Way2slow

With most all motor's there's going to be a delay. The bigger the motor, the longer the delay. You're big V-6 Johnsons and Evinrudes seem to take forever before they start. The water pump has to fill the block first, some of those hold several gallons of water. Now, with that said, and it's an 87 model motor, unless you know for sure it has recently had a new impreller/kit installed in it, I would replace it. I replace mine every three years.

To me, it's a no brainer. I would not even consider the manual start. Electric start all the way. Both motor's have the same powerhead so there's going to very little difference in performance between the two. That couple of mph the 30 might give will never be missed when it comes to the pleasure of being able to hit the button and go. For me, electric start would be a must, and power tilt would be a second must.

I went with both places also. I went with Lowrance and put a 7 on the bow and 10 on swivel bracket. I also went one step further and mounted a 5 in the console. My vote with one unit would be at the console. Two problems with just having it on the bow. I don't know about HB but Lowrance says a speed of 4 mph is recommend, that's almost impossible with a TM. Much slower and the images get too stretched out. I'm mostly using the structure scan and down scan while looking for structure and sitting in the drivers seat at a fast idle. I seldom have the bow unit on anything other than standard sonar. Every now and then I might throw the TM on high and try to check out a spot with the structure scan but that's not very often.

Anybody messing with TM batteries should have one of these http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/WESTWARD-Battery-Tester-1EFX6?Pid=search if they have caps on them. If you have sealed batteries, take them out and have them tested. Most places that sell batteries will test them for free.

For one, supply and demand. So few people use them now, it cost a whole lot more to manufactor them. You figure a company tools up to make a new LCD unit to sell 100,000. They spend the same amount tooling up to make a flasher to sell 10,000. Guess which one is going to cost a whole lot more.

You MUST have it bored by a shop very experienced with outboard blocks. Every hole I've ever had a good auto machine shop bore was screwed up. They can't do it. Most can't because they don't have the head to bore blind holes. Those that try almost always leave the sleeve with a tapper. On top of that, many are ungodly expensive that do try. Plan on shipping the block off and it should only cost you between $200 and $300 to bore plus shipping. I know of a great shop in Tennesse, but they are whole sale only, nothing for the public. Some of the guys on S&F may be able to tell you of someone close to you. Maybe someone on here knows of a place close to you. Again, DO NOT take it to an auto machine shop. One other thing, after final honing, the edges of the ports must be chamfered so the rings won't bite the sharp edge of the port and break the rings. No non marine machine shop would know how or even that it needs to be done.

I would strongly recommend you take good, fairly close pics of each piston and post them here http://www.screamandfly.com/forumdisplay.php?20-Technical-Discussion. There are some mighty good merc guru's on that site. From the way these look, that top piston was a little lean. It looks to me like the bottom piston was lean, and kept melting away piston until some of the rings or locator pins got sucked up on top of it. You will probably need to replace that head also. That is also a good site for merc parts. Just be careful buying heads, most of those guys are racers and hotrodders and some are not above selling you a cut/shaved head. You will want a stock, that has not been cut. One other word of caution. Soooo many people think that since they are rebuilding it, this would be a good time to throw in some mods. DON'T get tempted. While there are a few things you can do, the most hp gains come from porting. This has to be done by an experienced person, and YOU WILL screw up your first block if you think you want to try it yourself. I screwed up my first five or six in one way or another before I got it right. Another thing you have to remember, Mercs are 2.4L/2.5L motors and the factory didn't leave a whole lot of power on the tabel like they did the 3.0 OMC's (my motors). They do crank out very good hp, but the only way to get big hp numbers is by increasing the rpm through changing the port map. As you increase rpm you take away hole shot. Something that does not work real on heavy bass boats. The second downside to that is you have to really know how to tune a two stroke because you will greatly increase you're chances of melting it down again.

I would have just popped the heads off first and seen what the piston and cylinder looked like. As for the tear down, it would be much simpler just to pull the whole powerhead off and put it on and engine stand. It's going to have to come off anyway before you can do anthing with splitting the case and getting the pistons/rods and crank out. Once you get the head off, take some good picks and and ask the merc experts (I'm assuming it is a merc) on Scream and Fly technical forum about what they think caused the melt down. There's a whole bunch of merc racers and engine builders on there that have seen every kind of melt down one can give you. They can probably give you a good idea of what caused it. Lean will usually burn/melt it toward the exhaust port. Pre-Dedonation will usually leave pitts around the edges of the piston along with a hole in the center. Timing/double fire will usually just take the center right out of the piston (bad ecm).

