Boat work now vs. Springtime

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Rick D

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Hello all.

I take delivery of my boat Monday (Tuesday depending on traffic out of Boston)... and I'm eager to get to work on it. I have a punch list from the survey... 90% being engine related.

So my question is what sort of items should be left until Spring, vs. which can be done now? For instance, I will be replacing all belts and hoses. The water pumps on both engines and the idler pulleys. The outdrives have barnicles on them and one has a bit of an oil leak. The carburetors will probably both come off and be cleaned (at a bare minimum) as well as things like plugs and plug wires and flame arrestors.

So, having the boat stored outside under shrinkwrap, out of the above list, what should remain left alone until Spring? Do I do everything, hookup gas and water and run the engines to make sure everything is OK and rewinterize? Or do I holdoff on things like the water pumps, until nicer weather.

I want to remove the outdrives and begin cleaning them up for paint prep. Removing it will leave the rest of the transmission assembly through the transom exposed to the elements... is it OK to just seal this off with some 6 mil poly to prevent moisture of getting in?

TIA for an advice.

--Rick

...oh forgot to mention the engines are Mercs 5.7 Alpha gen II and the boat is a 1997 Larson Cabrio 310
 
I am assuming your planning on doing the work.

If it was me and it has been me doing the work I would wait until warmer weather. If I was having it done and the boat is at a marina, I would have the work done now as I could get a better price while work is slow. As for pulling the drives on my brovoIII there is a special cover that bolts on to keep the crap out of the gimble housing.

Congrats on the new boat!
 
Thanks on the congrats. I am doing the work and would like to get as much things checked off my list as I can.... as I'm sure there will be others that need warmer weather... like hull painting and general cleaning.

At a bare minimum, I could remove the outdrives and work on those at my leisure inside.

--Rick
 
do anything you know about asap there will be unexpected things in spring to deal with.
 
I agree with Bruce.

Take the drives off and cover the openings. Have a door put into the wrap so you can get in and out over the winter. The wrap will cause a bit of a greenhouse effect and there will be days when it is warm enough to work inside.
 
Will you be able to keep the engines winterized if you're working on them and want to run them? With the Alpha drives off, you won't have raw water pumps to circulate antifreeze.
If you've got that part handled, then I'd agree with the others. Make it possible to get inside the shrink and work when you can.
 
Rick
Congrats and enjoy your new boat. Working on it now is a good idea plus you'll get to know the boat better come spring. I'm a little a head of you but still working on mine now till spring under shrink wrap with a zip door(this weekend), a ceramic heater in cabin, fridge with brewskis. Got a list of stuff to do also. I won't feel rushed, won't be sweating as much...and I found more things to do when I lost a socket in the bilge...one thing leads to another. Don't want to spend boating season wrenching. My 2 cents on pumps, one was rebuilt, the other replaced by www.depcopump.com out of Clearwater Fl, no affiliation, but they're service oriented and that's hard to find these days! Good luck on the new project.
 
I say do as much as is convenient now. You will see other things that need to be done as you poke around. 90% of a carburetor rebuild is cleaning.
 
The more you can get done now the sooner you'll be enjoying your boat in the spring and you will have the luxury to work at more leisurely pace and give proper attention to things that pop up in the process.
 
I agree with Bruce.

Jan/Feb it will b hard to work outside so if your lucky you'll get a few weeks in before it gets really cold.
 
I have a saying and a rule I live by with working on my boat there is no better time then now.
Do as much as you can when you can. Once you start working on a boat and learning the systems there will be upgrades and items that you will notice that need attention you never initially thought about.
Bill
 
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