TOPIC: 1973 Century Resorter 16 Restore

Excellent John! You may want to check those stringers and make sure there's not rot.

Bob

Great progress and fast too! Did you try and get the rudder repaired at a welding shop? A lot less expensive and brass can be repaired. Bob (waterwings) can give you tons of info and help. I mailed all my books and specs for the velvet drive to Nautilus so if you need help in that area he's the go-to guy.

Waterwings wrote:

Excellent John! You may want to check those stringers and make sure there's not rot.

Bob

Thanks Bob!!

I've already given the stringers a close exam.. The main engine stringers are solid as a rock.. The outboard stringers have some minor soft spots in the top 1/3 of the board where the removable floor panel to access the shaft log was screwed into the top of them.. It looks like I might be able to do a temporary repair on them with CPES that will hold me until I'm ready to replace the floor next winter.. In the areas that I've lifted the carpet, the original plywood decking is still in serviceable shape and will get by for another year or two..

After I degrease the bilge, I plan on treating all the exposed areas on the main engine stringers with CPES to head off any future problems down the road..

63 Sabre wrote:

Great progress and fast too! Did you try and get the rudder repaired at a welding shop? A lot less expensive and brass can be repaired. Bob (waterwings) can give you tons of info and help. I mailed all my books and specs for the velvet drive to Nautilus so if you need help in that area he's the go-to guy.

Thanks!!

The rudder had some other issues that made me forgo trying to repair it.. The stock had some excessive wear where it passed thru the rudder port and was badly worn from the old, original, dried out packing.. A new rudder & port is cheap peace of mind, I've had repaired rudders fail at the most inopportune times.. Navigating a crowded marina with a single inboard is not a time to have steering issues..

I'm pretty well versed on the Velvet Drive transmissions, I just finished a total overhaul on the 71C that's behind the 383 Stroker in my Chris Craft Catalina.. You can see the whole story with tons of pics on that engine/trans overhaul in this thread.. ----> My 383 Stroker Rebuild

Excellent John good stuff. Nice to know about the velvet drive. I probably need to go over mince before I have to install it so I may ask pointers from ya. I'll definitely go to your thread.

Bob

Waterwings wrote:

Excellent John good stuff. Nice to know about the velvet drive. I probably need to go over mince before I have to install it so I may ask pointers from ya. I'll definitely go to your thread.

Bob

Bob,

There's not too much to the Velvet Drives, especially the 1:1 direct drive models.. To rebuild one requires the frequent use of a hydraulic shop press to disassemble and reassemble certain components.. The main thing is having a clean dust free place to be able to assemble the transmission after everything's been cleaned in the parts washer..

I have an old cheap 20 gallon Harbor Freight parts washer that I've "souped up" with an old remote oil filter mount for keeping the solvent clean and a "flow-thru" brush.. I run 10 gallons of regular paint thinner with a couple of quarts of Dexron ATF added to make it a bit easier on your skin..

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While tuning the engine in the Century, I noticed that the starboard exhaust manifold was running significantly warmer than the port side.. When I pulled the exhaust system from the boat yesterday I found the reason when I disconnected the exhaust from the manifolds.. So today I got out there and pulled both manifolds to give them a full check out..

The little Mopar doesn't look so huge with the manifolds removed..

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Got my exercise for the day heaving a couple hundred pounds of cast iron out of the boat and in to the garage..

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When I pulled the starboard manifold, I noticed a small amount of water puddled at the back exhaust port near the head.. That was a clue that there was some other problems lurking in this manifold too..

Looking at the "business end" of the starboard manifold it's easy to see why it was running hot.. The water outlet was completely plugged with rust..

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After removing the elbow from the end of the manifold, the source of the water inside the exhaust port was obvious!! The whole inside wall of the elbow had rusted away..

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Looking over the manifolds, I could gather that the engine had the original manifolds replaced sometime in the mid 90's as both manifolds and the elbow on the port manifold are Barr replacements with 1994 casting dates on them.. The rotted out starboard elbow is the original one Chrysler installed on the engine when it was built in 1972..

After cleaning the manifolds up I think they might still have a few more years left in them.. I'll know more after I pressure test them this week..

Things took a turn for the better in the manifold saga, I cut some gaskets last night for the manifold end plates and bolted both of them to the starboard manifold.. I then cobbled up a presure test device to thread into one of the water ports on the manifold and sealed the remaining ports with plugs.. Goosed it up to 25 PSIG and let it sit over night, it was still holding 25 PSI when I checked it this morning before leaving for work, and it was still holding pressure when I got home..

Took a couple of pics this afternoon before I broke it down to transfer everything to the port manifold..