From the looks of that one plug, looks like you melted a piston. You didn't say what make motor. Is it an EFI or DFI motor. I think the only injectors in an EFI is up in the air horn. If thats the case, an injector failure should have affected more than just one hole. If it's DFI, then it's possilble to have been an injector. Bad/old gas can cause it, ignition can cause it (one cylinder can be advanced too much). Air leak somewhere. Depends on what the dome of the piston looks like.

If it's one of the mid to late 80's inline six 115's then it is 150 from earlier years. When they started rating the hp off the prop shaft instead of the flywheel, the 150's became 115's. If you're talking later models, the the size is very, very obvious. The cowling on the 150 is almost twice the size of the cowling on the 115. You won't be fooling anyone with a decal swap.

It's only cost effective if you have built a number of two stroke outboards and know what you're doing. There's a lot of little things you need to know that you don't do with car motors. If it broke, and not just worn out, then you have to know how to read the signs the internal parts are giving you as to why it broke. Very good chance the ECM, the injection system or oiling system caused the failure and if you don't find what caused it to break, you will probably be doing it all over again in short time. An experienced guy doing it himself can save a few thousand. An inexperienced guy doing it himself can cost himself a few extra few thousand or even a whole motor because if it damages the block or crank, they will give you very little or no core credit on it.

The horse power is not where you will see the biggest difference, the torque is where the difference will show, big time. Torque is what gets you up on plane and going with a load. Most manufactors use one size power head for a for their V-6 motors below 200hp and another, larger power head for motors rated at 200 hp and more. There is no substitution for cubic inches to make torgue. As for more HP more speed, as mentioned, there are too many variables. A light, fast hull, produces much more gain per hp than a heavy, high drag hull, that may only give a couple more mph. Now, as for changing decals on a 200 to 175, there is usually a noticable physical size difference between the two that most people knowing anything about them can easily see. Then the data plate is going to have a model/serial number that's going to specify the hp if they ever checked it. Not real sure I would want to get caught with that setup.

Probably the true story was he wanted a bigger TM but wasn't sure how to convence the wife of that, having just bought the boat. Figured if he tore it off, then there would be no argument

If it only bent the shaft, those are replaceable. I've bent bunches of them. If you also bent the prop shaft, then it's probably not worth repairing. 42" is the most common size for bow mounting on most bass boats.

Sorry, but for somebody that's "Supose" to know their electronics, that's about the dumbest statement I've ever heard. No one said it was to protect the units from failure, I said they protect from additional damage upon failure. After almost 30 years of electronics I've seen more than enough equipment destroyed beyound repair by over fusing. It's a lot less expensive to replace a shorted diod that blew the proper size fuse than one that was over fused and melted runs, burnt holes in the circuit board, took out a lot of other components to the point the whole circuit board is total junk. However, as I've always said, no one is going to tell me how to operate my equipment and I'm not going to try and tell someone else how to operate theirs. If he wants to a 100 amp fuse in them, go for it, but no way in (open for interputation) would I do it with mine.

NO!! If each calls for a three amp fuse, having two connected to a three amp will greatly increase the chance of constantly blowing the fuse. If you go to a larger fuse to keep this from happening then you loose protection of both units because then if one unit goes bad, instead of having 3 amp fuse protection, you have what ever the larger fuse size you used. Greatly increasing the possibility of causing additional damage or even a fire inside the unit. I know you can argue that if they draw 1.5 amps and are factory fused with a 3 amp, if you go to a 4.5 amp you still have 3 amp protection because the other unit is drawing 1.5 amps. What if the other unit happens to not be on.

