indroduction-new member-old hydrostreamer

[orig-owner87valero]

Hi everyone-
I'm new to this forum but old to forums (active on Snowmobile Forum, formerly active on Snowmobile World forum) and old to Hydrostreaming, bought mine new in 1987.
I only ran mine about a dozen to 15 times since I bought it, though. I bought it when I was 31 and my parents had a house on the Fox River in De Pere, WI. Both parents died shortly after, and I lost my boatlift on the river. I went to bigger boats to better navigate the Bay of Green Bay. The 'Stream stayed in my garage for years, then went to the barn on the farm I bought in Door County in 1994. The barn has a bad roof and the 'Stream has been damp for a while. Not full of water, but just damp.

I joined the forum after reading about the problems with the cores rotting out. I had no idea about this problem until reading the forum posts regarding this.
I took my boat out today to inspect it and test run it. The cover had puddles in it and the boat was mildewy and had sopping wet carpeting. My kids and I cleaned up the boat, charged the battery, and tested the motor on a hose. The floor was not springy in spite of the wet carpeting. We put it in the water and tested it. The warning beeper started squawking almost immediately. Went to a dock and my son saw oil dripping from the motor. The 30 year old (motor is a 1984 merc 150) oil hoses had shattered. Went to the local hardware store and got black fuel line to replace the clear plastic original tubing. Back out on the bay an hour later and we're pushing 5800 RPM's with a 26 cleaver, jack plate at max height.

My question: What's the best way to check the core and do I need to wait till retirement to get the time to do the repairs? I read the thread about the longest Hydrostream project and frankly got depressed and discouraged. Thinking it might be better to just sell it and use the money for a down payment on my barn roof repairs!