1986 Formula 311 SR-1

[Thomas K]

Well this is interesting. I was just looking down the running surface vs outdrives and prop location. It looks like about 1/4 of the prop rotation is above the running surface by maybe 4" or so. I'm not sure how fast the water will rise but I imagine at wot, it will be a partial surface drive......not sure what to think about that..

sorry for the bad photo. It doesn't show it very well.

 

[port austin pirate]

looking at your hull deep v no step heavy in the tail, your attitude on plane for best speed and efficiency will be best with the bow up a bit, just from the pics I dont think You'll have an issue, just have to play with drive and tab angles to get the best bang for the buck, and as eveyone says no end to different props you can try. good luck

 

[Thomas K]

Swim platform update. My initial thought on how to apply the gel coat was to spray it on but my doubts on how it would go got the best of me... so I brushed on the first few coats of gel coat. very uneven and lumpy. Not what I was hoping for. So lots of sanding to get the brush marks out. I put on my big boy pants and tried a round of spraying the gel coat, thinned with Styrene. So much better! I should have started with that. Bummer deal. I wasted a lot of gel coat by brushing it. Had to order another gallon.
I ordered some wet/dry sanding discs with no holes for my orbital sander to make the finishing process a little easier. 800, 1500, 3000 grit, followed up with a buff with polishing compound. I'm very happy with how it is turning out.

Yesterday we were hoping to finish off the top with crushed walnut shells for the nonskid top.

And ran out of gel coat, again. Daaagummm! I have to order more to finish it off.

I used electrical tape to make the rounded corners. The black on the gel coat is tape residue that needs to be cleaned off.

 

[Andy B.]

I wish I had your skills!

 

[Thomas K]

Finally applied the last of the gel coat and got all of the hardware installed. What a relief!

 

[Thomas K]

We have been trying to finish the old girl up for an anniversary trip in September. A big push to get er done.
We got the captains chairs reinstalled. The feet on the support legs had snapped off over time, had to get those welded back on.
On the motors, hooked up all new water lines, new seals on the sea strainers, new belts as well. I got the exhaust reassembled with the 02 sensors for the efi in. New oil and filter, fuel lines flushed.......geez I think its ready for a start up! A serious butt pucker moment. Starboard motor. First fire with the new Holley sniper 2 EFI

Well, let's just say that I'm super thrilled.

 

[Thomas K]

It didn't take long to get the port side motor back together and running as well.

 

[Thomas K]

As you can see in the last video the drives are off. I was taking a look at the bellows just to make sure everything was okay with them and noticed the metal clamp on the shift cable bellows was rusty. After digging at it a little, it crumbled and fell off. I was hoping to service the drives next year. I have had the shift cable bellows try to sink me before so with sleeping on the boat, I just can't take any chances.
Fire the parts canon! New bellows, gimbal bearings, steering pins, ram bushings. With the way the boat has been going, we wouldn't be surprised to find something else that needs fixing. I had not removed the props before because it had the Mcgard safety nuts on it and I didn't know where the keys where. Luckily my wife found them while cleaning some of the storage area's. Pulled the prop off to find this nice surprise.
This is the port side drive that rotates counterclockwise. Twisted.

It looks to me that this was done in reverse or the drive was used as a normal right hand rotation prior. It seems like the twist is backwards from the normal rotation of the drive. Anyway makes no difference. Need a new prop shaft.

 

[Thomas K]

There was no way I was getting at the steering pin nut without pulling the motors and the transom plate. I opted for a kit to cut the housing open to get access from the outside.

The starboard steering pin was really seized up. I could hardly turn the drive by hand and the nut on the top would not budge. I went through three metal sawzall blades before I was able to cut through it all. New upper and lower bushings, pins and seals, installed. Hopefully that will be the last time I have to do that. Now there is no slop in the gimbal housing and she turns easy.

 

[Thomas K]

The starboard motor is having some timing or valve problems.
Getting a backfire through the intake when revving.
Checking the distributor....
Lots of corroded stuff and the rotor shaft has a bunch of play in it.
Daaagummm.
Fire the parts canon!

