1979 Viking build

[LakeFever]

Decals are on. Tricky task to get these lined up nice. Engine is now complete and ready to fire. Didn’t like the barb with a line clamped to it to block the oil input on the vst so I cut the nipple off and brazed it. Looks much better. I have a few ecu’s and I got them all tested. One is a 225 promax with a 7800 limiter. I’m going to break the motor in and get used to the hull with the stock 200 ecu and when I get my lower installed and I’m ready to wind things up a bit I’m going to install the promax ecu with an adjustable fpr ( thanks Chaz ) and use that to clean up the tune. Probably lower the fuel pressure a tad being four petal. There’s still a bunch of small jobs to do the biggest of which is wiring in the ignition switch and gauges. I have the control cables in as well as the shifter. Thanks Baicour marine for the sweet shifter.

[LakeFever]

She's all done. Thrashed pretty hard for a couple days because I had some time off and wanted to get it in the water. Engine starts and runs great. Having a high water pressure issue that I'm working through otherwise everything is aces. The hull is so stiff, and it sits so nice in the water. I was worried with all the extra transom glass but it sits high and dry and looks fantastic. I only managed one pic on the trailer and none in the water I'll get some of those next time. I still have the JC lower unit to go on as well. All in good time

[motexas]

Congratulations- Looks Slick!!!!

MO

[skialot2]

B-E-A-utiful !!! Great job. Worth all the work for the sense of accomplishment!!! Enjoy

[MrBoatYard]

Man! So sweet, congrats on the build. It has been common practice for me to get into work early on Saturdays and go straight to this thread for updates. I imagine the feeling of having this complete build in the water is crazy. Thank you for the inspiration and the updates along the whole process.

[LakeFever]

Thanks gents for the kind remarks. I’m definitely happy to have it completed but once I got the engine cover painted I got a little sad because it’s done and working on this while trying at times has been an extremely gratifying process. The layup especially was a really good time. The funny thing about being done to me it is normalized and I’m used to seeing it and being around it. Everywhere I stop dudes are jumping out of their cars and coming up to talk about it which catches me right off guard. I’m very happy that it’s bringing happiness to other people too that’s just a bonus.

MrBoatYard I know exactly what you mean. When Tnels was building his I did the exact same thing I was always thrilled to see updates to his build. I knew I was always going to do this one day but after Tony’s build I got amped up and made it happen and without his detailed thread and all the S&F input I would never have ended up with near as good of a final result as I did.

ScreamandFly made this boat come together the way it is. I just put up the materials and the labor

[sonicss33]

What a great thread and build. Thanks for sharing. When you decide to sell this one and start another. I’ll be first in line to buy it from you.

[LakeFever]

Shaking this thing down and making some headway. Small side story, I was a very active water skier and like many of us I started out with some old ski’s hand me downs from whoever in the family. I bought a half decent cypress gardens ski in my teens and I was a decent skier nothing special. Then I got a little older and bought a pricey o’Brien Kevlar reinforced blah blah all the goodies aside from dual boot. I remember clear as glass my first ski on that thing and I was jaw dropped how easy it was to ski twice as aggressive as I had previously been able to ski. Crossing the wake was like a knife it didn’t give a whimper of resistance it just cut right through. Rougher waters no longer a big issue I could seemingly ski through anything. Well, that’s how this hull feels to me. As I now have the engine basically broken in and I’m beginning to lean on it it’s shocking to me how easy it is to drive fast even over rough waters. Once up on the pad it’s very similar feeling to that water ski I loved. All in all the hull is really amazing im very pleased with the hulls performance and feel. Its so easy to drive it makes me look a lot better than I am. One strange thing that im still confused by is there really isn’t any chine walk like my other hulls have. Once its flying and I begin to trim up I do have to correct it a little but I mean a little. It’s pretty easy to rip this thing.

I was having issues with cooling that had me chasing my tail but it’s sorted out now. I’ve linked that thread here if you want to read about it.
https://www.screamandfly.com/showthr...late-questions

at this point I’m really in need of my lower unit with lwp. Running the stock non ratchet case now with no torque tab is not ideal. I haven’t strung it out to much yet im easing into it to hopefully give the motor its best chances. I ran a bunch of heat cycles on the hose then the ramp then short tours each time letting it fully cool down. I spent an entire day on the lake doing this once. Last time out I ran it up to 62mph and today I spooled in up a little higher. Engines running perfect, highest rpm so far is around 5500. This was todays top speed

[VkingMike]

A damn good start. In my findings, these things can get easier to control above 70-75mph once you're past the chine walk speed and it only really takes small inputs to keep it going straight and fast. I barely get walk anymore after learning trim control. Now its all about judging how high the nose is, which is still scary for me lol

[LakeFever]

I got hard schooled with my first stream. A Valero with a 135 and it didn’t have the power to drive past the chine walk. I had paddle wheeling as well as blow out and a very hairy experience overall. Since then I’m now on stream number five and this one is so much easier to drive. That transition period of wet to aired out where my other streams got hairy just doesn’t exist with this one. My vandal I have to wrestle that wheel to keep it running straight and I swear I can drive this Vking one handed. I think it’s the hull blueprinting as well as the rigidity. Nothing weird happening underneath so no surprises at the helm. This is the first properly straight and solid stream I’ve ever had.

There were two wake board tanks out yesterday and those things have been my nemesis’s causing stuffs and swampings. With this hull at first I slowed down to a surf speed and just rode up and over no drama. As the day went on if I was going fast enough say 50+ it just skipped over the top without much drama at all. I did run into a swirly pile of wakeboard wakes later in the day that had me wobbling side to side a fair bit but my confidence in the hull was growing by that point so again no drama.

gotta get that lower unit sorted out soon. It really likes raised engine height and I can’t get any higher because of the stock lower.

[LakeFever]

I wonder how much the chine walk issue has to do with hull twist? There’s not a lot of hull between the transom and the core, and under full jam the motor is torquing against the transom sideways as well as fore. Maybe making a twist spring effect increasing chine walk? Now that I have knees and no twist is why? Been thinking about it most of the day

[LakeFever]

Finally got a pic of it in the water. Not the best quality pic but its all I have for now

[LakeFever]

Lower unit complete with geigertech billet small shaft carrier installed. JC coned C1 case with torque tab. Gorgeous work on the cone and faring by JC on this case. Going to stick my 30p SRX on next and hopefully get back on the water soon

[LakeFever]

[LakeFever]

Well the srx was a bit of lunch bag letdown. My motor does not make enough power to work that prop where it needs to be. It did run slightly faster than my tempest but if I run the tempest as hard as I ran this srx it would probably top this one. With the srx I just couldn’t get the hull loaded onto the prop it was lazy and not holding. I could feel it just wanted to be pushed harder so until I build a hotter motor this prop is going back on the wall. The lower unit worked well I now have that sweet scream of 2.5 open at speed and it made my water pressure ideal at 15psi wot so that was good. Next trip out I’ll be testing props. 28 big ear, 28 small ear, tempest et 27 again, 28 hoss triton 1, maybe try the 28 labbed cleaver