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Repowering

Removal of old engine

4-25-2009

Removal of the old engine presented a bit of a problem since it weighs around 500 lbs. I thought about renting a crane to remove it. But that would have required the boat to be hauled out since there is no location in the marina to set up a crane. A crane was used for the 1999 rebuild. But that wasn't available around here. Also there was no place to set up for it. So that leaves hoisting it out in the slip.

I sat down with a piece of paper and outlined a mechanism for removing the engine that consists of 5 elements as shown below. First there is the saw horse that would sit on the deck and straddle the cabin over the hatch. I would place a tower on the dock. I would then place a beam that spanned 16 feet from the tower to the saw horse. With the boat pulled in as far as she would go in the slip the beam just made it with only an inch to spare. On the beam would ride a framework from which the chain hoist would be suspended. I got a chain hoist rated for 1000 lbs from Mikes Merchandise. To complete the setup I built a special cart that the engine would sit in once I got it out of the boat.

It took 3 evenings after work to build.

Here everything is eet up on the boat. I designed things so that I could do all of this myself. But in reality it is much better to have helpers. The job goes much quicker. It is generally safer. And also the folks helping are quite fascinated in this type of project. I give special thanks to John G and Jeff C for their help this day. I also give special thanks to John H for taking these pictures and helpng out.

I attached the chain hoist to the motor with 3/4" nylon rope. I also put a piece of rope over the top and back down as a safety. I then unscrewed the engine mounts. I thought I had unhooked everything else prior to this day but in fact I had missed the engine starter ground and a pull stop cable. As soon as I pulled on the chain hoist the engine came up from the engine mounts and pitched forward slightly. I raised the engine up to about waist height. I finished unhooking stuff. Then I turned it around to face aft. I instructed those above to push the rider closer to the end of the beam to move the chain from the bulkhead. Then I hoisted the engine higher until it cleared the companionway.

Unhooking stuff

It breaks loose. The chain hoist made it easy to raise.

She's out.

She's coming across

Hope the beam doesn't break...

Had to wrestle around the life lines

This beam is a pair of 2x6's glued and screwed together. Some people noted maybe 2 or 3" of deflection. This was my greatest concern here.

Slowly getting past

She's past

Down in the cart. This cart uses 4 8" lawnmower wheels. I used lessons from my days of building a go cart to design this. The axles are 1/2" carriage bolts supported on both sides of the wheel.

The cart's ready

On her way to the truck

It was hard to push her. I wondered if the dock was going to hold up.

Set up for hoisting to the truck bed.

And she's in.

What a mess! With the engine out I could proceed to cleanup and evaluation of what to do next.