Getting a new distributor.

 

[Xring01]

Pretty sure if you look up “boat” in wikipedia, the definition is can of worms…. Pretty sure, based on my experience’s

 

[Thomas K]

It is a really good thing that I got a new distributor. The old one's drive gear was really worn and the bearing was very sloppy, a little grenade in there.

I have never messed with distributors or timing except for changing plugs and wires, so this is all brand new to me.

Installing the new distributor and coil relatively easy. I was able to drop the new one in and had it lined up with the old position on the first shot. The motor fired right up. I used a timing light to put in 10* of initial timing. The motor definitely ran better but still getting some flames out the intake when reving( sometimes ) very strange. My buddy suggested to check for top dead center on #1. From what I can tell it seems to be correct on the balancer. I did look at the plugs a while back and they looked fairly new. The wire plugs looked alright as well, but to eliminate any issues that I can't see... new plugs and wires. Upon pulling the wires I found multiple spots where the insulation is cracked and split. Well.... might as well check the valves while all of the plugs are out.

This is my first time taking a valve cover off. It's kinda cool to see the workings of the motor. I think I would enjoy it more if it was someone else's . All of the rockers were very loose. Some had about a 1/16 gap. I snugged them down working the motor a 1/4 turn at a time for many rotations. I'm kinda nervous. I didn't do any sort of "pre load" after I got zero lash. I tried pushing down the rod and it wouldn't budge. I'm not sure if there are solid lifters or if they are just full of oil.
Any advice?
I really hope that helps with the issues. The new plug wires should be in today so I will try for a fire up and test tomorrow.

 

[J&k beer can]

Check power valve in carb.. they dry out and sretch rubber if it back fires..

 

[Thomas K]

Check power valve in carb.. they dry out and sretch rubber if it back fires..

Thanks for the input. I have converted to EFI. I'm guessing I don't have a power valve

 

[renodaytona]

Follow this for setting valve lash.

TDC pointer at "0". Firing @ #1, You can now adjust the following valves:

INTAKE on cylinders 1,2,5,7
EXHAUST on cylinders 1,3,4,8

Loosen the adjusting nut until lash is felt by rotating the pushrod. Then
tighten the adjusting nut while rotating the pushrod until all lash is
removed. Now tighten the adjusting nut 1/2 full turn. This "centers" your
lifter.

After you have adjusted the above valves, rotate you engine 360 degrees
bringing the pointer around to the 0 TDC mark. This is
TDC firing @ #6. Adjust the following valves in the same manner:

INTAKE on cylinders 3,4,6,8
EXHAUST on cylinders 2,5,6,7

 

[Jay Dub]

150 gal tank. I'm not sure on the burn rate with the bravos and motors that I have. I found an old performance chart for the 311 with TRS drives. Hopefully I will get a little better performance with the bravos, a higher x-dimension and efi system.

View attachment 1329928

thank you for sharing this build. You have some impressive skills. I always liked the older Formula boats. congrats

 

[Thomas K]

Follow this for setting valve lash.

TDC pointer at "0". Firing @ #1, You can now adjust the following valves:

INTAKE on cylinders 1,2,5,7
EXHAUST on cylinders 1,3,4,8

Loosen the adjusting nut until lash is felt by rotating the pushrod. Then
tighten the adjusting nut while rotating the pushrod until all lash is
removed. Now tighten the adjusting nut 1/2 full turn. This "centers" your
lifter.

