Way2slow

Yea, the floor may have a soft spot or two. Actually, it's totally rotten

Close enough with porting I could do all my calculations on the motor. I'm usually accurate to within about 10%. If that's the case this time, it's going to have a little more ump than I thought. Basing it on 6,000rpm (it will probably be closer to 6,200) and if I run the compression at 130psi, which is on the hairy edge for 87 octane, it comes up to 203hp at the prop. If I drop it down to 125psi for a little cushion, for 87 octane, it's 196hp. My V6 motor is almost the same identical motor, just has two more cylinders and it dino'd at 327hp but it also runs 150psi compression, and this motor is going to be ported almost identical to the V6, just less compression so it won't have to run premium gas. So, if it is in the 200hp range on a 17', 1,000 pound riser hull, she oughta get on down the water. The old Mercury 87, 115 I6 pushed it 52 with two people and gear.

Not sure, but it won't be in the next few weeks. My plate went from empty to overfull almost overnight. After three months, I finally picked up the block and parts for the 90hp Mercury I'm building to go on the pontoon boat and still need to get it ready to go in the water. Which I've still got to come up with a trailer for, or build one. I'm trying to avoid the building one, but I sure do hate to pay $2,000 for a trailer. That's as much as I have in the boat and motor. $1,500 for the boat, $517 for parts and machine work to rebuild the motor I'm still working on the porting on the V4 130 I hope to build for the Stratos, if I can ever get a crankshaft for it. Even then, I've still got to build it. I took it apart 10 years ago, and the parts for it and couple V6 motors are all mixed together and buried in different covey holes. I'm working on the Stratos off and on between other things. I pulled the rub rail off and all the screws holding the cap around the outside, except for a couple I need to take the TM off to get too. That's easy stuff, the real work with it starts once I get the cap off. Then I have a 12x24 metal storage building being delivered in the next couple of weeks I've got to get set up and shelves in so I can hopefully find part of my garage. Last year I built a nice 12x24 building, with 12x8 overhead lofts on both ends to give me plenty of storage and a work area. I got a couple of shelve and about 4'x8' of floor space. The wife and daughter took all the lofts and the rest of the floor space. I will say, my granddaughter saw it today, and asked what I was doing to gramps boat. when I told her I was going to restore it to use it and eventually it was going to be hers, she lit up like a Christmas tree with a huge grin on her face.

The Edge would be considered and entry level bow mount. I has five speed analog control. The Max is a better motor all the way around. It has a better mount It also available with digital control, fully variable speed control With the Maximizer built in, you get much longer run time in the mid to lower speed settings. SC is the 42" five speed model BG is the 54" maximizer model there is the 42" Maximizer. If you can swing it, pick the Max or Max BG with Maximizer over the Edge anytime.

Since it's cable steering, I guess you need to check if the cable is froze up or if the pivot in the motor is (head or shaft bearing). Might try applying some pressure back and forth on the motor and see if you can get it to move. Just remember, that's a small gear on a rack inside that head, and I said "some" pressure, don't go gilla gorilla on it. Might have to take the top off the head and take the rack and pinion out to see where it's stuck. Just make sure when putting it back in, you are center of the rack so you have equal swing in both directions.

I will have to see if I can find a manual and see how the thing is wired. Sounds like the negative side of the solenoid might run on that wire. They may be running that negative to the neutral safety switch. I decided to put my walking man avatar I used on Scream and Fly for years on here. Seems strange to see him to see him there I've gone so long with out anything there.

Just to pull the cap is not usually a problem with one sitting on the trailer. You just can't take the floor out or do anything to disturb the structure of the hull. A lot of people lift the cap off while on the trailer, and then pull the boat out from under the cap. What will get you in trouble is start messing with anything on the inside of the hull and especially pulling the floor out. You definitely don't want to try pulling the floor out without it braced extremely well. I normally slide it off the trailer, onto a bed of sand and then pack sand all under the hull. The last one I did, I put four 4x4 post in the ground down each side, braced them and then using bracing off those to support the sides of the hull. Then, before I take the floor out, I mark places on the top edge of the hull and make supports the exact width of the cap at those points I can lay across and lock down on the hull to hold it in position when I put the floor back in. When the floor comes out and any supports inside come out is when they will open up like a clam shell and can get twisted out of shape. Replacing the strings, you have to be super critical everything thing is well braced. They can twist, and distort in all kinds of way then. Some don't even pop one out of the mold until the stringers and floor are in. If things are not back exactly where they belong, good chance that cap is not going back on. I'm can almost bet it will have to be totally gutted. Back then Stratos used open cell flotation foam and I feel fairly certain it will be saturated and have to come out also. When I did a 1989, 285 Pro I bought years ago, I removed eight 27 - 30 pound buckets of saturated foam from it. If it wasn't for the fact it was my dads and I'm planning on giving it to my granddaughter because It was her gramp's in a couple of years, I would even dream of doing this. It's going to be a lot of work. Also, it only had a 2,400 pound tow weight, so you don't need the 2500HD to haul it.

