Econo boat

[heymagic]

After 3 years of harping at my buddy Ed about his fuel economy we finally fixed it. He used to use 3/4 of a tank from Tacoma to Oly or to Port Orchard. I figure between 25 and 30 gph at cruise. My old 28 with the same power used 13-14 gph at cruise. Since we changed the heads, intake and carb Ed used just over a 1/4 tank to Oly and similar to Port Orchard. It appears he is now in the 12gph range, the engine quit blowing oil film out and the coolant bottle quit overflowing. Even at todays fuel prices he is spending less to go boating !

[Go Aweigh2452]

Did you replace the heads with OEM or were they more/less performance? Same with the carb? SOunds like a very happy boater on your hands!

I'm glad Ed & Suzie didn't give up on the boat (or boating). What a tale they've had to tell about mechanical problems. They're lucky to have you to help them out.

Was he plagued with cracked heads or just a ton of vacuum leaks?

[heymagic]

We put on some newer stock heads and a new Holley marine carb with an Edelbrock Performer manifold. He had one wussy valve on the old heads and a couple of intake vacuum leaks. His old Holley had been rebuilt a couple times in Tacoma and I think it was the big culprit. The loss of coolant before and not now has me wondering though. Possibly a cracked head or gasket leak. We weren't looking for that.

Yeah... if he was losing water along the way he was at least running with a few jugs wet... and probably using a lot of wasted fuel and energy in them and compressing them for no power. Two cylinders down and he'd be working better than 20% harder with whats left, and still pouring down the two dead holes.

Sounds like you've got him all set now.