Fisksatra Primor 24 .... Getting her ready for launch.

[Refueler]

Recently bought a one-off 1970's Mobo ... Primor 24. It has VP AQ170 + 280 drive.

This engine I know is the same as the Volvo 164 car ... but thats as far as I go ...

I have following points to sort on this power setup ...

Seller winterised the engine by disconnecting water intake at rear of engine stbd ... connected a bucket of anti-freeze and ran it through ... its raw water cooled. The bucket is with a pipe connector in the bottom of bucket ... clever !! Better than the pipe hanging in bucket.

Anyway - its still connected and when I asked seller to reconnect engine - we forgot before I towed it away !!

Laying under the engine is what looks like the water intake pipe but it has a metal pipe end to the flexi hose ... so I wonder if the pipe on the bucket should be disconnected from bucket and then connected to this pipe laying under engine. I will try and get photos to upload ...

Second thing ... obviously to get access to the water pipes - guy removed the large air intake box .. and laying in cockpit are 3 large what appear to be fibre with metal rings ... I assume these are to go on top of the carbs - then air box on top ? Again photos when I can ...

Sorry about the vagueness of the info ... its a pain getting in / out of the boat as she's on trailer and full covers on ...

OK - drive tilt ... when just using battery with engine stopped (must check charge levels of batterys) - lifting - it gets to about halfway and stops - the lift motor appears to be still turning ... a quick help with hand and it completes the lift ... going down is a one full operation. But going up has that stop at 1/2 way ... would this be because batterys are weak ? or something with the tilt mechanism ? Seller suggested that oil needed change / top-up ... but all I can find is electro-mechanical tilt - not hydraulic.

 

[Seastoke]

That’s some weight on single wheel.

 

[Refueler]

That’s some weight on single wheel.

There are no plans to truck her around ... but that was trailer supplied in Sweden for it ...
She towed 120kms yesterday fine - as she's technically from Sweden - I have 7 days grace for towing etc ... but must go to Roads Dept before 7 days expires.
I cannot register trailer here anyway as it has no VIN number .. it has a plate but no stamped VIN.

Main use will be just launch and recovery of this boat and couple of others smaller I have .. suits me well.

 

[Refueler]

The cockpit seats have seen better days ... never liked real material cloth seats in boats like this ...

The overall are still shape though - so solution is to fit stretch waterproof PU Leather covers over the existing ....

PU Leather Couch Sofa Cushion Covers Stretch Seat Cover Furniture Protector | eBay

 

[Refueler]

OK ...

Antifreeze bucket feeds via the blue hose in next photo ...

The water pipe I think is that one below with the metal insert in ... following the pipe to baqck of engine - it connects to the outdrive leg which I believe is the water in ..

Carburettor gauzes ...

???

 

[Refueler]

Thinking to add a T piece into the water intake pipe with valve ... so that winterising / flushing of engine can be done without breaking hose joints.

I note that Volvo Penta manual shows a flushing pipe and stopper ... but this engine does not have. Fitting such a valve - would mean no scrabbling about in the bilges !!

Question is valve to use ... needs to be suitable for seawater and also reliably leakproof ...

 

[Refueler]

Yes I know ... bilges need a good clean !!

 

[Refueler]

1/2"-2" BSPT 3-way Ball Valve Female Port T Type Stainless Steel 316 WOG1000 | eBay

Need someone to say - No don't fit - or that should be ok !!

 

[Refueler]

Now that I have this boat ... maybe its time to 'reduce' my fleet !!

 

[jakew009]

I would be minded to minimise the number of joints in the raw water intake pipework, if anything goes wrong with that boat becomes submarine.

You would be best off replacing the intake pipe all the way back to the seacock and getting rid of the bodge joiner metal pipe.

 

[Refueler]

I would be minded to minimise the number of joints in the raw water intake pipework, if anything goes wrong with that boat becomes submarine.

You would be best off replacing the intake pipe all the way back to the seacock and getting rid of the bodge joiner metal pipe.

That is not so easy ... as the water feed is from the outdrive leg - not from through hull seacock. To get to the outdrive hose connection is difficult as its right in behind the engine block ...

I too do not like extra joints and particularly lack of seacock ... I can only assume that the connection is a) above waterline at the outdrive, b) with outdrive raised - the intake is then clear ....

Obviously I will be looking closer at this before committing to water.

The idea of the 3 way valve is to actually reduce the connecting / disconnecting joints that then leads to potential leaks .. plus raising the flushing connector to handy position.

Google brings up this post on a USA forum :

"The cooling water enters into the lower front edge of the outdrive unit and flows or is sucked up through a hose on the inner portion of the transom shield.

On a Chris Craft marine conversion, there is a raw water supply pump at the lower right front of the engine that this hose goes to. The raw water is then supplied to the engine cooling pump, pumped throughout the engine, and dumped out through the exhaust manifolds, low flow popoff valves and exhaust risers, and then exhausts through the whale tail ports of the 280 outdrive unit.

My boat had a modification by the previous owner where the water was picked up from a standard Chris Craft inboard engine through hull strainer fitting in the far aft portion of the bottom, and supplied to the hose and raw water pump, and the outdrive pickup was blocked off and not used. Either way will work fine. With the through hull fittiing, your water intake is up higher and out of stirred up mud and silt in shallow water.

