Good Morning,
This boat (picture below) used to belong to my grandfather, then my dad, then it sat for a couple of years at a cottage until I decided to throw a new wheel on the trailer and tow it back home. I had never done anything like this but fell in love with this boat and used youtube/forums like this to start working on it. I've been working on it for the past couple of months, and feel like I have done a lot so far. Now I'm getting into the more serious situations where I need more help/advice.
Quick rundown - as far as I'm aware the boat is from around 1985-1990 and the motor is a 1990 Mercury 90HP 2-Stroke (3 cyl.). I started by seafoaming all cylinders, spinning prop by hand, compression test (120/120/120, I think thats pretty good), drained all old fuel, replaced impeller, put new gear oil in it, siphoned the fuel tank, replaced the entire fuel line as well as the water/fuel separator, have rewired and reinstalled a new bilge pump, and I completely disassembled the steering system and cleaned it all up and now its super smooth. I ran the motor with the earmuffs on it and ran a heavy seafoam mix through it from a jerry can and it ran great. I put new switch panels in and mounted the battery and thought I would be ready to test it out on the water this weekend...
I filled the gas tank and sure enough there were 2 screw hole leaks from a board I had taken off from behind the tank (in bilge area). Seems like someone had put screws through a 2x4 right into the tank? So I siphoned my tank and bilge again..... I repaired these 2 small screw holes using a method found on a forum - I cut fuel line, put it on a stainless steel screw, put a metal washer behind it, covered the screw with 3M 5200 and put them back in the holes. It worked great. A week later while doing some work on the boat I pulled another rotten 2x4 that was below the previous one, sure enough I have more holes in my inboard fuel tank...
Now I see 2 more small pinholes, lower down on the tank than the previous ones, and I'm assuming there will be more when I finally get the rotten wood out of there. It was very discouraging and I feel like I have now hit a wall in this process.
MY QUESTION: Should I spend all of this time trying to find pinholes and filling them or should I just pull this tank out and replace it?? If I pull it and replace it, can someone give me a brief rundown of how this will work? Below is a pic of the boat, I can get more if you guys need them. The tank is directly under the floor and is in there so tightly that I don't even know where to begin in taking it out. I'm bound and determined to get this thing going and I know I will. I just need a little bit of help.
Thanks in advance for the help.
JJM
This boat (picture below) used to belong to my grandfather, then my dad, then it sat for a couple of years at a cottage until I decided to throw a new wheel on the trailer and tow it back home. I had never done anything like this but fell in love with this boat and used youtube/forums like this to start working on it. I've been working on it for the past couple of months, and feel like I have done a lot so far. Now I'm getting into the more serious situations where I need more help/advice.
Quick rundown - as far as I'm aware the boat is from around 1985-1990 and the motor is a 1990 Mercury 90HP 2-Stroke (3 cyl.). I started by seafoaming all cylinders, spinning prop by hand, compression test (120/120/120, I think thats pretty good), drained all old fuel, replaced impeller, put new gear oil in it, siphoned the fuel tank, replaced the entire fuel line as well as the water/fuel separator, have rewired and reinstalled a new bilge pump, and I completely disassembled the steering system and cleaned it all up and now its super smooth. I ran the motor with the earmuffs on it and ran a heavy seafoam mix through it from a jerry can and it ran great. I put new switch panels in and mounted the battery and thought I would be ready to test it out on the water this weekend...
I filled the gas tank and sure enough there were 2 screw hole leaks from a board I had taken off from behind the tank (in bilge area). Seems like someone had put screws through a 2x4 right into the tank? So I siphoned my tank and bilge again..... I repaired these 2 small screw holes using a method found on a forum - I cut fuel line, put it on a stainless steel screw, put a metal washer behind it, covered the screw with 3M 5200 and put them back in the holes. It worked great. A week later while doing some work on the boat I pulled another rotten 2x4 that was below the previous one, sure enough I have more holes in my inboard fuel tank...
Now I see 2 more small pinholes, lower down on the tank than the previous ones, and I'm assuming there will be more when I finally get the rotten wood out of there. It was very discouraging and I feel like I have now hit a wall in this process.
MY QUESTION: Should I spend all of this time trying to find pinholes and filling them or should I just pull this tank out and replace it?? If I pull it and replace it, can someone give me a brief rundown of how this will work? Below is a pic of the boat, I can get more if you guys need them. The tank is directly under the floor and is in there so tightly that I don't even know where to begin in taking it out. I'm bound and determined to get this thing going and I know I will. I just need a little bit of help.
Thanks in advance for the help.
JJM