After you have adjusted the above valves, rotate you engine 360 degrees
bringing the pointer around to the 0 TDC mark. This is
TDC firing @ #6. Adjust the following valves in the same manner:

INTAKE on cylinders 3,4,6,8
EXHAUST on cylinders 2,5,6,7

After adjusting for zero lash, I added the 1/2 turn for the "pre load". I was seeing that with lifters that are full of oil, the valves might actually open a little until the pressure bleeds out. All of the valves did that. So I let it sit overnight and I checked it in the morning. The valves where still open. I guess I have solid lifters! I loosened them all up and readjusted to zero lash with no pre load.
While changing the spark plug wires and the distributor I was noting the location and firing order, and it's not normal. I was thinking for a moment that both motors were wired up wrong. I loosened all of the plugs to listen for the compression air leak out of each cylinder ( watching the valves is a little confusing for me ). The camshaft has had a 4/7 swap. The firing order is now 1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2. Unfortunately I don't have any specs on the motors. It would be nice to know...
The motor runs much quieter now. I was still getting an occasional back fire. I did a few tweeks with the IAC and timing, I also added some acceleration enrichment. I think it was getting really lean upon revving. That seems to have cleared it up. She is running really nice now.

 

[Thomas K]

thank you for sharing this build. You have some impressive skills. I always liked the older Formula boats. congrats

Thanks man. It has been way more work than expected. We had hoped to have been using it this summer. Next season... should be awesome!

 

[poncho]

After adjusting for zero lash, I added the 1/2 turn for the "pre load". I was seeing that with lifters that are full of oil, the valves might actually open a little until the pressure bleeds out. All of the valves did that. So I let it sit overnight and I checked it in the morning. The valves where still open. I guess I have solid lifters! I loosened them all up and readjusted to zero lash with no pre load.
While changing the spark plug wires and the distributor I was noting the location and firing order, and it's not normal. I was thinking for a moment that both motors were wired up wrong. I loosened all of the plugs to listen for the compression air leak out of each cylinder ( watching the valves is a little confusing for me ). The camshaft has had a 4/7 swap. The firing order is now 1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2. Unfortunately I don't have any specs on the motors. It would be nice to know...
The motor runs much quieter now. I was still getting an occasional back fire. I did a few tweeks with the IAC and timing, I also added some acceleration enrichment. I think it was getting really lean upon revving. That seems to have cleared it up. She is running really nice now.

From I've never taken off a valve cover to figuring out it has a 4/7 swap is one hell of a leap.
The old saying "I know who's the smartest one in this room"

 

[85RiverRAT]

From I've never taken off a valve cover to figuring out it has a 4/7 swap is one hell of a leap.
The old saying "I know who's the smartest one in this room"

And solid vs. hydraulic lifters.

Such a cool project too. It is coming along great. I would like to do a big-V with some overnight capabilities someday. Something ocean worthy but not so big for the lakes.

 

[Thomas K]

Trying to find a prop shaft proved to be a little difficult. The first one we ordered was immediately canceled due to it being out of stock. Okay, so we ordered a different one. The seller contacted me the next day to let me know it was back ordered and would not be in for weeks. At that time we were trying to really push and get the boat ready for Lake Powell Challenge. So we canceled that order and placed a different order on one that would be delivered in a couple days. That prop shaft disappeared in shipping. So we ordered another one.....from a different seller.... that disappeared in shipping as well. At this point we were considering just buying a new drive and having some spare parts around. Really frustrating. Our plans to run it in September are gone.
A few days go by and what shows up at my door? The second prop shaft that was ordered, canceled, refunded. TaaaDaaaa! Wow, so crazy.
Boats.net has a really good video on changing a prop shaft. I watched that about a dozen times to make sure I was doing it right. I did something really crazy as well and bought a service manual.
In the video the guy talks about if your boat was run in saltwater there is a good chance nothing will want to come apart easy. He was right.
The retainer ring would not budge. I snapped a 1/2" breaker bar trying to get it off. I resorted to drilling it out and breaking it in half.

The bearing carrier would not budge either. The claws on the extractor were slipping off the sides, so I cut some wood wedges to jam them in place. I thought I snapped the housing when it finally came loose.

Whew! Cleaned it all up and installed the new bearing carrier, bearings, and shaft.