I think all manufactors recommend leaving the caps on to prevent water loss. I agree, back in the 60's and my service station days, you was always told to charge with caps off, but when done, everything around was wet. Just like you always charged on a wood CocaCola krate, that you couldn't sit a battery on concrete. Again, wrong. When you charge, you only loose water, not sulfuric acid. You only loose acid by sulphation, which can only be recovered by desulphation. Adding additional acid only eats the plates more. I know I've reclaimed batteries also by flushing them with 100% lye, the distiled water and then adding new acid, they do it frequently with industrial fork lift batteries, but these have thick solid lead plates and can handle it a little better. On your small TM batteries, it's usually short lived after doing that. I've tried it on brand new batteries that sat on the shelf and sulphated. Just didn't get enough use to make it worth while. Adding small amounts of concentrated sulfuric to get the specific gravity can be done, but then if the sulphation desolves any, it's way too hot and in either case, it eat the crap out of your old plates that have been etched one tim. Before trying drastic measures, I would just by a Battery Minder for about $45, hook the batteries in parallel (it will do several batteries at one time) when you store the boat and leave it connected for about a month or two and see what they do then. I've used batteries I've desulphated like that and gotten a long service life from them. As for the explosion, that can happen with caps on or off, probably more apt with caps off. Disconnecting a charger that's still on or anything that causes a spark right after a charge or heavy discharge when the cells are full of gas, it can go BOOOM. There are also two more common strengths of electrolite. One used for many cranking batteries that gives a 1.260 specific gravity and one commonly used in deep cycle batteries that has more sulfuric acid that gives a 1.285 specific gravity.

I recently installed a 80#, 60" shaft on my 20 Javelin because that's the only 24V that comes with the gps, iPilot system and tansducer installed. I also just finished a three day trip on Lake Falcon, fishing way back in the middle of brush country and the motor did not create a problem. I left it down about 90% of the time but there were times when I did have to raise it so the head was up about a foot and a half - two feet. While I'd prefer it not have been there, it didn't create any real problem. Most of the time I was able to orient the boat so it was not in the way. Granted, I would not recommend it or say it's NO problem, but it didn't create any real problems for me on that trip. Now, early spring when I start working extremely shallow water with a lot of spinner baits and rattle traps, I may change my tune, say to heck with the warrenty and saw that sucker off. With those, I mainly role cast and from all directions, so that tree always sticking up there may be a problem.

You started off with good batteries and a good charger. Why did you shoot yourself in the foot by not leaving the charger pluged in, and on 24/7 to keep the batteries maintained while not in use? By charging when you return and then again the night before you went out again, you have probably let the batteries sulphate, which will not happen if you let the charger do what's it's designed to do, stay on all the time and keep a maintenance charge on the batteries. It doesn't take but one extended period between charges for a battery to self discharge. Once it self discharges below 80% it starts to sulphate. Once a plate sulphates, it will not fully charge. A Battery Minder maintainer will desulphate them if it's not too heavy, but that's about the only hope. No amount of charging with a standard charger will do it. Also, do not remove the caps when charging, that only cause the battery to loose additional water. Never add acid to a battery once it has been added the first time (when new).

Dam CRS Disease!! OK, HDS-10, thanks for keeping us old folks on track. I guess I just came out with a new product line for Lowrance.

I had just the opposite experience with tracking. When zoomed in on the HDS-10 and following our previous tracks, it was dead on, and I mean dead center. I was cutting paths through brush/tree tops as thick as hair on a dogs back. When I back tracked and followed the tracking path on the chart, it had me right on the path I had already made, which was very easy to see after the boat had plowed a path through the brush. One thing I will note that was somewhat surprising to me, on all three HDS units, I had to go into the setup and turn on the WAAS capabilities, they do not come with it on.

