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Random Quote: All fishermen are liars; it's an occupational disease with them like housemaid's knee or editor's ulcers. ~Beatrice Cook, Till Fish Do Us Part, 1949
Hot dang, I can't wait to try it. I didn't have that manual back when I was working on the VST, and so just twisted and pushed etc, but didn't want to force anything. and then once I got the manual I have not gone back to the VST, as I found the loose connector before I got the tech manual, too.
I am headed down to the boat this afternnoon to squirt some gasoline in the intakes while La Gringa drives...see if any of those bad boys perks up with a shot of go juice.
Okay, for any of you bored enough to still be following this, A couple days ago we tried the gas spray trick to see if squirting fuel into each cylinder while the boat was running would help identify if this was a fuel problem. And if so, if it is a global fuel problem or isolated to one or two cylinders.
So, I got this little spray bottle that does a good job atomizing fuel..(formerly the home of Australian Eucalyptus Oil)
And while La Gringa ran the boat up and down the marina I sprayed fuel into each air intake. Oh, we had a grand old time violating the no-wake thing, and the motor makes one heck of an impressive noise with the cowling and air silencer removed, and a small crowd of mostly Marine Police gathered on the dock to watch this bald headed white guy climbing over the transom squirting something mysterious into his motor (Is it Nitromethane? Ether? Nitrous Oxide? He's crazy, you know. He does these t'ings...)
but it was inconclusive. We couldn't open the throttles up enough in the marina to really test it. And the ocean has been too rough to even consider taking the boat offshore to do it. With the cowling and air intake covers off, I might as well just throw buckets of seawater at the intakes. So I couldn't do it until the winds die down ( almost never) or until after I raised the motor...sigh..
So, we drove home. And I decided it was time to dig deeper into this HPDI, and take a look at the injectors. So yesterday morning I made it back out to the boat ( it's 900 yards from here, and takes an hour round trip to drive to. More on this in a minute...)
I carefully worked my way through this, with no manual in hand ( it's at home on the laptop) and slowly got one of the fuel rails off and exposed the injectors. Took a while that first time.
And I got two of the injectors out, which each looked pretty clean on the business end, to the untrainded eye:
And I was frustrated by not being able to get the third injector out with the tools I had on hand. And this # 6 is one of the major suspects, him and his cohort #5 just " across the block". Frozen in place. Now I was running out of time, cause I had things to do and needed to button this all back up before leaving it. Wouldn't do to leave the motor opened up sitting at the slip. I might get delayed and not be back for days. Nope nope nope.
And I dropped my channel locks in the ocean. No biggie, well, it's annoying, but I put on my faceplate, and dove down and found them. Then while moving the fuel rail around, this brass insert tube where the end bolt goes fell out, gave me a nice 'clink clink' sound as it bounced off a few things, and IT went overboard. I had just started to dry off. Well, I could have lived without the pliers but this I can't replace. So, back with the faceplate and snorkel, and my second trip to the bottom of the briny deep ( bout nine feet) to look for the little hole in the silt where something just fell. And stuck my hand in wrist deep into the ooze with all kinds of colorful and sharp marine life, and found the brass insert.
At this point, climbing back on board, with my shorts falling off cause they are not swim trunks, I had me one of those mental things. You know what I mean? Where I stood there dripping, thinking about the hour round trip to the marina for every time I want to even look at something on the boat. About sweating in the hot tropical sun. About needing to haul the boat to change the motor height. Or the gear oil. About working with all these expensive-ass and small intricate parts hanging out over the salt water. And knowing sooner or later I am going to drop a $ 250 injector or $700 VST pump, or something equally outrageously expensive, and it's going to sink in the muck and I won't find it. Or I will but it will forever be not the same after being underwater, And about needing to pressure wash the boat and repaint it, and how long the marina takes to haul a boat ( days after you ask them, maybe) and how long it takes them to put it back in ( more days) and how they usually damage something, or forget something, while charging you an arm and a leg, and how I hate the idea of having to worry about the boat during hurricane season, and whether it would get damaged sitting there on the trailer with a sailboat next to it falling on it ( did you see my photos from last Sept???), and if they would even get around to hauling it and securing it if a storm came, and how much hassle and wear and tear it is to drive this crummy road well....
It boiled over. Or should I say, I boiled over. A slow boil, but when I boil stuff happens. And this is what I did.
I buttoned the motor back up. I drove home. I picked up the phone and called a local excavation contractor we know, and at 08:00 this morning a bulldozer showed up at my house to build me a second driveway to my ten foot wide garage door ( opposite side so you can drive through the garage) so that I can park the boat at my garage, work on the motor with my tools at hand, in the shade, at the house.
I kid you not.
Sometimes you have to think outside the box. And sometimes you stop, regroup, stomp the old box flat and build a better one.
