SS175 Sea Nymph BUILD/REBUILD

[Chad Holst]

This is a project boat that was donated to Take A Kid Outdoor Inc. by my uncle.

My goal here is to have something safe and reliable. It doesn’t have to be a burner and it doesn’t have to have bling.

Allow me to say first, i will need support here, if i am to get this boat going. Here’s the story:

My uncle purchased this boat, on the cheap, several years ago, from a fellow camp grounder that needed money to pay their campground lot rent. He doesn’t know much about the boat other than the people didn’t take very good care of their stuff, so why would the boat be any different?

He figured if he needed he would just sell the trailer to make back his $300 and call it good, if the boat didn’t work out. He did say the motor ran, the last time they tried it early last season. He kept the boat outside, no cover, 2 years. Since he has not and doesn’t foresee being able to work on the boat, he has donated it to me for my non-profit inc.

I have boated most of my life, but i am not a mechanic by ANY means. I understand the info, but i have never learned it.

THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE:

It is a SS175 SEA NYMPH (Year???????? Need help on this)

Motor: 90hp Oil Injected Mercury

Trolling motor: It is bow mounted. Old, Old, OLD with no prop on it. (pretty sure this will be getting replaced)

Flasher: It does have a Lawrance flasher, it appears to be an older model, but this may be a little bonus, if it works.

Batteries: NONE

Gas Cans: 2, not hooked up, no idea if they are any good, but would image they are fine. (poly, not metal)

Exterior: Faded, but not in TOO bad of shape. a good waxing and some new stripes and she will be just fine. However we will probably have our graphics guy put a wrap on the boat at some point, for the T.A.K.O.

Interior: Shot, bad, poor, ugly, no good and all around SH*TTY. Ok, it’s not that bad. Except for the small plants...and small trees...that seem to be taking root in the cracks and crevices of the rotted wood. Yah, the interior need to be gutted.

Glass: The left and right windshield is fine, however the fold over section that covers the walk through is gone. (not just the glass, the entire fold over section is broken off the hinge.

bilge: Yes there is one, no idea if it works, as we have not hooked up power yet. (Except to trim the motor up, to haul it home)

Live well: Again, there is one, under the driver’s seat, no idea if the pump works.

Glove compartment: The door is still there, the hinges are broken.

Stereo: yes, no idea if it works. (This is a MUST, so we can listen to the Vikings, Twins and anyone playing the packers.

Seats. dirty, stained, but NOT ripped. Driver side seat missing.

Carpet: Shot. A Kirby, FilterQueen,Rainbow, electrolux and Hoover all couldn’t make this look any better than dirty dirt attached to dirtier wood.

Wood, old, faded, rotting inside, very poor on rails, but not rotted.

Trailer: Shore lander. A bit rusted, but nothing a grinder and some paint couldn’t fix on a weekend. The tires are weather cracked, but held air and rolled straight.

Trailer lights: Broke/missing. The trailer will need to be rewired and relit.

SO, there we go. There is no, or i don’t know where to look, HUL number on the boat. The coast guard label is there, with the boat model number and motor rating, but there is no serial number for the boat, that i can find. There is a serial number on the motor. Does anyone know how to find out the year of this thing?

I plan on picking up some plugs, fresh oil and gas for the motor to see if she will start tonight. How do i know what plugs to buy, if i don’t know the motors year?

I will take pictures tonight and post them on here as soon as i can, maybe that will give some of the folks here an idea of the year.

Basically should i just start ripping the wood parts of the interior out?

Thanks again for the offers on the other thread (about what to do if we didn’t have keys for it, but we did) to help out.

-Chad

P.S. Take a kid fishing. No really... take a kid out and teach them how to fish, hunt, hike, camp, canoe..something. If you dont have a kid, find one, there are tons of foster homes, group homes and organizations that can put you in touch with a child in need. They are just sitting there waiting for you to call them, i know, i was one of them.

[Old Dewjabber]

I'll look in the garage and see if I have any spare boat parts left. I can give you an anchor for sure. Need any nets or poles? Not top of the line but the price is right!

[fasternu]

Look on the transom, drivers side for the hull/vin #. Last 2 digits are usually year of manufacture. You can also look at the license on the front. The newer licenses from the state have the boat's year on them as well.