I like the through hull setup, and I like to install two valves, a tee, another blank end hose, and make a bypass deal where I can shift 1/4 turn ball valves to either pickup from the supply hose, or block it off and suck up from another hose attached to the tee. This makes it much easier to supply water to the engine from a garden hose or bucket with the boat out of the water, or winterize it with antifreeze from a bucket, and then there is also another pump suction source available in the bilge should the hull get holed.
One note of caution, however! Make a plaque on your helm with a note to check your valve positions before operating the boat. And a note about your drain plug wouldn't hurt either."

 

[Refueler]

Behind the engine where it joins the outdrive ... cooling water comes in via pipe there ... I cannot find any stopcock ...

Worth investigating ...

Today spent 6hrs in Registration sorting papers for this boat ... its a one-off build ... Primor range was 17 - 18 - 19 - up to 23 ... but this 24 was a one-time build ... so internet has plenty of pictures etc of my boat in its previous ownership etc.
My Pal no longer works there - so I had to trailer the boat to them .... I had to tow it through my trees and I caught one branch along the side and its scratched the blue paint ... will sort that later.
The internet coverage and pictures of the boat caused a stir as the Registration guy was unsure about the documents etc. He kept telephoning to Riga Central office ... and of course they came back asking why there was a blue GMN70 Primor 24 online ... but a Blue and Red GMN70 boat at registry office ...
It took a while to convince them it was same boat - basically by showing the trailer with the overspray red paint !! Clearly indicating that the red was a later addition.
Then the VP AQ170A engine was not listed on VP site for them to verify .... VP AQ170T was there but not the A ... so I just bluffed them with saying its too old for VP to still have listed !!

Finally Registration card in hand ...

 

[Refueler]

boat is sitting bow down a touch on trailer while I renovate woodwork ... sort out various ... so the water that had collected in engine bay from all the snow etc this winter ... has run fwd under the cabin sole boards.
Took my drill pump and pumped all out ... next will be to clean up and vacuum out ...

Sanded / stained and finally varnished internal woodwork today ... all come up nice.

While searching out any pockets of water in underbunks etc. - found the 'karsie' .. a bog seat with bucket under !! Fitted into the aft section of the fwd Vee berth ... I suspected it might be there . . . Just not fancying lifting it out and cleaning it up ...

 

[Refueler]

Something that I think I will add ... handholds for going in / out of cabin. The steps are steep angle and would be nice to have something to hold onto.

 

[Refueler]

25 litrs gasoline into tank .. to get a check mark on dip stick ...

Yes - she has a dipstick for the tanks ... from filler to tank bottom is straight drop from filler on deck. Same port and stbd ...

Seeing the marks when 25 ltrs added ... looks like 2x 100ltr tanks .... ugh ! At 1.80 euro per litr ...

So - connected water pipes ... battery masters on (seller advised have both on) opened stbd tank after adding the 25ltrs .... turned key ... CLICK CLICK ... and a few lazy revolutions ....

I had noticed that one battery was having a hard time charging up - so I isolated it and turned key ... now engine turned over - but never felt fast enough to 'draw' fuel ... she coughed a few times but basically no go.

Can of Easy Start .... swap out #1 battery for spare I have ....

Put both battery ON .... sprayed a few seconds burst of easy Start into air intake .... then turned key ..... NOW she was turning at decent speed ,,,, few coughs / splutters ... and then running ... she'd started on about 5% throttle ...
Opened throttle - engine coughed and died.
Started her and she did this 3x ... happy to start at idle - but open throttle and she died. 4th time though - she coughed and VROOM ... she opened up ..

Shut her off

Turned key again - started and fine.

Shut her down ready for launch tomorrow !!

Anchor / lines ready on board just in case ... She has enough fuel to give her a short run .. and home ... its only a 5min run from slip to my home channel. So I reckon 25 litr at low cruise should allow me a good 30 - 40mins to test out the engine ....

 

[Refueler]

Sitting here .... 5 mins quiet from work reports ... Guinness in hand ... decided to get to Perol Station before I'm over limit and get another batch of gasoline ...

Port tank - designated Get You Home Tank - now has 32ltrs ..... Stbd tank was about 5ltr + the 25ltr I added - designated as Running Tank.

Its an old trick I use on my Progress MoBo ... I have two 20ltr Outboard tanks for the Mariner 20HP. I use one for the intended ... and other is kept as reserve. Being both same size ... means that as long as I restrict to a more economical throttle - the reserve tank will get me home.

 

[Refueler]

It was interesting about the batterys .... they supported a post of mine on another thread which someone just argued about ...

Twin battery setup ... I can use either battery to start engine / run domestics ...

Basically there are two main isolator switches in the engine bay - one for each battery.

Today I had to replace one battery as it was obviously at end of useful life - struggling to charge. The data here is before changing out the #1.

Batterys isolated and no charge :

#1 10.2V #2 12.4V

Chargers (one for each battery - same brand / models ... swapped them over as well to compare displayed readings - no difference on swapping) connected and chargers ON ...

#1 11.4V #2 13.0V and V climbing slowly.

Both isolators ON - which parallels the two batterys - chargers still ON ....

#1 11.6V #2 13.2V

Chargers OFF but batterys still parallel ...

#1 12.4V #2 12.5V

Chargers back ON ... batterys still parallel ...

#1 11.7V #2 13.2V

My point being that the charger output is sufficient to have net IN to the battery and this basically negates them equalising ...

When I changed #1 - it was fully charged and exhibited similar - when charger on - battery voltages did not balance out.