By tomorrow, I will be able to lay these 300 HPDI parts out on a nice workbench, inside, with my laptop, tools, telephone, and manual close at hand. I won't drop anything else overboard. I can take the bottom paint off and leave it off. I can change the motor height every night if I feel like it. I will save slip fees, and not have to drive ten miles to get to the boat. ( there are three ramps within two miles of the house) and when the next hurricane comes, I will know exactly where my boat is and how it is secured. And I will be able to really learn all I need to know about the care and feeding of the 300 HPDI. And the cost of this driveway is less than half the cost of a new outboard. Heck, we needed it, anyhow, it was in the original plans. That's why I built a drive through garage.
So there.
I really don't know if anyone is reading this. But I feel better.
Wow this reminds me when this was a free country (not true I wasn't born back then) but here, you go to building dept, request a permit ,wait two years, then they say, NOOOOOOO ,and from that moment on you'll have (the Gestapo "spelling?") I meant code enforcement watching every single move you make around your property for the rest of your life. Way to go Gringo, and yes we are still reading. Thanks.
Im talking about The US Caribbean paradise , The Florida Keys.
we did look around a bit before deciding on these islands. People actually buy waterfront property here and then scoop out a slip, or build a dock for their boat on their property. Imagine that.
These guys are really going. I'll go get a photo and show ya what they have done since 08:00...
Here t'is. Called the contractor yesterday, we met out here yesterday afternnoon, and twenty four hours later:
This was taken earlier, but I should be able to back that Yamaha right into here:
I gotta believe this is going to make it a whole lot easier to work on.
Next call, Monday morning, to our landscaping guy. He'll have some Haitians swarming over this with shovels, plants, and irrigation piping before too long.
Wow this reminds me when this was a free country (not true I wasn't born back then) but here, you go to building dept, request a permit ,wait two years, then they say, NOOOOOOO ,and from that moment on you'll have (the Gestapo "spelling?") I meant code enforcement watching every single move you make around your property for the rest of your life. Way to go Gringo, and yes we are still reading. Thanks.
Im talking about The US Caribbean paradise , The Florida Keys.
Your wet plug has me wondering. And since they are all wet, it might not be an injector.
Before you take it apart, I might suggest
Pulling off the fuel hose and sticking it in a bottle with fuel you know is fresh, alcohol and water free, to see if the engine runs at high rpm better than with the fuel in your tank.
Checking the timing to see if it is advancing.
Checking your spark to see if its strong blue or weak orange going to the spark plug.
If these check out, you probaly need a slightly hotter plug for your local fuel, and the plugs can be bought on the internet for differrent temperatures.
I forget, is going up a number hotter or cooler for a plug? the specs for this outboard are for the NGK BKR6EKU. Nobody here has them, but the Evinrude/Suzuki/Merc dealer does have BKR7EKUs in stock. I seem to remember that higher numbers are cooler, I think.
Would be really sweet if I could use a plug that a local dealer stocks. That would signal a change in my luck on this. Which is overdue.
NGK plugs hot is 4 or 5 >>>>>>> colder 7,8,9 coldest.
Same with Denso higher numbers are colder..
Wish had not torn into the injectors because the VST mid press fuel pump filter
and the mid press filter ,the one you wanted to know how to disconnect are probably the culprits.Could also be the small engine see thru. Just because nothing seems to come out the filters collect the crud in their media. Injectors are at the end of the line. If you really want to clean them,then they should be sent off the USA and let a fuel injector cleaning shop do it.
They should give you new basket screens and o rings plus a data sheet.
Someone about 2 weeks ago could not get out the lower injectors.Lots of PB blaster and wiggle it with vise grips.Let it set 2-3 times and absorb new penetrating fluid.
__________________ FL Upper Keys,33 foot World Cat w controlled upper bridge,Yam F250 w mech shift and throttles
I'm thinking I will take all the injectors off and get em checked and cleaned, and time that to coincide with an internet order for filters, new plugs , that trim tab zinc,etc.
I will use the wait time while the injectors are gone and parts are in transit to powerwash the hull, then strip the paint off. Raise the motor. Change the gear oil. make some plumbing and wiring improvements.
The contractor completely constructed this driveway today. He is going to bring a big vibrating roller to compact and smooth it on Monday, and I should be able to haul the boat home Tuesday, and park it where I can get to it with all these wondrous things like solvents and penetrating oils and vise grips. Things will start to happen pretty quick now, I am tired of putzing around hanging off the back of the boat a half hour from a hose clamp or the right pliers. I am going to miss the tool recovery dives, though.
The ability to back the motor right into my little garage work shop will make this ten times easier. I should be a lot more familiar with this motor by the time I get though this. I can run this thing as long as I run cooling water through it, right?