[Chad Holst]

Old Dewjabber, Thank you very much, i appreciate the offer. An Anchor nets and poles would be PERFECT. If you need an EIN # for the donation, please send me a PM and i can provide you with a reciept and EIN for your donation. I sent you a PM with the address. (or obviously if we are close enough or going to be in each others area we can meet up, or i can pick up) I also included my cell number if you have any questions. THANK YOU!

fasternu, Thank you. I didnt see one, but the inside was painted, kind of, but i will look again. Didnt check the old registration, if i remember it expired in 2010, so hopefully that will have what i need. Cheers friend.

[Chad Holst]

UPDATE:

Good news and bad news....

So, tonight we did a compression test, put clean fuel in it, checked the oil and spark plugs... put the water ears on the garden hose and tried to start her.

The good news...she started, and ran.

The bad news:

Compression test:

top cyl: 80

middle: 70

lower:60

It made a pretty good amount of noise also, not sure what it should sound like outside of water, but the top end sounded pretty darn rough.

pulled the screw out of the lower unit, to check the condition of the oil...BONE dry.

We only let it run for a very short time, after finally getting it started, because we didnt want to do any damage.

Pretty sure the lines are plugged up, that the water is supposed to shoot/flow out of, as it was more of a fast trickle, than a "flow". This worried me, so we shut her down right away.

SO....any SE MN boat motor heads around? Anyone know a guy that works on these that would like to see his business name in big shinny letters (or little dull letters, if he preffers)accross the side of our boat as a sponsor for Take A kid Outdoors?

We got the paint job and "wrap" covered now. We also have the interior pretty much figured out as we are doing this work ourselves also.

Anyway, time to wash up, dream of tight lines and get some much needed shut eye.

[delcecchi]

You are over quota for PM.

[delcecchi]

Might be of some help

[boatfixer]

The compression thing....

Instincts tell me it may very well have internal issues. However, what I would do is to run a bunch of Engine Tuner (decarboning product by BRP), or simalar, through it before declaring the engine dead. It may have stuck rings.

Refill the lower unit with oil. Start it back up letting it warm up. Spray the engine tuner through the carburetors alternately. In this case, I'd use the whole can. Let it sit for a couple of hours minimum. Start it back up and let it run. Preferably with a load on it ( I understand it may not be possible in your case).

[Chad Holst]

Del,

I clean my inbox out, you should be able to reply now. Sorry about that. Limit of 5 messages..?...

Thanks for the advice boatfixer. (why cant you live closer? lol)

[Old Dewjabber]

Sent you a PM. I'll give you a call.

[Chad Holst]

Hi fella's

My plan tonight or this weekend is to sea foam the heck out the merc. You mentioned that i use a engine tuner/decarboning product on the carbs. I plan to do this as well.

A couple questions... When i use the seafoam, do i simply put it in a gallon or two of gas and run it till it is gone? I watched a youtube video on it, and it appears the way to do it, but i wanted to make sure, i dont want to hurt anything. in the vid they use 1 gallon of gas with 1 full bottle of seafoam (not sure if thats the brand they used).

When i was checking out the above mentioned video, i watched one on removing and cleaning the carberators. Should i just pull them off and take them appart, clean them good, replace the seals, etc...? I cant imagine a few gaskets cost very much, and im confident i can put them back together if i take them apart. Any tricks to worry about doing this, issues people run into?

I believe the video was done on a 115hp johnson 1989, but i would guess that they are all pretty much the same? maybe? no...?

One thing i was thinking about, and want to check on... When i put the "water muffs" on, and turned the hose on, water came out of several spots on the lower unit, for example, there was water running out of the front edge of the lower unit, where the left and right side come together in a point. (i'm not sure if i am explaining this well. It would be the leading edge of the lower unit.) there is a split there, where the left and right side are not totally sealed together, and water came out from there when i turned the hose on, also some came out from around the prop. Is this normal, is the lower unit cracked? Is there a seal that needs to be replaced?

As mentioned in my earlier post, there was very little water coming out of the pee hole, is this an issue if i am to follow boatfixer's advice and run the motor and let it warm up?

Thanks for any answers and info, again, i appreciate the help.

OH...yah did i mention...TAKE A KID FISHING! Your going fishing anyway, why not take a young partner with? Those XBOX's are pretty cool but i have yet to see them teach a child how to pull a bottom bouncer through the drift in 12 feet of water for a walleye supper.

[Chad Holst]

Dewjabber,

Just wanted to thank you again for the equipment donation. It was nice meeting you. Tight lines my friend.