 

[Thomas K]

After I got the drives reinstalled, I ran the motors on the hose just to check everything. The port side motor has a mechanical oil pressure sensor on it and the stupid little poly line that runs to the gauge failed. I lost about a quart of oil into my bilge before I noticed it.
I have to thank the Lord that all of this is happening in my yard, and not cruising down the lake!
I'm not going to use that stupid thing again. Switching to an electronic sensor. No future problem with the line breaking and losing oil.
When we bought the boat it came with a box of used Livorsi gauges that we thought we would definitely use in the future. The Livorsi oil pressure gauge is an electronic one. Perfect! I will swap out that mechanical one.

This is the gauge that I want to replace.

As it turns out the Livorsi gauges are bigger..... so it doesn't fit. Haha I guess I'm rebuilding the dash! It's only about a 10"x 20" piece.



Here is the new layout idea...

I wrapped a piece of 1/4" plywood in fiberglass front and back. Laid out the gages and used my hole saw to rough them in. I didn't have the perfect hole saw size to get that nice fit so I used an extra bezel from the gauges and my router with a flush trim bit to get it perfect. Then epoxied all of the cut edges.

We decided to wrap the panel with black vinyl instead of a gel coat or paint. I still need to wire it all up and secure it down, but here is the new gauge cluster.

Love the red! Oh yeah!

 

[Xring01]

Well done…

I just had to do a minor modification on my 2004 Cobalt 240. It has table in the aft seating section. The plastic insert that fits in the riser stantion and then the table top fits into… has shrunk over the years. The insert stuck to the table mount and would not come lose. I literally had to use Kroil, 2 (2x4 blocks) and a 3ft pry bar to get a stupid plastic insert off the stainless table mount.

Then I spent about an hour sanding the inside of the plastic insert with various grits of sand paper (drill and round sanding drums) to it would fit on the mount properly..

Why am I going into so much detail, because I Literally spent 1.5hr of my life over something so simple…(sanding, fitting, sanding, fitting, and finally re assembling.

So I get it… how much time and effort thats going into your project, especially if it took me that long to solve something so simple.

Your projects are infinitely more difficult than what I just did.

 

[Romans9]

Nice work!

Keep posting. Enjoying the thread.

 

[Thomas K]

Well done…

I just had to do a minor modification on my 2004 Cobalt 240. It has table in the aft seating section. The plastic insert that fits in the riser stantion and then the table top fits into… has shrunk over the years. The insert stuck to the table mount and would not come lose. I literally had to use Kroil, 2 (2x4 blocks) and a 3ft pry bar to get a stupid plastic insert off the stainless table mount.

Then I spent about an hour sanding the inside of the plastic insert with various grits of sand paper (drill and round sanding drums) to it would fit on the mount properly..

Why am I going into so much detail, because I Literally spent 1.5hr of my life over something so simple…(sanding, fitting, sanding, fitting, and finally re assembling.

So I get it… how much time and effort thats going into your project, especially if it took me that long to solve something so simple.

Your projects are infinitely more difficult than what I just did.

Thanks man.
I hear ya with spending so much time over something so simple. I hate that kinda stuff. When I was changing the spark plugs, I got one a little cross threaded or something. I could not get one to go back in right. I tried all kinds of stuff and got a spark plug thread chaser. Well the thread chaser would not fit in my normal spark plug socket. The only socket it would fit in was a deep socket. The deep socket would not fit in the space for the plug without removing the exhaust manifold. Ahh geez! I resorted to making my own custom thread chaser out of one to the old spark plugs.

Redneck for sure! But it worked. I spent an entire day trying to get that sucker back in. I'm going to keep this little gem around in case I need it in the future.

 

[Thomas K]

Nice work!

Keep posting. Enjoying the thread.

Thanks.
I will keep posting. I'm beginning to see the end....... of........
My wife is assembling all the necessary ingredients for making a new cockpit cover and canvas inclosure! Hah!

 

[Thomas K]

Hey guys. It has been a while since I have done an update. As always the holiday season is crazy with family get-togethers and of course the sickness that goes around.

I have been chipping away at the list of things to get done. I found a good deal on a new distributor for the port side motor so I went ahead and got it. I had replaced the starboard side earlier last year. Now they match.