I did have the VST pump out, by the way. I rotated that filter out and looked at it, I could see right through it. Looked like clean screen to me.
Bullshipper, that's an interesting bunch of info from NGK. I was just reading this part:
"When using an ethanol blend fuel with high ethanol content in high performance applications, a colder heat range may be necessary"
It occurs to me that this motor was sold and intended for use in Florida, in the USA, and that the recommended plugs might assume an ethanol blend fuel, and this a high performance application. So, it's possible the plug recommended is a colder heat range plug than what would be a better match for here, where I am assured there is no ethanol in the fuel.
But what really caught my attention was that photo:
Because ALL of my plugs look more like that bottom one in the photo, the one that is not reaching 450 deg. Mine are not as dark, but they all definitely look 'wet'.
Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure I wiped some of the wet off of that plug before taking that photo. I was more concerned with the hard deposits of the salt water fouling. I will take another look at them.
SO, a hotter plug for me would be something like a BKR5EKU...
At the automobile pumps it's about $ 4.25 for unleaded. Probably a dime or so higher at the marinas. Diesel is more.
I have been thinking a lot about the "ideal boat" for us here. I think I have it figured out. It would be about a 22' or so catamaran, something that would perform well with twin Yamaha 85's on it. There are lots of those motors around, plenty parts, and every shade tree mechanic in the country can fix one in his sleep. Very popular.
That kind of boat would cover 90% of the times we use the boat. Really, just a fine tune on the Andros panga we had, but a cat this time around. And I would keep it on a trailer at the house, I think, unless I could find a slip really close by.
What's a good 22 or 23 foot cat that is light enough to do, say, 40+ with a couple 85's?
Oh, and a sailboat. The more I mess with powerboats, the more I realize how much of a sailor I am....ha ha.
At the automobile pumps it's about $ 4.25 for unleaded. Probably a dime or so higher at the marinas. Diesel is more.
I have been thinking a lot about the "ideal boat" for us here. I think I have it figured out. It would be about a 22' or so catamaran, something that would perform well with twin Yamaha 85's on it. There are lots of those motors around, plenty parts, and every shade tree mechanic in the country can fix one in his sleep. Very popular.
That kind of boat would cover 90% of the times we use the boat. Really, just a fine tune on the Andros panga we had, but a cat this time around. And I would keep it on a trailer at the house, I think, unless I could find a slip really close by.
What's a good 22 or 23 foot cat that is light enough to do, say, 40+ with a couple 85's?
Oh, and a sailboat. The more I mess with powerboats, the more I realize how much of a sailor I am....ha ha.
These lean into turns and get around 4 mpg. You can go CC, pilot house, and add more stuff to them also (front Boxes). Come standard with t90's to 115's (50 mph), so I am sure the 85's would work for a 30 mph cruise. Has the tuna door that nice for divers
They were offering a new hull w/o power for $20K recently.
thats a nice looking boat. Not sure I am going to be able to swing $ 50K this time around. Will have to sell the Contender locally, and then buy a boat from the US. Shipping, duty, etc. All that again. A 50K boat ends up costing something like $63,500 by the time I get my hands on it. We have imported two new boats down here so far (not counting kayak) and I am thinking a private sale of a used boat by someone who is willing to declare a low value on it for customs might be the answer. Can basically claim used boats are worth whatever you want, within reason. I think we paid duty on $ 25K for the Contender, with a two year old 300 HPDI sitting on a two year old three axle Rolls Axle trailer. They were okay with that, cause the hull is a 94.
I have been taking a look at the old SeaCat SL1's. There appear to still be a few of those around.
thats a nice looking boat. Not sure I am going to be able to swing $ 50K this time around. Will have to sell the Contender locally, and then buy a boat from the US. Shipping, duty, etc. All that again. A 50K boat ends up costing something like $63,500 by the time I get my hands on it. We have imported two new boats down here so far (not counting kayak) and I am thinking a private sale of a used boat by someone who is willing to declare a low value on it for customs might be the answer. Can basically claim used boats are worth whatever you want, within reason. I think we paid duty on $ 25K for the Contender, with a two year old 300 HPDI sitting on a two year old three axle Rolls Axle trailer. They were okay with that, cause the hull is a 94.
I have been taking a look at the old SeaCat SL1's. There appear to still be a few of those around.
The contender is sooo much more capable than the SL1 it isn't funny, but both are a bith heavy for scooped out dirt ramps.
The Caribe pros are a good deal. Both are light and have a lot of v as they are the yamaha pangler mold, except they are cheaper, have larger SS fuel tanks, better hardware, are lighter and more workable with their 3 piece construction, foam filled and very reasonable.
Hull and trailer in FL run $13k for the 23 and $17K for the 265. Probably cheaper coming direct from Panama and are narrow enough to just fit in a container, or on a wider flat rack.
