keltik

And it seized. Luckily it happened on the way home in a nice flat bit of slow flowing river. Not sure if the oil temps got too high or if something else went wrong...But cylinder 6 doesn't do much any more and the plug is covered in oil. I'm not that sad about it since against all odds, I accomplished my major goal of making it to the Aniwhenua dam outlet. Mr Greer was kind enough to tow me home.

Got the local engineer to spin up a new spacer for me, cleaned everything up and started reassembly. Got some new oil seals and loctite, the packaging was excellent. I glued the front bearing into it's housing with the loctite after cutting some shims to keep it centered in the bore and to electrically insulate it from the aluminium. Discovered a couple of sad threads. I can't quite tell what they were tapped to but some brand new M10 bolts tightened up ok. If I ever put this stuff into a new hull, must remember to get some threadserts installed while it's out. Finished reassembling everything and went for a gentle squirt about the lake to run the bearing in without the engine cover fitted so I could keep an eye on things. Noticed large amounts of oil smoke billowing from the right hand bank. Turns out there's a sneaky hole in one rocker cover weeing oil onto the headers. There's also a lot of smokey blow-by coming out of that hole but we won't think about that for now....we're just going to 'fix' it. Back to the lake tomorrow for a good extended run with VG and J5.

Found a puller and got that collar off the shaft. After that, I ended up taking the back end apart so I could slide the shaft out the back. The impellers actually weren't as bad as I was expecting. The tip clearance is more than I'd like and the leading edges are a bit battered but they'll get the job done.

Get us one of these please love - this ones fucked. Previous owner has indeed filled the seal lubrication hole with silicone. Everything has also been reassembled less the electrical insulation stuff so the front bearing was pretty loose in the outer housing - had not been loctited into place as they recommend. Might need to get someone talented on a lathe to spin up a new spacer. This ones got a pretty decent groove in it from the oil seal and the front edge is also chooched so i cant just turn it round. I really hope its not part of the shaft! I guess I'll find out soon enough once I get a suitable sized puller to go in there.

So now that j5 and vg both have working boats, it's my turn to break down. On the way back to the ramp from the harbour trip yesterday, I started hearing a bit of a whine noise from mine. I stopped off at the dam on the way home to have a quick run in fresh water and the whine turned into a full gilly drive blower out the hood spec whine with a side of fucked rear diff roar. The front oil seal on the pump had popped out and thrown it's grease everywhere. Since there's only one bearing - diagnosis was pretty easy. Took the drive shaft, yoke and front bearing carrier off. The bearing is still tight on the impeller/main shaft so I've posted on the jbnz forum for advice on how to pull it. After reading the manual, I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be 3 oil seals behind the bearing and the cavity these seals sit in gets periodically oiled. Then there's a weep hole to alert you the seals are shit before the water takes out your front bearing. On my unit, the oiling hole for this cavity is pristine and untouched for several years and what I think is the weep hole is full of bathroom sealant. I think I can put 2+2 together here. The impellers look alright and tip clearance isn't great but also isn't terrible so i'm going to leave all of the back end alone.

And some photos to stick on the fridge

I'm pleased to announce this boat has successfully completed stringent reliability and performance trials including but not limited to... Shallow water performance Low speed maneuverability Higher speed spins and dicking around

Proof that it runs Proof of a happy VG Testing shallow water performance Cleaning the intake grate afterwards is an easy job

How dare you sir! Have already modified the enclosure to one that has half a chance of working. If the ECU gets wet now, it's because the boat sank. And tbh at that point, I don't care. I'm liking the VS setup just fine so feel no need to change. I'd never bother swapping to anything short of a Link and I wouldn't bother doing that in this hull.

Nang is your job. I'll provide the moo

Yeah deleting trans codes would be choice, should get rid of the evap/purge codes while I'm at it then I can throw that solenoid away. I've got a spare EPROM to have a go at ruining. Took the boat out yesterday and it ran the best it ever has. I don't know if I'm just imagining it or if it really has picked up some power. Managed to suck some air into the pump mid turn, a 3.8 with 3ft of straight exhaust hitting rev limiter unexpectedly made me shit myself. I reckon with the motor running correctly and the pump freshened up, I'll be getting well above the hulls comfortable speed range. It feels sketchy as frig above 50 as it is.

Viagra! I knew it.

Part 2 of the plan involved un-pinning the ECU wires that are unnecessary. Previous guy just cut them close to the connectors but that's not very tidy. Wired in a diagnostic port but this thing isn't exactly OBD2 compliant. What I really need is the original GM Tech1 diagnostic tool. Luckily I have access to one. This thing is mega old-school and uses Nintendo cartridges to provide definitions data for each vehicle you use it with. I tried using the cartridge for VS Commodore, but the first thing it does is listen for body control module data....Which never arrives because this is a boat. Tried using the VP cartridge which lets me select 3.8 engine but still doesn't get any data. There's 5 volts on the data line so I know it's connected. Plan B was to wire up the 'self test enable' line which you just short to ground and it will flash out codes through the check engine light. This also required me to wire up a check engine light. Got all that done and the only present fault codes are for torque converter and shift solenoid faults, which makes sense. I really need to see live data so my next plan is to figure out another way to communicate with the ECM. Isn't this fun!

To better diagnose my hot start issue, I figured it would be nice to plug into the ecu and see what it thinks is going on. First problem was where did the guy who built this thing put the diagnostic connector... Nowhere is the answer. So off to pick a part to liberate a complete engine loom from the VS commodore there. Then to figure out how everything should be wired in, a factory service manual sure would be handy. Removed the ECU from its waterproof enclosure. They did a pretty good job filling it with foam and bathroom sealant and even glad wrap. As anyone who's ever tried to waterproof anything knows....you can't. So off came the glad wrap and I popped out the EEPROM chip to shake the water out of it.

This thing made so much dort, I was too busy wondering how the fuck it was so rowdy and I missed a shift. A+, would trade again

Yup, still there. Will throw a cam position sensor at it next. I'm 99% sure that isn't the problem but I do have a spare. Need to measure the hot cranking speed as it does sound a bit slow. Replacing the valve and valley cover gaskets is the next priority as the nice clean new oil I put in likes to leak out a lot more.

Did it. Much serenity was had and now she doesn't hate me as much for selling the spa pool to buy the boat. Swapped in another ignition control module and drained a good 100ml of water out of the filter. Will see on the next test run if the hot start issue is still there. I thought it was gone, but the second VG got in the boat - it did it again.

Turn up to J5s earlier on Thursday and I'll convince the local bike shop guy to let you do some pulls

If she's lucky

Tonight's update. Changed the plugs and re-routed the HT leads a bit tidier. Discovered you can't fit a plug socket between the manifold and the plugs....so had to use a spanner which may explain why I found one plug finger tight with sooty brown skid marks all around it. Used genuine GM plugs because they are OE finest quality/$19 for a set of 6. Also named the boat using a $4 K-mart stencil and a Sharpie. This weekend's goal is to go boating with VG and maybe take the missus for a hoon

Couple of action shots from Mr Jones snr I'm hoping the next pics will include other squirty things from Mr VG and Mr J5 in the same puddle at the same time.

Wouldnt draw much water and Dave probably couldn't die on it

Keen to pop out next weekend also and tidy up the front of green boat and finish peeling the banana. Then it can go sit outside and think about what it's done

Video proof that moos happened