was a previous engine's exhaust outlet next to it. Patches are made up, new exhaust fittings are made up....time to go and see the man with the lightning gun to put it all back together. I also found another poorly repaired outlet hiding underneath all of that filler. I think it probably used to be the engine tell tale or maybe bilge pump outlet that someone has covered up. There's a nice crack around it which has been leaking a little. Feel a bit umm...concerned? Since skimming this thing flat out across the lake the other week blissfully unaware of the hidden horrors. Then again it's a boat. No WOF, no worries. Good enough is.

Tonight's tool tip. Clamp a piece of wood to your work to act as a sacrificial guide when using a hole saw on metal. You can also use the air duster through the vents on the drill to cool it off quicker when the smoke comes out and its too hot to hold. You always hear AvE complaining about modern tools shutting off with thermal overloads....well this Ryobi just keeps going until the brush holders melt right out of her Keep yer dick in a vice

That would be so convenient. I have to take my driveshaft out if I want to run the engine up at home

Took the water supply from the jet pump to the sand trap and actually put a bulkhead fitting on the transom to seal it properly. The current method was just water hose through a hole covered in bathroom sealant. Jobs to do in vague order of importance; Reinforce transom around exhaust outlets Make new exhaust skin fittings Patch hole in the bow Vee Install dry storage container for phones, wallets, keys etc Fit emergency manual bilge pump Get some HT leads the right length Replace sparky plugs Replace rocker cover and valley gaskets Fit some positive buoyancy foam...this is probably pointless. A steel hull with a cast iron 3.8 in it would need the Goodyear blimp to keep it from going the full titanic Mount the seats better/securely Make the hull look a little nicer Upgrade steering to actual teleflex cable instead of old school wire rope Fit m90

Previous owner also said it had a leak he couldn't find somewhere in the front....there And I also discovered one exhaust was no longer attached at the transom and had flex fatigued itself clean off Time to reinforce the transom with a couple of patches hot metal glue gunned over the top. Will make up some new exhaust skin fittings that spread the load better than just welding straight to the hull. I did manage to fit an air filter and clean all of the dog hair out of the MAF sensor. Also moved the battery from sitting in the bottom of the bilge to an actual battery box behind the passenger seat. Moved the isolator switch from its bracket on the bottom of the bell housing (why the fuck was it put there?!) To the firewall between the seats so it's reachable by driver or passenger in an emergency.

First job was to get the trailer road worthy. Previous owner told me the lights all worked well and it just needed the plug repaired. So I wired on a new plug and discovered every single LED light was poked. Installed some new ones and ticked that off the list. Second job was to do something about these tyres... Turns out there aren't a whole lot of tyre options for 225/55R12.5 so I popped off to pick a part to get some new 4x114 rims. Went to fit the first one and the hub was flopping all over the place so I took it off and found this... Time to make a new axle I guess.

I think I'm gonna put some more dents in this hull first....then throw the pump on a Thomas Hewitt hull and fit a 1UZ in front of it. But that's a long way in the future by which time my plans will have changed completely.