My 2015 off pre-season upgrades and repairs.

[RightStuff]

@sysinu any chance you (or anyone else) have a picture of the stock impellers next to the ones pitched for high altitude? Would be interesting to see both of them side by side.

 

[Ronnie]

Here are side by side pics of the stock and aftermarket Solas impellers. Mine are or should be pitched for sealevel. Port side impellers are first. I could not tell the difference between the pitch of the port or starboard sides but am not surprised since the difference on the stock impellers is only 1.2 degrees. I also included a pic of the solas impellers to show what they come with. Basically a wrench to tighten or lossen the impeller on the shaft and a cone to replace the wrench once the impeller is installed on the shaft. I will need to buy a bigger wrench to complete the install of the solas impellers since the 1 1/16th " that fits the stock impellers is just not big enough.

 

[Ronnie]

Another lesson and purchase. The solas impeller wrench, actually a nut take a 36 mm , 1 7/16th" wrench to use. My local stores don't carry these sizes and the starting price online is $64 plus it takes a week to deliver. My solution was to buy the best fitting crescent wrench I could find (it will contact 4 of the six sides of the solas nut), $36 at Home Depot.

 

[Ronnie]

Finally got them reinstalled. After having had the experience I recommend that if you don't already havr the tools (I.e., a heavy duty vise, large wrenches and a breaker bar) take the assemblies and the new props to a Pwc shop and pay them to do the switch.


I won't be able to test the new props out for at least two weeks but that should give me some time to do other mods. Maybe finally add the 6 channel amp I was suppose to install last off season. While taking this pic I thought maybe I should have bought a less expensive amp kit. Are they supposed to cost 1/2 as much as the amp they are going to be attached to?

 

[sysinu]

What is that? double aught power wire?! It says 4 gauge but it looks a lot bigger than that.

 

[Ronnie]

@sysinu , I'm not familiar with the term double aught but think the red insulation seems thicker than usual. That cable is 18' long. Hopefully I can find a common ground under the helm or I will be headed back to the same store soon as the kit's ground wire is only 3' long .

The last upgrade this year will be to install the newer carpet you gave me. Thanks again for that.

 

[sysinu]

@sysinu , I'm not familiar with the term double aught but think the red insulation seems thicker than usual. That cable is 18' long. Hopefully I can find a common ground under the helm or I will be headed back to the same store soon as the kit's ground wire is only 3' long .

The last upgrade this year will be to install the newer carpet you gave me. Thanks again for that.

(copy paste from a website)

• The gauge system of wire sizing is based on whole numbers, larger numbers representing smaller-area wires and vice versa. Wires thicker than 1 gauge are represented by zeros: 0, 00, 000, and 0000 (spoken "single-ought," "double-ought," "triple-ought," and "quadruple-ought."

Seems I spelled it wrong. it's spelled "ought"

 

[msavold]

Interesting to see the two side by side. The pitch difference is visible but not too obvious (especially since it doesn't look like the two are at exactly the same rotation angle). What struck me is the difference in the leading edge - much more "square" - and there's a big difference in thickness too. I ain't no expert and I'm sure not going to try the math (still grimacing at the bad memories of college exams from the flow thread!) but it sure looks like the new ones would have a more laminar flow than the stock ones...

 

[MikeyL]

Interesting to see the two side by side .... but it sure looks like the new ones would have a more laminar flow than the stock ones...

Excellent observation. I ordered and got laminar flow on my ham sandwch at lunch today, and it really improved my sensory glands.

 

[rickd01]

i like samitches, looks like quite a difference in pitch, and sure is shiny

 

[rickd01]

cant wait to hear if there are improvements in performance

 

[Ronnie]

Insomnia cost me some money. I ordered 20' of bulb seal (5/8" x 5/8" with 1/4" ID) and one sheet of 2" thick egg crate foam sound absorbing material from McMaster-Carr as well as 8'new iridium spark plugs (NGk ilfr6b, 6481) from amazon. So I was able to spend over $200 before 4 am, at least an hour before I get out of bed.

My idea with the foam is to put it on top of the 1" thick foil faced material I already have installed, or will reinstall, on the bottom and inside front wall of the engine hatch. This will make the total width of the material there 3". I am hopeful that this along with new bulb seal and a fire port plug will reduce the engine noise to a point acceptable too me. One twist is that I didn't want to spend almost twice as much on the adhesive backed material so I went with the plain back and will use 3m 90 spray on glue to attach it to the existing material.

 

[Ronnie]

Got a few things in the mail today. Specifically, 2" thick egg crate sound absorbing foam, 20' of bulb seal and 8 iridium plugs.

 

[MikeyL]

 

[Ronnie]

Started installing the 2" thick sound absorption materials over the 1" thick stuff I used last year. With one sheet of material that costs about $80 including shipping I was able to make a new piece for the bottom of the engine hatch as well as the front wall of the engine compartment. The stuff off to the right are the remaining scraps.



For those that want to see what a fastener looks like, here you go. I bought a few of these from west marine over 4 years ago and ended up not needing them, until now.

 

[Ronnie]

Didn't get nearly as much done as I intensed to this weekend. Just the additional sound deadens material, havent installed the bulb seal yet, too damn hot by the time I was available today. The end result (engine hatch and front wall of engine compartment now have 3" of sound deadening material on them) looks good but it will be a few weeks before I can test it.

 

[SCSTWG]

Looking good Ronnie. Anxious to hear how the sound deadening works as I need to tackle this myself.

 

[skbishop90]

I dig it, where did you buy it all at? I need this for my AR192, BAD! Its loud. Also interested to hear the results.

 

[Ronnie]

I replaced my 2 or 3 season iridium spark plugs with new ones after work tonight. It took a little less than an hour for both engines. This is only the second time I've changed the plugs on this boat so I still appreciate how much easier it is on the 1.8l engines compared to the 1,052 cc engines.

Only a few more things left to do this preseason, upgrade the engine compartment pipe insulation foam to bulb seal, put in a USB charging port, run the satellite radio antennae wire through the tower and install a 6 channel amp. I may install the amp first since that will be the most difficult task for me.

 

[Ronnie]

I dig it, where did you buy it all at? I need this for my AR192, BAD! Its loud. Also interested to hear the results.

I got most of my materials at McMaster Carr this time around. Just search their site for sound absorbing foam.