A ground wire is going to show the same current as positive wire of the circuit. If you have 50 watt bulb wired four feet from the battery drawing 4 amps on the positive wire, it's also going to be drawing approximately four amps on the negative wire. If it's a good connection, you won't be reading any voltage but it still has the current. That was probably something with the ECU and starter solenoid. The motor doesn't need a battery/current source to run. Just to get it started. It also has a cold start idle up circuit for about 10 seconds that might have been drawing a little. There is a coil on the stator for the idle up but I've never really read up on how it reacts with the ECU. It's just on of those things I know it's there and know what it does, but never dug into the details of how it does it.

Well, FedEx just drop off a replacement crankshaft for the first one. If fit the motor, but it will fit a trash can much better. Rusted, total piece of junk.

I just made a post in another forum that made me realize, I have to be nuttier than a fruit cake. I mean totally certifiable. In June, I will be 74 years old and getting ready to rip a boat apart to restore it, and building a go fast motor to put on it, so it will maybe run 65 - 70 mph. People ask me all the time how I do all the stuff I do, and keep telling them my 35 year old brain hasn't caught up with my 73 year old body, and keeps it in trouble all the time.

Been there done that also, mine was in June 2011. Plumbing has been good every check up and stress test since. Three months after that, I had to have the gal bladder removed, a couple months after that, had a lower hernia repaired. I say, it was hell getting old, since I've done got there, it's even worse getting older. Of course, it's still a whole lot better than the only option we have that keeps us from getting old or older.

Motor is in excellent condition also. It actually has a Mercury 115 I6. This is a Evinrude V-4, 130 I'm building and modifying to go on it. Hoping for about 170hp when done. That should do OK on a 900 pound boat. Just in case you notice, no there are no sleeves in the block. I've pulled them out to do all the port work and grinding needed to make the power I'm looking for.

This is my Stratos my brother has had for 8 - 10 years. Said he hadn't used it for three years, the transom was bad and started to replace it. I guess since it gets pretty hot in the summer here, he wanted a couple of shade trees also. Now I get the fun of making a nice boat out of it again. This was my dad boats and he left it to me when he died so I figure I will pay it a little respect. Actually, there ain't nothing about it good. Caps gotta come off and new floor and transom goes in. I have a sneaky feeling it will need new stringers also. Probably go ahead and make a full front deck while I'm at with storage under it. My wife came in yesterday after we got it here and asked what that boat was doing here? She was not happy another piece of junk has showed up in the yard, especially when I told her I was going to restore it and use it for my bass boat. She has been through a few of those and gets p***d at the mess they create when pulled apart and scattered everywhere..

Long rod, 7 -7.5 feet, but the length of the rod is not as critical as the action. How much weight I'm slinging out there and how much feedback I want when retrieving it is what I'm more concerned with.

That's not uncommon for me. Paid $1500 for a pontoon boat, and it's looking like I'm gonna have to pay $2000 for a trailer to haul it on. Paid $300 for a Mercedes, and $1,500 for an analyzer to trouble shoot it.

Going from 200hp to over 300hp, does add a little extra speed on a hull that can take advantage of it. Since stainless props are not cheap, I would try to find someone that has one setup right and see if they will meet you at the lake, or let you borrow theirs before dumping another $500 -$600 in another prop. I know of a couple dealers that will let you try before you buy as long as you don't do any damage to it. Might check around in your are and see if you have one that will.

Actually, prop design can make a big difference. I would not think High rake props are a good choice for non riser hulls that can.t lift more of the hull out of the water or even under powered riser hulls, so that as it gets faster it can take advantage of the rakes bow lift. Since the lions share of my experience is with OMC powered boats, I know more about OMC props than Mercury. I've seen a number of Stratos 201's with 200's on them run faster with a four blade Shooter prop, which has very little rake, than the 3 blade Raker prop that's a high rake prop. Simply because the boat didn't have the speed it needed with a 200 to take advantage of the lift the prop was trying to give, making it run deeper in the water. A prime example, several years back a friend had a 1993, 201 with a 200 Johnson. With a three blade Raker, the most he could get with two people, gear and live well full was 57 mph. I put a Shooter prop on it, without changing anything else and it ran 60.3 mph. I then modified his motor. After which with a three blade Raker it ran 78.7 mph, and then with a shooter prop on it only ran 72 mph. The boat had enough speed to get the riser hull up fully on the pad and take advantage of the high rake prop. And yes, I don't think he ever did get the grin off his face every time he put it in the water going from 57mph to 78mph.

The state introduced them into Clarks Hill years ago, but they are having problems with their survival. It seems the black coots on the lake carry some kind of disease that is deadly to the eagle, and if the eagle eats one that has it, it's a goner. Over they years they have found a lot of dead eagles because of that. Still love to watch them and it's nice when you do get to see one.

