1998 FF build

[skialot2]

I am building a 1998 200 FF block Motor I bought. I thought it spun when I bought it. But now I could only turn the flywheel about 3/4 of the way around. It has one piston, #3, that detonated and transferred a lot of aluminum to the cylinder walls. I took it apart to make sure the block isn't broken near the bottom of the cylinder where the piston locks up. It's not. There sure is a lot of aluminum stuck to the walls. I don't see any real deep scores in the sleeve. I used muriatic acid to remove the aluminum from the cylinder. Took about 10 coats to get it all off. I can hardly feel any rough spots on the walls now. I haven't even tried to hone it yet. I am probably going to have to bore it, but I will hone and measure it first. Cylinder #1 also has 1 scratch I don't think is going to hone out. I will probably have to bore that one too. I will definitely have to change the piston. Everything else looks good. A couple tiny chips on the reeds. But they will get changed anyway.

My plan is to rebuild it with all the basics. New rings, metal rod bearings, upgraded rod bolts. Undecided on forged pistons or not. They tend get expensive and this needs to be a budget build. But if I can get them at a good price, then maybe. I am also going to do some work to the block. Port the exhaust chest. Open the outlets to match the big hole gasket. same with the adapter plates. I have not decided if I am going to raise the exhaust ports slightly or not. I don't plan to spin it much more than 6500 RPM anyway. I have a Bobs exhaust tuner already. Open the rod slots and smooth all the casting marks with minimal material removal. Either Boyeson or Chris Carson reeds. Smooth the cages as well as sand them flat. Mill the front half .050. Maybe still use stuffers if they fit. Then I am going to have to upgrade the ECU. I think finding a ProMax 200 ECU would be the most affordable way to go. But I think I want either a Brucato or a PPE. This build is going to take some time. There is a lot of work to do, and I can only do so much. I have to get parts as I can afford them. I will update as I go along.

[LakeFever]

Sounds like a solid plan. I don’t think you need to mess with exhaust port height especially if you’re looking to keep the rpm below 7000 it’s likely to hurt performance, not help. These FF sleeves are great mine spins over 7k easy and the sleeves are bone stock. Raise the compression up a bit is the biggest gain you’re going to get and power improves across the board. Everything sounds solid I did most of that and really like the performance on mine. Don’t forget the essentials; oil injection delete and black box delete. I would have the injectors cleaned and flowed too

[ChrisCarsonMarine]

give me a call,I have some good info for you,305-394-3354,Chris

[skialot2]

I spoke with Chris Carson. He is a really nice guy. He gave me some really good information. He said when a piston transfers aluminum like that, it means it got really hot. There is now carbon built up between the cylinder liner and the aluminum block. It will cause a heat transfer problem and that cylinder will run hot. I could bore it out and it will look fine. Probably be ok with a fishing motor. But for a high-performance motor, I need to put an oversize sleeve in it. I also measured the rest of the cylinders with my dial bore gauge. They are all right on the edge of tolerance at .002-.003 out of round. They are all going to have to be bored out. Chris made me a great deal. He is going to sleeve it, bore it and give me a new set of pinned pistons. The price he gave me is way cheaper than I expected. Plus, I am going to send him a load of hard parts for a discount on the cash price. I have to do all the porting I am going to do before I send it off to him. This is my first attempt at porting. So, I will be using a couple junk blocks I have to practice on. I am not going to touch the cylinder ports. Just the exhaust chest and rod slots. Plus clean up any rough casting marks and sharp edges so everything flows nice and smooth.

[LakeFever]

That’s great! I had read about this mysterious sleeve overheat issue before but never with the explanation as to when it happens and what the issue is so thanks for letting us know. Very interesting.


The porting is easy just be sure to use single cut burrs made for aluminum or it will chatter like crazy and not go very well. When working on the chest dump hole if your going to use your fishing motor mid plate you have to port that as well as the block so the shape lines up properly. If you just port the block exit to what looks good by eye it will have a crashing angle into the plate. It’s easy to see this if you place the plate on the block and look into the chest. Some guys suggest the rear block area where the two little studs bolt down is prone to cracking when ported so they leave it extra thick. Not fully the size of the large hi-performance gasket opening. I had already opened mine up fully before learning this. So far so good. Don’t forget to clean casting flash up around the block too and in the intake. Tiny little details but might add up to a hp or two. I always figure its best approach is to focus on small gains everywhere you can find them vs trying to add huge gains with one mod. Kind of like shaving weight in racing the saying goes look to shave ounces, not pounds. It makes the process easy to understand and the end result is more effective. All that said, the increase in compression made the biggest gains for me. That really wakes these things up.