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If the port manifold holds pressure overnight this will save having to spend over $600 for a set of manifolds..

Whew that was close.

Bob

Double Post

$600 for manifolds? I can do better than that. How about free? I have several 318's sitting around that have been replaced with Chevy or Ford small blocks. If you're willing to pay the shipping, you can have the pair in this photo for free, complete, ready to bolt on.

Nautilus wrote:

$600 for manifolds? I can do better than that. How about free? I have several 318's sitting around that have been replaced with Chevy or Ford small blocks. If you're willing to pay the shipping, you can have the pair in this photo for free, complete, ready to bolt on.

Appreciate the offer, but it looks like my manifolds are gonna be OK.. But I could use the electrical panel and it's supports off of that engine in the pic as mine is missing.. I'm planning on restoring this little 318 back to it's former glory..

If you have any 318's laying around that have the later style raw water cooling (single pocket raw water pump and a circulating pump on the timing cover), I'd be interested in getting all the parts off the front of the engine (timing cover, pulleys, raw water pump/bracket & plumbing, and alternator brackets) so I can convert mine over from this older "dual pocket" pump system..

Waterwings wrote:

Whew that was close.

Bob

Yeah, looks like I dodged a bullet on this.. Still gonna end up dropping almost $400 on a pair of new elbows, one end plate, gaskets and new water distribution tubes.. Also have to replace both of the 3" copper exhaust pipes that run under the floor, the bottoms of the pipes are paper thin from corrosion.. I can replace them with 3" 304 stainless tubing for about 1/4 of the cost of 3" copper pipe.. The copper "S" drops that connect the manifolds to the pipes under the floor are still in great shape and will be reused..

Nice sense of wry humor. Working on a 318 and "dodged" a bullet. Nice!

63 Sabre wrote:

Nice sense of wry humor. Working on a 318 and "dodged" a bullet. Nice!

Thank you very much!! I'll be here all week..

Well, I got one manifold ready for it's new elbow.. Also got all the cooling system "T" fittings cleaned and painted their proper Chrysler Blue.. Gonna try to get the other manifold stripped, primed, & painted before our weather goes into the crapper later this weekend..

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The elbows and all the gaskets & hardware to assemble the manifolds should be here next week.. A new set of OEM style molded hoses and a head gasket set should be here today.. I can't wait to see this little Mopar all cleaned up and dressed back in it's proper color..

Nice!

Before I could start reinstalling all the fittings & platform brackets on the transom, I wanted to buff out the gelcoat to clean all the exhaust stains off.. Trotted over to West Marine and grabbed a couple of pints of Meguiar's, #49 Heavy Duty Oxidation Remover and #45 Boat/RV Polish & Gloss Enhancer .. I laced a fresh bonnet on my buffer and ran a coat of #49 over the transom and two coats below waterline, wiped everything off and washed and dried the transom before applying two coats of #45, buffing it out between coats.. I then hand buffed two coats of Meguiar's Flagship Premium Marine Wax ..

If the transom came out looking this good, I can't wait to see what the rest of the hull will look like!! Not too shabby for 44 year old gelcoat!!

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If the weather stays nice tomorrow, I should be able to get all the fittings & brackets bedded & bolted back on.. Have to cut new plywood backing plates for the swim platform brackets as the old ones were completely rotted away..

Looking really good. I love those Meguiar's products, use them most of the time. Still have to do a final buffing on my latest project and will be using the Meguiar's polish.

63 Sabre wrote:

Looking really good. I love those Meguiar's products, use them most of the time. Still have to do a final buffing on my latest project and will be using the Meguiar's polish.

Thanks!!

I've used Meguiar's products for years, used their Flagship Marine Wax on my 2007 Casita molded fiberglass travel trailer since it was new.. Their line of "marine" products are the best thing I've found for keeping gelcoat looking new..

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CC-John,

Great catch on the Century purchase. We have similar tastes in boats.

I checked out your 383 Stroker Rebuild link mentioned earlier in this post. Very informative, and now bookmarked!

C.J. on the Mississippi; 1974 Correct Craft Martinique 18, 1967 Chris Craft Commander 27

RVR-BTR wrote:

CC-John,

Great catch on the Century purchase. We have similar tastes in boats.

I checked out your 383 Stroker Rebuild link mentioned earlier in this post. Very informative, and now bookmarked!

C.J. on the Mississippi; 1974 Correct Craft Martinique 18, 1967 Chris Craft Commander 27

Thanks C.J.!!

I'd been on the hunt for a 16-17 foot fiberglass Chris Craft inboard runabout for several years, but they're as rare as hen's teeth and the few reasonably priced ones I came across needed way more work than I wanted to deal with.. When the opportunity to get this Century popped up, I pounced on it in a heartbeat..

