Tower of Power

You might notice all of these blog entries are from the same day. I'm actually doing some catch-up blogging. These are the events from the past week or so...

So, I've now purchased a 1986 Challenger 172 Fish & Ski. It has a 1987 Mariner in need of a lower unit and otherwise unknown condition, an almost new Motorguide Pro Series 70lb thrust trolling motor, hummingbird transducers, some oxidized gelcoat, and a couple of pretty decent fresh scars on the hull in need of patching. In dire need of interior work, but seeming solid overall in regards to floor and transom. So where to begin...


As stated earlier, the original plan was to pull the Mariner and put my old 85HP Johnson on there. Well, the pull of that tall inline 6 Mariner was too great. It cranked right up and seemed to idle okay...plus a prop-shaft rated 115 versus a powerhead rated 85 got me greedy. I started looking into lower units...and power trims as the motor was missing the trim. Ended up finding a guy local who would sell me a used lower unit for $300. And I won an ebay auction for the trim...$225 shipped. Wasn't wanting to spend the money, but decided to put my rc cars up for sale to offset the cost.

Well, I couldn't get the lower unit until next week, so I thought it would be prudent to check the compression before putting down the money. Should have done it before buying the power trim too... I think you see where this is going. Everything was going well until cylinder #6. It only had 30psi. There was still and slim chance that it could just be a stuck ring...but then I saw metal on the spark plug, #6 was toast. So now I've got to resell a trim unit, but I think I should be able to get my money back...maybe loose a bit on shipping... At least I didn't buy the lower unit yet...

So now I'm back to my original plan. I've got all wires and cables unhooked from the Mariner, ready to pull it. And I've been prepping my 85. I'm having a little trouble getting it to start without a shot of gas down the carb throat. Once started it idles fine, but just doesn't want to pull fuel to being with. I'm guessing a slightly clogged jet... I'm hoping to get away with not pulling the carbs...but we'll see...