new to me 1974 TriCabin

upstatedon · Post by **upstatedon** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:32 pm

She been sitting on land for a number of years, and we couldnt pass her up. She is now in the water and we are getting the bugs worked out.

The 400 Chyslers run great but we are getting a little hot on the port side the gauge reads 180, the starbord engine runs at 160 or below, did about 4 hours of troubleshooting Saturday and think we need a new water pump, the impellers are new, no restrictions in the hoses or seacock, thermostat was taken out, will put new recirc. pumps in each engine this weekend and hope for the best!

The Tachometers are both not working as well as fuel gauges, possible grounding issue, ran tach wires to my handheld tach and no difference.

Ripped all the old carpet out was original and sun faded.

Will be bugging you guys with questions over the next few weeks to figure out a few mysteries.

Need to take some more fresh picts but some are up at:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/56 ... good-times

Thanks in advance
Don

Don Lumber · Post by **Don Lumber** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:55 pm

Welcome!

LSP · Post by **LSP** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:51 pm

Nice looking Don ..... What did you have before getting her?

rickalan35 · Post by **rickalan35** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:59 pm

Congrats Don,

I'm drivin' a '74 TriCabin as well. Good luck with that warm engine. Solvable for sure.

I've done a few changes in mine over the past ten years that you may be interested in. Let me know.

Welcome to this forum.

Cheers

Rick

rickalan35 · Post by **rickalan35** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:53 am

Don,

Are you working on the boat this week-end?
I'm hanging the new curtains I finally got around to having made for the rear bedroom. It's supposed to rain all week-end but I may go up to the marina and sleep aboard anyway (only 12 miles away from home).

Are you going to keep the boat on Lake Ontario?

Rick

upstatedon · Post by **upstatedon** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:00 am

Before this we had a 1970 Trojan 30' Sea Raider.
This is just so much more roomy we do entertain on the boat a lot!!
Yes We are docked on the Genesee River in Rochester NY, very close to Lake Ontario.
Will be working on her all weekend, we usually spend Friday and Saturday nights on the boat.

I cant wait to get some new curtains for the Aft Cabin, the originals have been removed by me from the rest of the boat.

Two new recirc pumps go in today or saturday, lets hope this lowers my temps.

Thanks for the warm welcome

Don

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:36 am

when I first got my Trojan one engine was running warmer than the other but not enough to hurt the motor but when I pulled the boat out for bottom paint I noticed that the water intake screens(grates) for both engines were pushed in and mostly closed off and plugged like they had been hit. After cleaning and prying the grates apart on both water intakes the water flow through the exhaust trippled and the temperatures both came down. No more hot exhaust manifolds either, I can hold my hand on them when warmed up.

rickalan35 · Post by **rickalan35** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:43 am

Yep, I can hold my hand on my engines too when they're at operating temp.

The only heat issue I've ever had was three summers ago when the weeds grew so abundantly. I managed to suck up a bunch and then up went those temp guages. I limped in on idle. On idle the temps stayed down but even a little bit of throttle incurred a significant rise in engine temp.

The repairman scared the heck out of me when he simply pulled the intake hoses. He reamed them out, pulled out a ton of weeds (meanwhile the boat is in the act of sinking!) and then he reconnected each intake. All was well.

upstatedon · Post by **upstatedon** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:14 pm

Well I did pull the hose off the intake with the seacock closed, opened up seacock and plenty of water came rushing in.

need to check the exhust path for any obstructions as the exhaust manifolds seem hotter on the outboard sides..

Any other ideas???

Thanks

Don

rickalan35 · Post by **rickalan35** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:51 pm

Don,

If there were indeed weeds, they would be up inside the intake hoses themselves. Did you check them while you were at it?

Secondly, while sitting at the dock, the water would definitely run into the boat pretty fast when those seacocks are opened, even if those external metal screens were indeed bent in the way that Wowzer was describing......the engine's water pumps suck in a lot of water and while underway, it's still even more important to make sure the screens are wide open IMHO. So, my advice is still to check them.

There is a recirculating thermostat in the manifolds. Did you check them?

Danny Bailey · Post by **Danny Bailey** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 9:42 pm

I didn't find the restriction in mine until I pulled the sea cock for through hull replacement. There was some kind of hard deposit almost like calcium inside the through hull that had the hole closed off except for about a 3/8 inch hole.

upstatedon · Post by **upstatedon** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:11 am

Worked on the hot temp on port engine issue again this weekend, a friend even brought over his infared temp unit. We were not able to get her to over 165 at both gauges.

Will look for the thermostats on the manifolds, are they at the outlet side bottom? Will also remove and check all hoses for obstructions, and maybe just replace the inlet seacocks when on the cradle later in October.

I just wanna take her out and run her hard to blow her out.

Was looking the the manual and noticed the spark plugs listed in the book are RJ-10YC, every other book says RJ-14YC could running a hotter plug cause the temp to increase?? The new plugs are RJ-14 YC's

Thanks again
Don

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:21 pm

Having the wrong spark plugs won't make it run warmer unless we're talking high performance, but it may not run at its best, of coarse, as a motor gets older and has more wear (less compression and valve leakage) other spark plugs might come into play.

Dan Faith · Post by **Dan Faith** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:05 pm

I have a 30ft sport fisherman twin 318's only port engine got hot when run on plane, changed impeller no help, removed thermostat no help then ran a hose through the intake found all the water was going through the exhaust. The oil cooler has a screen on it that was full of rust, when this was plugged all the water was pumped out the exhaust and very little through the port engine. Clean it and the problem disappeared.

David Kane · Post by **David Kane** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:56 pm

Congrats on your new (to you) tri-cabin, Don. I've got a '75 virtually identical to yours. Bought it last fall. My engines are Mercruiser 255's, based on Chevy truck 350 blocks. Is there any rot issues in the back end? I had some minor issues due to exposure to the weather as the original canvas only went to the back of the bridge. Fixed the rot & re-canvassed over last winter to bring the cockpit area under canvas. I found my starboard scupper almost painted shut & bashed in. Straighted out & cleaned off the excess paint-runs cool, so I may have avoided a bullet (one of the few I have avoided).

You've got a great boat there. Everyone who sees mine has such positive comments about it, and I'm sure you to will get the same reaction from people.