Ok, lets play help the Noob

[dreamer1q]

I am making plans for a repaint and update on the 241 Liberator i bought over the summer. The old girl is in need of some updating and cleaning up.

Now I am no idiot, although debateable, when it comes to high performance stuffs. Only that I usually deal with the ones that require 4 wheels. So just some general guidence would be appreiacted.

I need to do a gauge setup on the boat. The trim dosent work, the tabs have no gauge yet, and the tach freaks out over 4 grand and tries to come up the other side. I know the speedo is WAY off, so its time for some upgrades.

Question is, which brand of gauge is best for a OMC King Cobra with a 460 Ford. And where is the best place to pick them up and know they are correct. I know some of them are specific to the OMC unit, and I would hate to get the wrong ones.

One last question. When I do gauges on my Camaro, they are a snap. How difficult will a gauge set be on a boat like this? Any tricks I should know about before I tear into it?

[sho305]

I would ask someone like Rickracer on this site. Gauge type really depends on how far you want to go, or spend...and I am not sure about hooking up to the sensors on the engine, I'd replace them if they are that old. I used the cheap teleflex on the last outboard I put gauges in, it was not a real nice boat and I checked the tach with a digital clampon and it was perfect. The I/Os I used to run in had better ones with liquid filled speedos/etc. Those we would mod the pickup to get them close at our top speeds but they were closer than the cheap ones.

One thing I would do is thoroughly check or redo your wiring. It just never seems to hold up long in a boat and is cause for many faults, and you see a lot of people on the site here rewiring their whole boats. Make sure your new wiring is very secure, especially the connectors. I have a Mac crimper that pokes a hole in the connector, it is the only type I will use for those types of connectors. Some even use that black sealer Mercury recommends, you paint it on there I forget the name.

I have a gauge panel out of some I/O boat, the whole thing is prewired to plug in....you may have to do some wire tracing or get a diagram if you replace that....or just start from scratch.

Look in the "Official Rapid Craft drivers thread" and there is a pic of wiring At100plus did...here: http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114063&page=13 and on page 15 are more pics of wiring.

Mounting the gauges is a snap, just get them tight and lock the nuts/whatever or they rattle back loose. I'm not up on Ford marine engines, but I do know you need good heads to make power in an I/O. That is a common problem for boats in that era. They don't need giant ports (they kill holeshot, just big ports are good), they need to flow good in the bowl/valve area mostly. Heads are better today than they were back then when you often had to make your own or get them ported right. Now you can buy better ones aftermarket, or even the chevy vortecs work on older Mercruisers. We used performer or performer rpm intakes to keep the holeshot/midrange/mpg in the boat. A single plane would go a hair faster but lose bottom end. And you need a good marine cam, and if you can get marine headers on there it will run way better than the standard stock one did. On the Mercs we were able to run just SS elbows on them for a mild engine, but I am not familiar with the Ford exhaust assuming it is thru hull.

[dreamer1q]

Thanks for the info Sho, I will PM Rickracer as you stated.

Cost wise, I want this to last, not die in a few years. Figure the boat is a 89, so another 10 years minimum would be nice for longevity. And one thing I learned on my cars is you get what you pay for. So I wont cheap out on these either.

I have considered rewiring the entire panel from front to back. Might have to give it even more consideration now.

Thanks again for the info

[sho305]

I would check the condition of what is there, maybe the wire is good and connectors are bad/etc. I did one and the fuse block and grounds were all bad but the wire to the back was fine, so I redid everything under the dash and it worked great. Anywhere it makes a connection is suspect more so than solid wire.