While I was working on the distributor, I pulled the spark plugs and adjusted the valves and set the lash for solid lifters. I also just double checked that the firing order has indeed been changed. Both motors have a #4-#7 swap.

 

[Thomas K]

Here is a look at the oil line that failed.

 

[Thomas K]

With this boat being "next level" for us, we are also upping our safety game as well. I'm not going to be that guy with a boat cruising down the lake with no Capitan at the wheel. From what I can tell the 311 did not have any sort of kill switch safety lanyard to begin with. So I installed some.

Also, with sleeping on the boat I wanted a little more security, so I will be adding an automatic bilge pump and high water alarm.

I have had the shift cable bellows, exhaust bellows, and the exhaust manifold drain plug fail on other boats. Its not a good feeling when you notice that your bilge is filling with water.

 

[Thomas K]

I also got a new thru hull connection for the bilge. The old plastic one was not doing so good.

 

[Thomas K]

Again, my wife is doing such a good job on upholstery. She sewed up some canvas for a new cockpit cover. Here we are getting it fitted up and keeping the Havasu vibes going... is it summer yet?

 

[Xring01]

I also got a new thru hull connection for the bilge. The old plastic one was not doing so good. View attachment 1477180 View attachment 1477181

Love to see all the progress and the hard work going into it.

I have personally seen, offshore fishing boats sink, because of those stupid plastic scuppers/thru hulls…
Plastics thru hulls/scuppers should be illegal in boats….
Its not a question of if it will fail, just when…

If I buy boat with plastic ones… I know thats one of the first things I have to replace.

 

[Thomas K]

One thing I didn't mention about our trip back from New Jersey was tongue weight on the boat trailer. When we hooked up the boat to the rental truck, it barely made the truck squat. Hmmm... we found out real quick that the load distribution was way off. We could not drive over 60 mph because the boat and trailer would start to fish tail. Needles to say it, was slow going and we put in long days to make it home.
After we got home safely, I was lowering the trailer jack to get the bow of the boat down a bit and guess what happened. The trailer jack came off the ground and there was the boat just sitting there with the hitch floating in the air. I think I have a problem!
Luckily the axles on the trailer are U bolted on and there was room to move them back. I scooted the axles back about a foot and ditched the plastic fenders and bought a steel one.

Here is getting the axles and new fender positioned.

The new fender was just a piece of rolled steel with now mounting holes or hardware. I had to make a bracket that bolts to the frame and them weld it to the fender.

Getting it fit for a tack weld.

Welded up.

I still need to paint the fenders....

The wench on the trailer was also u bolted, so I moved it forward about a foot and pulled the boat up towards the hitch.
Now I have some tongue weight! I'm not sure how much weight it is but when we went to get the trailer inspected/registered, I was up to 70mph and it pulled nice and straight.

 

[Thomas K]

On our trip back from New Jersey, we also did not have any trailer brakes. That is a problem. Gotta have brakes. So I dove into fixing that as well.


Here is one of the brake lines

I really hate surge brakes. So I yanked all of that stuff out and got some electronic brakes suitable for water use.
While I was changing the brakes out I figured I better check all of the bearings while I was at it.

One of the hubs didn't want to come off.......wtf
This is the spindle...... Who would try and used this? I really wanted to punch whoever did this, grrrr.
I found hammer marks on the hub from when they beat the bearings and hub on. I can't believe we drove 2500 miles on this.....and it didn't explode.

New spindle

New hub, bearings and spindle

 

[Thomas K]

Another thing that I wanted to check was the shift cable adjustment. I had used a buddies adjusting tool in the past but I figured it was time to get my own. I ordered one and its just cheap plastic, so I made a replica out of some metal.

I also opened up the back of the drives to check/grease the neutral detent and ball to try and make shifting as smooth as possible.

Super glad it was not rusty in there.

 

[Xring01]

I think I have figured out your super power…

Opening up a Can of Worms?????

 

[Thomas K]

I think I have figured out your super power…

Opening up a Can of Worms?????

So true.