another newb

[mtkst19]

1st off, i would like to complement you guys on a nice site with info. I have been trolling it for last week looking at stuff.

As for me, my name is mike. I work on european cars for a living. Into all type of auto racing but am a rookie to boats.

I was sucked in this past summer when i helped set up an efi engine on my friends glasstron ski machine. After being on the water at 70mph i was kinda hooked. Scary thing is we still have another 1000rpm to work with.

Fast forward to last week when i found a 84 vamp w/ a 140 v4 attached to a jack plate. I am the 3rd owner and know who the previous two owners are through friends. it is the brown gold flake w/ camel/tobacco interior. The boat looks like something burt reynolds would rock or john holmes made a movie on. either way i think it is pretty cool so i bought it for what the price of a trailer is likely worth.

Boat was used yearly up until 3 yrs ago. then it was replaced by a newer boat and was set outside double tarped.

what i inherited was a boat that seems solid. Thankfully the tanks and everything were pulled from boat and dry stored. Got it into the garage and got it running. Carbs are gummed up- nothing a rebuild should not take care of. The trim motor is burnt up, found a mouse had chewed a wire. When spliced it still is dead and heats up the wire. Again no big deal there. The vro pump has a leak on the top. I was running pre mix gas to start it anyways as i didint know the shape of the vro. On the fence if i will delete the vro and premix or repair it. Last thing i ran into, the warning beeper in the controls are melted. Happened when i had the jump pack on the battery. Minor issue is the rear bench was removed for a box setup to fish off of. I have the bench but need to figure out how it was attached as there is no scabbing on the floor etc.

the biggest and most nagging issue to me this far is the original carpet had been replaced. I was finding ants all over the boat and ripped up the carpet to find more of them. trust me i was google-ing the hell out of termites/ants to see difference and they do look liek ants. From way it looks the ants were eating the glue that had held the carpet down. The bilge pump area was packed full of this debris as was under the carpet. Inspection mirror into the stringer area still looks solid and floor is not weak anywhere i found. Yet reading all the posts makes me worried there is something lurking underneath. Couple that with my inexperience of boats regarding terminology/how they are built etc makes em feel like im a kid again working on a car for the 1st time and do not know jack. I found no traces of water at all on the boat when i got it home. Yet it sounds like these things all rot no matter what lol. Anyone have a layout of what under the floor looks like? As im having a hard time comprehending/visualizing how it is laid out.

thus my inexperience coupled with my thirst to know led me to joining this forum.

thanks

Mike

[idvette]

This is what my Vision looks like with the floor removed. You can see the 2 stringers running up the pad from the transom. You can also see the core, which is the raised (1/2") area closer to the centre of the boat.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Surface Scratcher]

Welcome!

If you're concerned about the core, since you already have the carpet up, you might cut a piece of the floor out. Maybe a 2 foot square near the back. Now you'll be able to see everything necesary to make a accurate diagnosis. If all is good, just reglass the floor piece back.

[mtkst19]

thanks for replies and pictures. I brought my borescope home from work to see underneath with out cutting. Cant see anything now to make me want to chop the floor up and have a closer look so im going to roll with it.

made good progress on it yesterday to where im pretty much operational boat side. Got the carbs taken care of, trim pump on and system filled/bleed, and the water pump impeller installed. Also sorted out the vro issue. biggest pita was the trim pump motor as it being original it was the stock big bulky style. The new oem pump motor is more compact where you can get easy access to all 3 screws without pulling anything away. Yet the oem pump, the back left corner screw sucked! was able to loosen motor bolts, remove all the bolts to the trim pump hydraulics/brackets to get the room needed to get out without taking engine off or anything completely out.

basically needs tires on trailer, rewire trailer and install carpeting and some other odds and end and be good to go. may try to stick it in the water this week without carpet just to see how it goes. Supposed to be unseasonably warm few days this week.

other thing of note, i did purchase the omc manuals for my engine. IMO, they lack in content for specific job details compared to any sort of auto repair manual that i am accustomed to. Can see where they come in play when complete overhaul. But example i can give-- to do impeller job they show you ripping prop etc off the bottom. hell, linkage set screw, couple bolts and slide down and you are in. Would be like an auto repair manual saying to remove an engine to change a starter. Pictures are nice, but you can get the same gist looking at exploded view pics online parts sellers use.