Even stock motors can pop

[QuarterHorse]

So with around 10 hours on the build my wife and I are deciding to meet up with some friends last night on the lake, hit up the beach, and use our new portable grill. They get a good jump start on us and are not quite 5 miles up the lake. My wife dumps me in, comes back down jumps in the boat, we let 'er warm up and take off. Nothing crazy for a while, so then I spool 'er up to around 6500R's for a few. Start cruising around 4800 and then I see our friends. I told 'er we were going to do a flyby and I expected him to expect it.

I started to wind 'er up and go to around 6100R's. About an 1/8th mile away from our friends she got REAL loud and shook like a leaf on a tree. I start to pull 'er off plane and kill it. Then the long tow back to the dock. I'd been on the water for less than 10 minutes lol.

Salvaged the night with a little grilling on the beach when we jumped into his boat.


This morning I get up and decide to go take a peek. Here's what I found on #1



Got zero compression on that hole, now it's time to rip the head off. I found, DEBRIS!!!!!



Decided to rip the piston out of the hole, I knew it was ruined anyway so a quick drill and lag bolt gave me some leverage to yank it out.
What I found was no good.




I guess no more fall boating for me. Time to ship it back out to get done I guess. I don't have a place to try and save myself money to do it myself. I guess part of my money savings will be building something a little more stout for the Vector......

[hydrostream76]

wow
looks like the end of the connecting rod melted right off

[77viper]

Without being able to see too good and not in person it sure doesn't look like there is a lot of aluminum transfer from the piston on the cyl wall. That would lead me to look into a mechanical failure more than heat or fuel. But like I said it's hard to tell from pictures.

Either way that plane blows.

[QuarterHorse]

There's a lot of heat on that end of the rod, but what I think happened was bearing failure or the rod bolts broke. I'm pretty bummed out about it really. I'm seriously contemplating selling this thing as is and sticking the cash into going Merc for the sole purpose of the weight savings per HP. I have a set of Merc controls, but I would have to do the LWP to whatever Merc I bought more than likely.

We'll see what the next week brings, but I'm thinking Merc the longer it goes.

[77viper]

I wish you the best of luck. They all break at some point, the reason I switched to merc is parts are more plentiful and at a more reasonable price.

[QuarterHorse]

I wish you the best of luck. They all break at some point, the reason I switched to merc is parts are more plentiful and at a more reasonable price.

Price I've found on par, but plentiful becomes the problem, and location of the parts. Not a lot of guys building loopers around Iowa, but seems to be a crap ton of Mercs. I'm not brand loyal to anything, and like anything fast and reliable. I think the lack of weight on the transom of the Vector would be a plus too.