I had a couple of people ask me to comment on how I like my installation of the HDS-10, HDS-7 on the bow and HDS-5 in the console and networked with the structure scan. The 10 has an X-ducer, the 7 is using the TM's built in X-ducer and the 5 does not have an X-ducer) I'm by no means an expert and there is a lot I'm sure I'm not doing right but here's what I've found so far. The 10 mounted on a swivel mount and 5 in the dash make a very good pair networked together. There are times when it's better having the sonar on the 5 and using the 10 for mapping. This worked great when running a strange lake (Lake Falcon) and when getting way back into the creeks. The size of the screen on the 10 lets you zoom in close enough for good detail (using Navionics HotMaps Platinum) and still see what's around you. What didn't work was having the bow mounted 7 networked with the other two. I finally pulled the network cable out of it so I could use it as a stand alone unit. When networked, they all use one unit as the source and the others read from that source. That created more problems than it was worth when trying to use the X-ducer at the front to see what was under me while on the bow. As mentioned, I finally pulled the network cable out of the seven and just used it stand alone. Doing this I never picked up any interferience between the front and back units but we never fishing any water below 20 feet. What was draw back from pulling the network cable was I couldn't get the waypoints I had marked and stored in the 10. What we were having to do is go to and find the things we wanted on the 10 and then mark them again in the seven. Then use the seven to manuver the TM in position and mark them in the TM so it could hold us or manuver between them. Kind of a round about way of having to do things from the front. Now, there may be ways around this but I'm not familiar enough with them to know it yet. Contrary to what they say, when you have units networked together, there is a lot of crap to learn and things are not as simple as they claim. As for the structure scan and down scan, it's amazing.

I just got back from Lake Falcon and have the newest Navionics Platinum. Like others have stated, it's only as good as when it was made or what data was available. Falcon is one of their high definition lakes but the lake was up approx 20 feet from when they made the map. We were catching large numbers of bass, that according to the map, were about a mile inland from the lakes edge. The map was however, still very helpful because we were able to see where the channels and road were, and way back in those is where we were hammering three to five pound bass for three days, don't have a clue how many we did catch. We didn't boat any big fish but did get a couple on, there was just way too much cover to pull them out of it. We were actaully using the roads to get through much of it because the brush/tree tops were just a thick mess sticking out of the water to go through/over when getting back in some areas just to get to the roads/power lines, etc. As for the gps accuracy, even way back off the lake like we were, they were dead on. As we were going over where the roads were, it showed us being dead center of them.

If a motor is stored outside, especially where the sun can shine on it, you SHOULD run a fogging oil through it as per the product's recommendation. I've seen more than one motor/crankshaft ruined because of the condensation that forms inside the motor and rust the crap out of them. Morning sun is the worst. If you want to see what I'm talking about, go out on a cool/cold morning about 20 minutes after the sun has be shinning on it and pull the cover off, it will look like someone sprayed a water hose under there. This is also one reason why you should never disconnect the fuel line and let the motor run out of gas when you get back to the ramp. That practice removes most all the oil film inside the motor that just turning the motor off leaves. If you want the gas out, take the drain plugs out of the carbs. While you have them out, disconnect the primer bulb on the fuel tank end and use low pressure compressed air and blow through the bulb in the direction of the motor and purge the whole fuel system. I do this any time a carburated motor is going to be sitting a while. If you can get to the fitting on the tank, do it there but DO NOT try blowing back toward the tank. Unless they have been removed, the Coast Guard requires one way check valve be installed at the tank and you can not blow back through them. Usually they are inside the barbed fitting in the tank. These are also a major cause of fuel delivery problems so a lot of people have removed them on older boats. DFI motors, I do not winterize the power head, I mix one ounce of SeaFoam in a half gallon of gas and run them on a hose for 10 - 15 minutes every month or two. I also do not worry about adding fuel presevatives to my fuel tank because I do not leave fuel in my tanks. I pump all the fuel from my tank. I absolutely WILL NOT run any fuel that's over two months old. Other items a most people fail to do is pour antifreeze in the livewell drains and push some through the pumps. These can hold water, freeze and bust. Then you have the water pressure guage and speedometer. If water has gotten into them, it freezes and damages the guages. As mentioned, lube and service the motor and change gear lube in LU. Don't forget the trailer, great time to do wheel bearings so it's ready to go next spring.

What size motor/charging system do you have on you're boat. Two things that come into play with these things is: One, do you have a large enough charging system for it to do you any good? Many older motors only have a 16amp or smaller charging system. These will hardley keep the cranking battery charged, much less have any extra for anything else. I would recommend a minimum 35 amp charging system to see any benifit. Second, and this is big, you can burn out you motors charging system and that's a super expensive "Oh, Crap". Outboard motor charging systems and not very robust and the extra load and length of time it has to work at full or near full output keeping charging TM batteries also can cause it to fail. I've seen several of these type devices take out stators/regulator rectifiers. Now, others will say they are the greatest thing since sliced bread, so you might want to talk to a dealerships mechanic and get their opinion for you're particular motor.