Pulled the little Century over to the shop Saturday morning, backed it under the overhead gantry and pulled the engine out of it.. Loaded the engine in the back of my service truck and brought it home to tear it down so I can replace all the old, failing seals & gaskets in it and give it a fresh coat of paint.. Once I got it home, I picked it out of the back of the truck with my engine hoist, removed the transmission & bellhousing and bolted it to the engine stand for the teardown..

Here's where it's at as of Sunday night..

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The old engine doesn't look too bad inside for having just over 700 hours on it.. The cylinders still have visible "cross hatch" from when they were originally honed, and have no sign of a ridge at the top of the bore.. The timing chain & gears have been replaced recently and a high quality full double roller chain & gear set were installed.. As soon as I drain the oil, the oil pan will be pulled and the crankshaft removed to replace the rear main bearing seal..

The engine wiring harness had some damage from a shorted diode in the alternator, the alternator output wire had melted and burned thru the loom wrapping the harness.. I stripped the loom and the fried output wire from the harness, I'll install new wire to replace the damaged circuits and add a couple of new circuits for the electronic ignition conversion and electric choke before rewrapping the harness..

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WOW John, you've been busy. That looks like one of the cleanest motors I've seen. As long as the heads are off I would just replace the valve stem seals. Other than that she looks fantastic.

63 Sabre wrote:

WOW John, you've been busy. That looks like one of the cleanest motors I've seen. As long as the heads are off I would just replace the valve stem seals. Other than that she looks fantastic.

The valve stem seals are gonna get replaced along with every other seal & gasket in it.. I've already got a Fel-Pro Marine gasket set that includes new valve stem seals and rear main seal..

After giving everything a closer look last night, the block has a June 1972 casting date on it which would jive with the boat's November 1972 production.. I'm fairly certain the short block is original but it's had a set of reman heads installed, probably when the timing chain & gears were replaced.. On closer inspection, one of the heads has a 1986 casting date and the other has a 1979 casting date, the later model heads will have hardened valve seats for burning this unleaded swill that passes for gasoline today.. When I did a compression test before buying the boat, pressures on all cylinders averaged between 140-145 PSI and oil pressure on my mechanical gauge was a healthy 55 PSI at 2000 RPM, so I think the rings & bearings are still in good shape.. So far looking at it internally, it looks like it hasn't been run much at all.. The original hourmeter in the boat still works and shows 712 total hours, that's not a lot of hours on a 44 year old engine.. The original owner I bought it from stated that it had sat unused in the garage for over 10 years after the failed alternator diode damaged the engine wire harness.. His stepson installed a new replacement "one wire" alternator and did some half-assed wiring to get the engine running in order to sell the boat..

Hopefully I'll have time to get the pan off this week and give the bottom end a closer look.. It needs a rear main seal, so the crank will have to be pulled.. Once I get a look at the bearings, I'll make a determination as to whether or not I'll freshen up the bottom end.. If everything looks decent, and given no more hours that I'll rack up on it, I'll probably just button it back up with fresh seals & gaskets and call it good..

Well, I got the short block torn down last night.. When I removed the oil filter adapter from the block, I noticed a LOT of red RTV on all it's sealing surfaces.. It must have had a leak at some point in the past and rather than install new gaskets, it was gopped with RTV.. There were small bits of RTV that had squeezed out internally, broken loose and were pumped all thru the oil galleries.. Once I started pulling the rod caps and main caps it became apparent that all the bits of RTV floating around have been restricting oil to some of the bearings.. It looks like the bearings took the brunt of the damage and spared the crank journals.. It looks like I'll be taking the block over to my machine shop to be hot tanked to clean out the oil galleries and have new cam bearings & freeze plugs installed.. I'm also gonna have them polish the "hash" marks off the sealing surface of the crank, so I can ditch the original rope rear main seal in favor of the modern neoprene seals.. I'll also have them get me a new oil pump and a set of main & rod bearings..

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If I could get my hands on the jackass that gopped up that oil filter adapter, I'd pump his ass full of RTV until it came out his ears!!

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The oil pump intake screen..

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Wow! Lucky it didn't destroy anything. If the bearings can be replaced and some polishing done to fix things up you will have dodged a bullet. As long as you're going to the shop might as well have them magnaflux(?) first to make sure you're not throwing good money away.
Nice Work.

Holy Crap!!!!!!!! Yeah what an idiot that guy was!! Could have been a lot worse though, just lots of working getting it out. yeah time for a good bake and wash for sure.