[Chad Holst]

Quick Update.

The motor is infact a 1988 and the boat is a 1987. So this is the motor that came with the boat im guessing.

We pulled the current seats and some of the carpet out, still need to find a day that isnt 148 degrees out to finish that project.

I have an appointment at River Valley power Sport in Rochester, to drop the boat of on Thursday. They will be taking the boat off the trailer, when they work on the motor, so we can take the trailer home, sand it up and paint it. Makes that job 100x easier than doing it ourselves, or with the boat on the trailer.

RVPS is looking at the motor for FREE for us, they obviously wouldnt committ to fixing it, if it needs fixing, as they dont know what could be wrong...but if its just tune up, filters, etc...etc...and we are not talking "new power head" or anything, then they are going to do this as a donation! VERY cool of those guys. Universal also offered to do this, but desided to go to RVPS as Universal already has a huge donation job with their "Wounded Warrior" event this month.

We are hoping it just needs a good cleaning, tune up and probably plugs, impellor, etc...

Dew jabber dropped off some equipment for us, including 3 seat bases for pedistal seats. We really need this type of stuff, as stuff like that adds up quick $$.

If anyone is cleaning out the garage let me know!

Thanks again for all the input and help so far.... More info to come, when we get word on the motor.

FYI...still have not gotten pictures taken, to post. i will work on that soon.

[Chad Holst]

Bad news fellas...

We got to work this last week.

Pulled everything out of the boat, stripped her down to the bottom. With the help of some friends we were able to remove everything from the inside and pulled the old floors out. Went to Menards and found some outdoor/marine grade carpet on sale for a great price. (didn’t purchase yet) Between the floor wood and carpeting everything including walls and rail we can get that job done for under $150 with glue! I thought that was reasonable.

Bad news..i know, im avoiding it.

We dropped the boat off at River Valley Sport. I have not spoken to them yet, but i had a voice mail from them saying to come pick it up...Said compression test showed 105, 90, 115... and he says one of the cylinders is "scorched". So...looks like we are "dead out of water"...

I will ask them how they arrived at the conclusion of a scorched cylinder, as i have a feeling that they may have just compression tested it and said "yikes". When we dropped off the boat, the guy that said they would help out/donate was not there. The guy that "checked it in" had not heard anything about it...he was very negative actually. Another guy went outside and looked it over as i explained what i knew about it (not much). He was great and even gave us some new ideas. However when the "other guy" that seemed to be in charge that day came out, he made the comment "this is a money pit, i don’t know why we are even looking at it"...simply by the boats looks. Sure, it doesn’t look great; i had just gutted the darn thing. What does that have to do with if the motor still has life. The boat itself is in great shape. A bit of time and elbow grease and it will look brand new. But, it doesn’t right now...lol.

Anyway "that guy" is the one that called me. As i know NOTHING about motors...Is there anything i should ask them, when he calls me back, to help determine if the motor really is shot?

How do they check to see a "scorched cylinder"? I dropped the boat off Thursday late afternoon and they said they wouldn’t be able to start on it till after the weekend probably, the message was left the next day to pick it up.

The guy obviously knows what he's doing if he is "the guy" and I appreciate that they even offered to try, but at the same time I hate to throw the project and opportunity away if there is a chance this guy just didn’t want to "dig into it" a bit to see what the issue was.

I was really hoping this was going to work out. I know we could always try and find a motor for it, but our new non-profit doesn’t have funds to make a purchase like that at this time.

[Chad Holst]

Well...that answers that..

Just got off the phone with them. He said they put a camera into it and cylinder 2 is scortched.Said it will cost more than the motor is worth to fix it unless i know someone that rebuilds motors and wants a project...

So, we are up Sh*t creek without a ...motor.

I appreciate everyones help though. suppose we will put her in the back 40 until we finish the inside over the winter and either hope we find someone with an over sized heart to help out or we are able to afford a motor.

If any of you know anyone that would be able to work on it or by chance has a motor they are not using...let us know.

Have a great fall, be safe...AND TAKE A KID OUTDOORS!!

Be sure to keep an eye out for information on our Winter event, it will be a blast!

[delcecchi]

You might talk to the Automotive Mechanics guys at RCTC and see if any of the students might be interested in helping out. It might not be too bad a job, depending on what that bad cylinder looks like when they get it apart.

[Chad Holst]

Thats a great idea. I will look into that and see what they say. thanks D