Bringing back my 83 310 from neglect

[Deuceornothing]

So I have had a few posts on here in the last 9 months or so but I figured I would start at the beginning as I know some people can be discouraged about buying an older boat that needs some TLC.

I have been boating almost all of my 35 years of life and have never taken the easy road on anything it seams. Of course it was no different here. About a year ago I lost my job and decided I wanted to get into a different field. I wanted something that would allow me to control my destiny by how hard I worked. I became a financial advisor and have sworn to do the right thing for people no matter what and even that meant to walk away from serious commissions (I have done that several times). After going through all the training and taking all of the Federal and State tests I convinced my wife that my reward was going to be a 1983 Sea Ray 310 that I had my eye on. We bought the boat in April. There were several things wrong with her but nothing I thought I couldn't fix over the next year or so. I wanted inboards as I didn't want to have to have it hauled out for service. Everything was fine until Memorial day weekend. The boat had been making a noise that I just couldn't figure out what it was. It sounded like the tranny was going in and out of gear and idle speeds and if I bumped up the rpm's just a tad the noise would go away. Well little did I know it was the warning sound of a damper plate going bad. On the way back in to the dock she came apart. When i say came apart I mean the tranny broke off the engine and the flywheel cover was destroyed. We limped back to the dock on one engine and I started investigating.

It was a $100 part that broke that will end up costing so much more later on.

I order the parts and start to take things apart. Now I have pulled engines out of trucks before but never a boat. As it turns out it wasn't that bad but I was in for a long repair as I really couldn't afford to have it hauled out and the trailer that I could get it on needed repairs before it could handle something of my weight. So I improvised.

This was not the ideal way to do it but it was the only way I could figure out how to move the engine and repair it. It took a few days to fix everything but the next weekend we were back on the water.

She was fixed or so I thought. This is where I learned about alignment of an inboard engine. I thought since I put it right back in the same holes everything would be fine. I was wrong and with in a few hours of engine time the tranny began to leak fluid. Of course I thought the worst thinking that the housing was cracked and I was going to need a new tranny. Problem was they don't make these anymore and the new replacement it larger and there is now way a new one was fitting in the engine room.

The problem this time was the output shaft seal was leaking. which is at the bottom of the tranny and needs to have a torque of over 200 ft lb's on it. I could put my hand on it but there was no way I could get an impact on it or a large enough torque wrench. So we do the unthinkable again and take the engine back out. This time we remover the entire tranny from the boat and bring it up to the garage. The nut that is supposed to have 200+ ft lb's of torque comes off by hand. We inspect the casing and find no cracks. She goes back in the boat new seals and all.

At this time I know it needs to be aligned and hire a marina to co and do it. $360 later he says it's good. He was wrong but lucky for me I noticed a rubbing sound and we didn't try to move it. So I call the marina back and say hey this isn't right. They want to charge me another trip fee and another $120 per hour till they get it right. At this point I'm ready to fix it myself and I also wished I had paid with a credit card so I could stop payment but I paid with cash. I let it go as to me it was obvious they didn't know what they were doing.

Fast forward to this winter. Business is starting to pick up a little bit and I start my planning of what i want to do this winter. I know it needs to come out of the water and the trailer was finally fixed and ready for me. So if you remember I have the port engine I'm unable to use and the starboard engine has started making the noise the port engine did before it broke on me. So we have to tow it to the boat ramp. I did swim down and tie the port prop off so it wouldn't spin as I was afraid it would wear a oval in the stuffing box by turn as it was pulled through the water. So we get her over to the ramp and on the trailer. She was supposed to weight 13,000lbs so I figured it was going to be around 1,000 more. I was wrong again(see a pattern here). I have pulled many things in my life as I have a tractor trailer license but this was much heavier than we thought. We pulled the boat out with a 2500 chevy diesel in 4 wheel low and it almost stalled coming up the ramp. I was about to go hook another truck to it.

So now she is out and I have a bunch of stuff to do to her. Starting with pulling the starboard motor and replacing the damper plate. With the boat out of the water it only takes a day with the help of my brother.

I had a few other things that needed to be fixed while the engine was out. It was easier to get to the holding tank and vacuum pump and I needed new pressure switch and duck bills. Now I asked the place where I got the parts and they told me in this process I will not encounter and waste. Once again someone was wrong. I kind of counted on this one being full of ****. I could have hired someone at $125 an hour but I figured I could wash my hands really good and save a few hundred bucks.

The canvas needs a few zippers because of dry rot and I ripped up the floor down below. I will update the thread once I get to finishing that.

The swim platform I built in my garage out of white oak(yes I am aware of the risks) will be installed this weekend. I had a friend that welded new aluminium brackets for me and I just picked them up last night. Here are a few pic's but I have another thread just on the platform.

I also built a speaker box to go behind the kick panel on the port side of the boat. Stereo upgrade is in the works but here is the box.

So I have had a ton of help along the way. I have been very fortunate that I have several friends that have helped with this when I have needed some help. Overall I am very happy we bought the boat and I would do all of this over again if I had too. I would start to investigate any noises I hear sooner rather than later.

I have been told that those damper plates normally have a life expectancy of about 1000 hr's. So if your inboard is around those hrs and you hear it make a noise like it's going in and out of gear you may need to replace the damper plate. If anyone is around Lake Lanier that has a boat like mine, I would be happy to help in anyway that I can.

