If memory serves these were "short decked" (not dicked)  boats,
GT

Just shy of 8' from tip of bow to steering wheel.

"Just for fun" I just measured where the cg is now: 68-69" forward of keel/transom intersection.

Back before I found SCJB, I thought my boat was OK. But now I have "speed envy." I need your opinions on what might be "wrong". Here's what I know and don't know:

I bought the boat and used it the summers of '96 & '97. It is a 1976 Apollo, which is probably a splash of a splash of a splash. I have attached a picture of what the shape of bottom looks like. 18' long. Just weighed it and with full gear, 1/2 full gas tanks but no crew it is 2,100#. For those two seasons, the boat was "stock" with the motor all the way back against the pump. All I used it for was skiing and tubing the kids. 3,000 rpm = 30-32mph. 4,000 rpm = 40mph. BBF (don't know what cid 429/460 I assume.) Fuel tanks are in the front. Hull always rode "wet" with the spray coming off about 1' behind the driver.

Then I moved to San Diego for 6 years and never used the boat the whole time. It sat in storage and eventually flooded full of rain water. So when I moved back to OR, I ripped everything out down to the shell, took all wood and foam out - and started from scratch. I changed a bunch of stuff about the layout - I moved the motor forward 20" and changed the seating arrangement. I replaced my jetovator with a PD. Trim angle will have about a 2mph impact good or bad depending on the position. But "best" speed is with only 1 notch up from neutral.

OK, now the boat handles EXACTLY the same as before motor relo. Still doing the same speed at the same rpm. Spray still comes off the hull at about the same location. In other words, moving the motor cg didn't really help or hurt the ride. Based on everything I read online, I would have thought this would have ruined the ride but it wasn't good even with the motor in the "correct" location. Also, I measured the distance from keel bottom to bowl CL and it is 8". I have checked for hook as best I can and I do not believe I have any but it's not something I look at every day.

Never had the pump apart so I don't know what cut impeller or what condition everything is in. Yesterday I found an ad for my same boat (except stock - no whupass on the rigging) on Craigslist and the guy is claiming it will do 60-70 mph but I'm taking off 10mph just because it's crackslist talk. Still - I'm starting to think that either:

a) my pump has serious issues
b) my pump CL is way too high above keel and I need to redo intake or go to a droop
c) my hull sucks.

I would like to do an honest gps 50mph at 4,000-4,500 rpm and I would be happy. Doable?

removed the loose sheet metal baffle plate that has been banging around inside the valve cover for who knows how long! 

I had never had the covers off until now.

The rocker arms have been hitting the sides of the filler/breather baffle plates. The left side actually broke off the spot welds holding it onto the valve cover and it's just been getting the crap beat out of it for some time. 

This boat stuff just never stops.

Model CH2300P

Mine is even older style than this one. I am hoping they improved things when this model came out. Anybody got one of these (the skiboat style)?

AND the problem was......!!!!!!!!!



Ballast resistor and/or disconnecting elec choke.

I put the resistor in, also disconnected choke wire because I think it is on same circuit leg as +coil (will check this later). Also put in jumper wire to + side post of coil. Fired up took off .... no stoppage!!! Took off jumper wire.... ran around and around and around.... no stop. Going to keep spare coil and the jumper wire on board for awhile just in case.

Thanks to all of you studs for the suggestions! Could not have solved it without you.

Is there any other group of people that can rival the dirty/sexual inuendos that boat owners throw down??? My guess is no!!

That's a good insight right there! If the politicians would start letting boat owners come up with names for their agendas, we could spice things up and maybe get people more interested in what's going on!!

TARP could be something like "FUBARP"

So the box just replaces the points?

(I clearly don't know enough to be dangerous about the motor, huh!?)

the fact is the site is running out of space quick

Something I have wondered about - if somebody has pics in their post and then I click on the "quote" button to reply, I know that it shows the original pics again in my reply. Does this increase the size of the file (or whatever) because now there are 2X the amount of pics, or are there really only 1 set of pictures and it just appears to be a copy because of computer magic?

I guess what I'm really asking is what eats up capacity on the site - words or pictures? Or is this like impeller cuts and HP curves??

Maybe this will help?

And thanks to whomever posted these diagrams - I think I scraped them off this site long ago!! Whoever you are - U da man!

Nice post. Thanks!

How old are your fuel lines?

Tanks to fuel filter are 1 year.
Fuel filter to fuel pump (18") unknown but old.
Fuel pump to carb unknown but old.

Well... it's not the fuel filter. And I guess it's not random. What it does is wait until I think I have fixed it and start goofing around and get far from the dock, THEN it happens. 

Weather popped out nice today and I got all the chores done so what the hey. Put a new fuel filter in, dropped it in the water, tied off to the dock and said "I'm not leaving this spot, period." Fired up the motor, let it idle for 20 minutes. Wiggled the chit out of all the coil and ballast wires, the dizzy the condensor ... nada. Had a nice chat with some tree huggers in a rowboat. Wiggled the chit out of the wires again. Turned off the engine. Started again. Said OK it WAS the fuel filter. Let off the dock.. tooled around in the NWZ. All is good. Total time that motor has been running is way more than any of the previous 2X.  Get out of NWZ and head up river only 1000 feet, start circling round and round. All is good. Do this for 5 minutes. Get more confidence. Start ripping up and down near the dock but get farther and farther away.... All is good. Problemo must be solved.

45 minutes into it I am thinking about how much fun to make this post and say it was just the fuel filter!



And of course, that's when it stops dead - no cough no nuttin.

But at least this time I had something seem like cause and effect. I tried restart without really doing anything and it wouldn't fire. I jiggled the ballast and coil wires - fired right up. So just like yall been saying, next time I'm taking new resistor and diff coil with me. That won't be for at least a week. Gotta make some money first.