[legion]

Went up to the UP for my wife's aunt's 60th birthday party.

My wife's 40-year old cousin (Mike) bought a boat. As he was taking it out for a spin, it overheated. His brother-in-law (Dan) happens to be a boat mechanic and diagnosed the problem as a bad thermostat. He replaced it at the shop and drove the boat back to the house to test it out. Once the block got up to temperature, it started spewing milkshake from the side: toasted head gasket.

We use a paddleboat (the pedal kind) to tow the boat to the neighbor's ramp and get it on the trailer. We park the boat in the driveway and proceed to tear the engine apart.

Thursday:

We start at 6:00 p.m.. Dan does most of the work. We disassemble the engine. We take of the intake, exhaust, and cylinder heads. The gaskets all appear to be original to the engine (the boat is an '88). The inside of the engine looks brand-spanking new. No visible wear anywhere. The cylinders still have the cross-hatch honing intact. We finish at midnight.

Friday:

We start at 11:00 a.m.. My father-in-law and I use scotchbright pads to remove the remaining gasket bits from the mating surfaces. We also take a car-ride with the father of the boat owner to collect the necessary gaskets. The only thing we can't find is a marine intake gasket, so we settle for an automotive gasket. (We figure it's easy to change later if needed.) We finish around 5:00 p.m.

At 6:00 p.m. Dan and Mike get home from work. The reassembly begins. We get the engine back together at 2:00 a.m.. We don't start it because it's so late.

Saturday:

We start at 3:00 p.m.. We hook up the ears. The engine won't start. It will backfire through the carb when we use starting fluid. After an hour, he decides to double-check the distributor and spark plug wiring. Sure enough, the distributor rotor is 180 degrees off AND the spark plugs are wired wrong. The engine runs on starting fluid......but its not getting any gas!!! Dan thinks the fuel pump is bad. I remind him that when he was cranking the engine to find TDC the previous night, fuel was coming out of the fuel line. Another hour. Dan remembers that when he reattached the fuel filter, he disconnected the fuel line to the fuel pump. He reattaches the fuel line. The engine runs! It doesn't leak. It's around 5:30 p.m. We go to the party. I didn't get to go out on the water all weekend.

Oh, and I've decided I never want to own a boat.