 

[Tritone]

Good post! Good luck with your boat and your new career.
J

 

[Quint4]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Good luck with both the new career and the boat. Speaking as a retired financial advisor, I can tell you it's just about the best job you can find. You get to work with clients you like and have a good relationship with, and fire the ones who are a PITA.

 

[Deuceornothing]

Time for an update,

Finally got the swim platform brackets built and installed. Trying to figure out if I got the right angle wasn't easy but I think we nailed it. Here are the brackets we made.

I ended up leaving them flat on the fiberglass and shimming the platform where it needed it. I really didn't realize how much the stern of the boat angled in.

This was before the supports where in.

At 5'11" 230lbs I was amazed I could fit in here. I had to reach down to the drain plug as that was the lowest I could put the supports in.

Lights I bought from Doug( a member here) They look great but I haven't seen them in the water at night yet.

Platform on with the lights lit.

Time to go back in the water( I had the engine lined up that was out prior to this).

Engines are purring and I'm ready for the first ride in almost 9 months.

I had a little trouble at the ramp. Starboard engine died almost as I came off the trailer. It was really windy and there was no way I was going back on the trailer with just the port engine. Finally figured it was out of gas in the starboard tank and had to swap it over but after she primed it was fine. I did install primer bulbs on both lines and it seemed to help.

Here is a shot of the platform as I'm riding down the lake. It's about 4 inches short of the roster tail. Good thing I didn't go 48 inches on the platform. 42 is perfect.

Here she is back at the dock waiting for Saturday and the canvas to be finished. I will install the stereo system saturday morning and I picked up the canvas yesterday. The pollon is here so I want to get the full camper up before the inside of the boat is yellow.

Most of this work was done by myself and my brother. There were a few friends that helped along the way. In all I think I spent around $2,000 for everything and for what we did I think that is pretty cheap. Although if you ask my wife she will say it's $2,000 too much but that's what they all say. I have ripped the carpet out from down below and I have floating hardwoods and new carpet to install. Once I get that done I will post the pic's as well. I hope all the holes I drilled are sealed well

 

[Quint4]

Great job. You are one motivated individual! Keep us updated.

 

[Deuceornothing]

Stereo system should be done Saturday morning. I'll take some picture's of the amps and wiring. Had to make a custom speaker box to fit behind the kick panel and then had to make the opening in the kick panel a little bigger. Pic's monday.

 

[cmount1]

You need to re-check the prop shaft alignment after the boat has been in the water a week or so. The boat will settle (flex) into one position while on dry dock based on how it's chocked and relaxes to another once it's back in the water.

 

[Deuceornothing]

We installed the stereo system yesterday and wow is it loud. Much better than I was hoping for.

Today I finished up some wiring and we took it for a little ride. Here is the link to the video. I'm not sure how to imbed it.

http://youtu.be/VL96b4j4iQA

 

[Big Island Lifer]

Thanks for the vid. I was hoping to hear the new stereo too!

 

[Deuceornothing]

I can post that tonight. Any song request?

 

[Qdaddy]

I have a 1982 310 sundance experss that i will be upgrading this spring. I am in Ohio now and cant wait to get back home to get started..

 

[Deuceornothing]

Update:

I have her up for sale at the moment but I don't believe it will be an easy sell as these older boats require the "right" person to have a love for her. With that being said if we don't sell her we are looking to repower her and update the interior.

I plan to be on the hard before fall to start. I have a few questions maybe you guys could help me with and I will list those at the end.

Recover interior down below. I already have the carpet and hardwood floors to install. Either add lead weights or possibly a small water tank in the bow beneath the bed as we tend to run out of water after 1.5 days on the hook.

We will be rebuilding the engines and installing Vortec heads and intake. If we reverse the rods on one side of the engine we will get an extra 10 hp for a total of around 400hp per engine.
I plan to send the Velvet V-drives to Orlando for a rebuild as I'm afraid they won't be able to handle the new torque without being rebuilt.
Our biggest complaint about the boat is we don't have a walk through transom. I have the best glass guy on the lake says he has and can do it. With that being redone we will need to redesign the seating. See pic below.



I hate the captains chair and the bench needs to be rebuilt. So I'm looking at just making one large bench plus I will have a ton of new storage.
I will lose the jump seats in the rear of the bench but they are very uncomfortable. I would like to build another bench facing the stern but it will need to be removable to access the engine compartment. I may be able to incorporate it in the back of the bench as Sea Ray did with the bench with the stern. I realize that I will have to modify the stern bench as well with the walk through.


Why am I doing this? I own the boat outright. The only difference in this boat to a newer one(1995ish) is about 50k and new electronics. Besides an enormous amount of hard work and time. We are on a large lake and I use a navigation app on my phone (know most of the lake like the back of my hand) so we don't really need the new electronics. There will always be electrical problems on anything that sits in the water. We plan to keep her for another 5-7 years. I'm looking to buy a Sanger "Barefooter" in the next couple years after this project is done.

Aside from the transmissions I can do the work with the help of a few friends.

Questions:
With the new hp do I need to do anything to the props? I was going to have them checked for balance and re tuned but more concerned with should I had or remove cup?
I believe the existing bench is made of marine plywood and Formica. Anyone know for sure?
Budget for this project it 10,000. Am I out of line?
My plan is on the hard this winter for the walk-thru and drivetrain. The rest will fall into place throughout the following year. Has anyone tackled anything like this? I haven't be able to find too much on this forum mainly about the walk thru and building the seats.