[Merc 2.5]

Chris is exactly right about heat transfer on cyl that's been hot. That's y alot of people will bore or hone a cyl and put new piston in and motor only last 10 or 20 hours b4 same cyl goes down again. Seen it many times , Chris is very knowledgeable and great guy to deal with , he will get you fixed up , just b careful on the porting , it can go bad quick and you not even know it. Good luck

[skialot2]

I did a little porting practice on a scrap block. I only did one section of the exhaust chest. It's more about technique than the actual porting. Using a die grinder with burrs is really hard on my hands. I used it for 15 minutes and the vibrations and jerking when the burr catches and chatters made my hands swell up. I have very bad tendons thanks to taking a lot of Ciprofloxacin for a bad bacterial infection. I basically have tendonitis everywhere. Had over a dozen tendons rupture. So I am improvising and will be doing most of the porting with a 1/2" belt grinder. It's a lot easier to use. With 36 grit it sands the aluminum down pretty quick. It doesn't jerk chatter or vibrate and comes out smooth. I will still need to use the burrs in some spots. But I can do the bulk with the grinder.

[LakeFever]

The right burrs make all the difference on chatter. I also prefer to use a pencil grinder whenever possible due to its weight/mass it’s a lot less likely to chatter and easier to control with two hands. Air power die grinders are a bit punishing for so much cutting. Opening the dump hole and the plate is a lot of cutting.

[skialot2]

Getting there. Rod slots and exhaust chest basically is done. Maybe some touchups after I clean it up. I still need to do the exhaust dump. There is a lot of grinding to do there.

[skialot2]

Exhaust dump is done. I only opened up the front of the ports. I left the area near the studs alone because I heard that area is prone to cracking if you make it to thin. I filled in the oil gear galley with 3 coats of Marine Tex. Took an old crank sealing ring and it put in a ring galley in the block to compress it to the right size. Then I clamped a vice grip on the split so it would stay compressed. I used that as a guide to shape the marine tex. Then I tried an old crankshaft. It pretty close. 4th coat is applied and drying.

[LakeFever]

Lookin good by my eye. Only thing I noticed that I thought worth a mention is the dump hole cutting. Initially I opened my dump to the same shape as that. It looks right when looking into the block. Then I put the plate on and realized I had a wave going on and needed to straighten it out. I think I posted pics in my build thread for reference but stuff your plate on and look down through both. You want the hole to be aligned and parallel all the way through

[skialot2]

Oil pump fill in is as good as I am going to get it. Conforms to the crankshaft pretty good. I port matched the upper adapter plate to the block. Then I put the exhaust cover in place. Looking through the upper adapter plate, there was a little ledge where it met the block so I blended that too. I barely touched the cover. Time to pack it up and ship it off to Chris.

[skialot2]

Started to prep some other parts while waiting for my block to come back. I cleaned up the casting marks on the intake. I used my Dremel and while I was at it I noticed how terrible the reed blocks meet the manifold. Not a smooth transition at all. So, I port matched the intake to the reed blocks. The red blocks themselves are very square. So next I am going to take the reed blocks apart and round and smooth the inside corners of the blocks.

[LakeFever]

Yeah there’s definitely a lot of casting flash in these motors. Worth cleaning it all up it can’t hurt and it’s fun to do.

[skialot2]

Well I think my plan for this to be a budget build has gone out the window. I just picked up a 7 petal front half from a 2.5 240 HP Sport jet. Should bolt right on my FF block. The only real difference I see is there is 1 less bleed fitting on the 7 petal front. The way the EFI bleed system is routed, it wont matter if I bypass it. Or I could drill it and install the fitting. Just got to make sure the crankshaft sealing rings don't bind. The 5 petal front has a little more wear then the 7 petal. The guy said there was some damage on it. So I negotiated pretty hard with him. I thought I was going to have to repair it. Didn't realize the damage was already fixed. Not perfect, but good enough to be used the way it is.