I just said pad in reference to the running surface. Yes' yours is just a "V", that's why I said start at the bottom of the V and go out checking for a hook. Owners of your same model boat is the best source of info. No two hulls are the same and no one prop works best on all boats. While I have a lot of experience with go fast fiberglass boats/hulls and getting them setup, I have absolute no experience with aluminum hulls, and I mean "0" experience. The reason they say to use a cupped four blade is it provides more stern lift. The same thing a tuner would do. You will want want to see what four blade most seem to like. Again, there are all kinds of four blade. The standard, general purpose four blade works good on heavier boats, a high rake like about 15 degrees works good on boats that do have a riser pad, because they hold the bow up more. I think the Laser is a high rake prop and may be wrong for your boat. Like I said, high rake provides a lot of bow lift, which is good on riser hulls, but on your hull, while trying to provide all that bow lift, it could pushing the stern down. Having a prop shop put more cup and stern lift in your prop would probably make it worse and over load it at WOT. As you add cup, it's kinda like adding more pitch and will reduce top rpm. A 22" pitch sounds like a sounds like a lot of prop for a boat that's only suppose to run in the upper 40's. I never like to have a motor prop'd in a way that it won't turn very close to the motors max rated rpm. I had rather have mine within 100 rpm of max. Forgot to mention: Moving the motor up and down changes the leverage point on the hull to get it in the sweet spot when the motor pushes the boat most efficiently. That's also the purpose of adding a jack plate to help find that sweet spot of ideal setback and engine height. A side affect of that is drag, the higher the motor the less drag created, the lower the motor, the more drag, which means more or less speed. However, you don't want to get too high and let is start sucking air in the water inlet. You need to monitor you water pressure and make sure it's not dropping below about 16psi in turns.

There are some at Clarks Hill, love to see them. I've gotten shots of the sitting in the tops of pine trees fairly close but that shot's a treasure. At least the fish wasn't on the end of you line. I was bream fishing on the St Johns river once and there was a huge Great Horned owl sitting in a tree right at the edge of the water. I caught a large copper head bream and when it landed on the front deck of the boat, the owl dove down and took off with it, and my hook was still in the fish. He finally snatched it free and went on his way. The next day he was there again, so I just threw a bream on the deck, he flew down, grabbed it an went off. I was telling the guy that run the fish camp we were staying at, and he said he has been doing that for a few years to numbers of people. He said people will hold one up for him to take it out of there hand. Didn't try that, afraid he might miss the fish.

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It's not a part you can't find. It's just a part I haven't been able to come up on within a reasonable driving distance from my house. I'm not going to pay $500 for one and end up with the same BS I'm going through with on this one. The price of this one with free shipping is the only reason I bit on it. There's a couple on ebay now, one the seller claims is polished and looks like he media blasted it and wanting a stupid price for it. That tells me has has probably ruined it because if you do any polishing on the journals, it's with 2,000 grit emery cloth. It an outboard cranks journals are not pristine, it's not going in an engine I build. Been doing this long enough to know what even the most minor looking flaw can do to one. Then you have those idiots selling them cheap but are worthless. One is on there now for around $266 pluse $26 shipping but look at the picture and you see one journal burnt, blue and scored. Pure junk, don't know why people even list something like that. There has never been but one person I know of that could repair one and it not break later. He's dead. There are a couple that claim they can, but I've never heard of anyone having one done that didn't break later, and it's not cheap. Even with automobile cranks, once they weld up and grind down a journal, after re-heat treating it, they have a very high chance of breaking later, and they are no where near as hard as on outboard crank.

He has a name as a marine parts dealer, so, I'm hoping some of the hired help just sent the wrong item. I do have little to no confidence in receiving a usable crank this time. Crap!!, the flipping tracking number he sent this morning, is the same tracking number he shipped the other crank with. So, now I don't think he has even shipped it. fun, fun, fun.

I'm thinking it's probably from one of the cross flow V-4's. They are a lot smaller block than the looper V4.

I got shipping notification on the replacement crank. Scary thought of what I might be getting after this first one. He is apparently one of those that just post a picture of a like part that is not the actual part, no telling what's going to show up this time. I don't have much faith in it being a good crank, or even one that fits. There is an early and a late version, with bunches of the early version around, but very few of the late. The early version uses a different drive shaft length, so they don't interchange without changing drive shafts in the lower unit, or the whole lower unit. If it's not good this time it's all going back. He's supposed to be sending me a return shipping label for the first crank, I will just send both back with that label, and let the battle begin. I bought this motor years ago to put a little more power on a 17' Stratos. Now that' I've pretty much decided to restore that old Stratos to a usable boat, I'd like to go ahead and put this motor on it. Of course, when I get done, it will be closer to 170hp than the 130 it is. Something that will push it to the mid to upper 60's