Bob

Yeah guys, there are some folks that should never be let near an engine.. The sad part of this is, this was a repair that the previous owner had paid for at a boat repair shop.. The previous owner wasn't the type to get his hands dirty doing this kind of work, he'd rather pay someone else to do it..

Unfortunately, I've come across similar type repairs on friends' boats that were performed by "trained professionals" in a boat dealer service department.. That's why I try to do as much of the work as I can on my boats, I figure that there's no way I could screw things up even half as bad as the "trained professionals"..

I've done considerable work on motors and engines but always used oem parts when I could afford them but never glued things together with RTV. Pretty safe to assume the worst and double check other peoples work. The motor I'm working now is/was a disaster, wires crossed, not correct, carb parts either missing or jammed into places they didn't even belong. You sometimes wonder what were they thinking. Of course when you purchase your boat it's always "she runs".

63 Sabre wrote:

I've done considerable work on motors and engines but always used oem parts when I could afford them but never glued things together with RTV. Pretty safe to assume the worst and double check other peoples work. The motor I'm working now is/was a disaster, wires crossed, not correct, carb parts either missing or jammed into places they didn't even belong. You sometimes wonder what were they thinking. Of course when you purchase your boat it's always "she runs".

I hear ya!! Over the years I've come across stuff that's been done to engines that I've just had to scratch my head and say "what the hell were they thinking"..

Quick progress report...

With the block in the machine shop getting cleaned & checked out, I've been busy cleaning & painting various engine parts..

Gave the little Mopar's engine mounts some much needed TLC, they now work as smooth as butter.. This will really be appreciated when it's time to align the engine after its put back in the boat..

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Found a set of clean used 318/360 stock marine valve covers.. I stripped them down to bare steel, and did a bit of hammer & dolly work on the flanges before spraying them with primer and three coats of Chrysler Blue engine enamel.. Just waiting on the reproduction "Chrysler Marine 225" decals to come in so I can finish them up..

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Got to head over to the prop shop this afternoon to pick up the propshaft & propeller.. They went in earlier in the week to have the prop reconditioned, shaft straightness checked and to have a new coupling fitted & faced to the shaft.. I had to cut the old coupling off the shaft because it had been installed with a mild steel key that had corroded and seized the coupling to the shaft..

Absolutely no grass growing under your wheels. Fantastic work. Hope you plan on fabricating a clear Lexon cover for the motor. Got a feeling it's going to look better than the boat it's in. Get the project done before this site goes black for awhile during upgrades.

63 Sabre wrote:

Absolutely no grass growing under your wheels. Fantastic work. Hope you plan on fabricating a clear Lexon cover for the motor. Got a feeling it's going to look better than the boat it's in. Get the project done before this site goes black for awhile during upgrades.

I'm making hay while I have time, my day job (swimming pool service & repair) will be ramping up pretty soon and digging into my free time to work on the boat..

No plans for a clear lid for the motor box, but I damn sure won't be bashful about lifting the lid to show it off..

Got to spend about half a day working on the little Resorter before the rains settled in.. I pulled the rest of the interior panels and the carpet out to assess the condition of the floor, also gave the bilge a couple of heavy scrubbings with Simple Green and hot water to remove some of the 40+ years of grease coating the bottom of the boat.. The bilge will get one more scrubbing with TSP and hot water before I set the engine back in.. It looks like I'll be doing a new floor before the engine gets set back in, the original plywood is ate up with dry rot.. Luckily, I don't think I'll be having to deal with any waterlogged foam under the floor, I had a buddy come over and the two of us could easily lift the empty hull off the trailer bunks.. The foam that I managed to uncover looks to be fairly dry..

Here's some pics of today's efforts..

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Here's a few shots after removing the toe board under the dash and the removable center access panel in the floor.. By the amount of grease buildup in the bilge I swear that 318 was sweating oil out of every pore for it's entire life..

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I heard from the machine shop late Friday afternoon, the block got a clean bill of health and should be ready to pick up early next week.. Looks like I'll be building an engine next weekend..

Really great job so far John. Might as well replace the whole floor since you're 99.9% there. The ol' 318 might not have been leaking as much as you think because one bad oil change and ooops would dump a quart or two of dirty stuff with no way of cleaning it out. What I did before re-installing my motor was to put a nipple and hose on the oil pan drain with a swing valve so if you drain oil you can control where it goes. I also got one of those oil suckin' pumps that look like a grease gun. That worked pretty good but never got all the bottom sludge out.
Looks like you'll be having a fun summer.
I did pool work for a few years when I had an 18x36 inground. PITA to keep clean.

John, you're making great progress and Cal's right you may as well do the whole floor since most of it is out anyway. Plus once rot starts it will keep progressing unless you remove it or use Git Rot (CPES) to impregnate the rotted area and harden it up. It is an option but I always just replace.


Bob

Thanks guys!!

A new floor was already in the plan, but I was hoping to get at least one season of use before having to tackle that project.. Oh well, such is life with an old boat..

While the floor is out, I plan to correct a problem that was created when a factory Century swim platform was added after the boat was built.. This boat was originally equipped with only the standard transom ladder, the original owner took it back to the dealer after a year and had them install the factory swim platform.. In order to install the platform, they cut off the bottom rung of the transom ladder and sealed the holes in the transom.. Then they used a hole saw to cut a pair of round holes in the floor at the transom and dug out the foam underneath to be able to mount the outboard platform supports.. Unfortunately, they didn't cut any limber holes in the outboard stringers to allow any water that got in the hole they cut in the floor to be able to drain to the bilge.. I'm planning on removing the remnants of the transom ladder and leaving it off as it wasn't installed on boats that were ordered with the platform from the factory.. You can see the large round hole that was cut in the floor in the pic below..

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The new floors will be stopped about six inches short of the transom and I'll glass in a stringer to support the end of the floor after cutting back the foam.. The outboard stringer will also get a limber hole cut so any water that enters that area can drain straight to the bilge.. Doing the floors this way will allow me to cut both rear sections from a single 4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood, another half sheet will make the two forward sections.. The two sections of the floors meet at an existing glassed in support that is glassed in between the engine stringers and the chine on each side of the boat.. The new floors will be cut from 1/2" BC exterior plywood, fitted to the boat and soaked with as much CPES as they can absorb before being glassed in.. The outboard stringers are also going to get a heavy soaking with CPES before the new floor goes down to address the minor amount of rot in the parts just under the deck.. So far, all the test holes I've drilled show that only the top inch or so is affected and that is mostly in the back of the boat where the top of the stringers were exposed.. Where the stringers were covered by the floor, the mild steel staples Century used to fasten the floor to the stringers still have a solid grip and show no signs of water intrusion when pulled..

The new floors will be covered with a vinyl flooring material as I HATE carpet in small boats.. I'd love to install the old school Nautilux like was used in the cockpits of the old Chris Craft cruisers (looks like white planks w/caulked seams) but it's no longer available.. I'll probably end up using MariDeck vinyl from Overton's, I've sent off for a sample set so I can determine which color will go with the blue interior..

MariDeck Vinyl Floor Covering

Sabre,

The old 318 was leaking oil from nearly every seam, oil was dripping from the back of the starter from all the oil the flywheel was slinging around the bellhousing from the old leaky rope rear main seal.. The original cork end seals on the intake were virtually non-existant, along with the hardened, cork valve cover gaskets.. I've got a fix for the old Chrysler cast oil pan that will enable me to connect a pump and drain all the oil during an oil change.. Chrysler's marine pans don't have a dipstick tube that reaches the bottom of the pan like other marine engines do, and in this particular installation the installed angle of the engine has the drain plug at the highest point of the pan.. Once I get my "fix" installed I'll post up plenty of pics and a detailed writeup in the inboard forum..

As far as oil changing equipment.. I have the old Jabsco 12VDC reversible oil change pump that's mounted to a 5 gallon bucket, it makes short work of annual engine & transmission oil changes on my inboards.. It has enough capacity to drain the engine, transmission, and generator's engine oil before having to drain it.. Once everything is refilled, just hang the hose into the empty oil jugs and flip the switch to pump the old oil into them for disposal.. My trick for changing oil filters without spilling a drop is to first loosen the filter with a filter wrench, then slip a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag (the heavyweight ones) over the filter.. Use the bag as a glove and unscrew the filter letting it drop inside the bag, leaving the open bag under the filter mount to catch any drips before mounting the new filter..

Here's a link to my oil pan drain "fix" over in the inboard forum..

Chrysler Inboard Oil Drain Mod

Got to spend some quality time out in the garage this afternoon.. I got both cylinder heads torn down and cleaned, lapped the valves and reassembled with new valve stem seals..

Here's a few pics of the reassembly process..

Here's one of the heads and all it's parts laid out after cleaning.. The exhaust valves have had the stems lubed and are placed in their ports awaiting the installation of the new stem seals..

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Using the valve spring compressor to install the springs, retainers, and keepers..

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Here it is all reassembled and ready for paint..

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Both heads assembled, painted, and ready to install as soon as I get the short block assembled..

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The block will finally be ready to pickup from the machine shop Monday, so the short block will get assembled over the course of a few evenings next week..