Hudson River Fun Run 2010

[STOMPER]

well i do not think i will be making it this upcoming weekend. took the boat out today and i am pretty sure i wasted the Bravo 1 Outdrive. could not get it on the trailer since it was way to windy and would have been a hard time towing it into the ramp. so for now i have it tied up in a slip.

[BLAZE]

Those damn bravos!

[Nordic95]

well i do not think i will be making it this upcoming weekend. took the boat out today and i am pretty sure i wasted the Bravo 1 Outdrive. could not get it on the trailer since it was way to windy and would have been a hard time towing it into the ramp. so for now i have it tied up in a slip.

Just went by your marina and checked out your boat...What happened to the drive?Call me to discuss..Anthony

[yesrej]

I really can't wait for this run. Hope this week goes fast and hope for good weather next weekend.its gonna be good to see everyone again!!!

[amazing1]

i can't wait for the run. the week is going to be to long

[MahopacMarine]

Just around the corner all!!! This will most certainly be a very LOOOONG week please call with any questions and we will see you all there.

Thank you to everyone.

[Gladhe8er]

Picked my boat up on Saturday and started cleaning it. Looks like I have 2 dead batteries though...

[yesrej]

its gonna be a blast. The Mahopac runs get better every time!!

[JoeD]

Bernie and I need to load my boat on the trailer this Friday(this past weekend was way to windy),then we will leave LBI 5-6am sat morning.

[Nordic95]

well i do not think i will be making it this upcoming weekend. took the boat out today and i am pretty sure i wasted the Bravo 1 Outdrive. could not get it on the trailer since it was way to windy and would have been a hard time towing it into the ramp. so for now i have it tied up in a slip.

Hey how did you make out with your drive? Give me a call if you need a hand.

Anthony

[yesrej]

weekend is looking good. sat. is looking like 72 deg. and partly cloudy. should be a good time!!!
im going to try and take a quick run on friday night to see water the water looks like. with the rain we are having this week might be putting a lot of trash on in the river. will try to get out and let people know.

[Gladhe8er]

weekend is looking good. sat. is looking like 72 deg. and partly cloudy. should be a good time!!!
im going to try and take a quick run on friday night to see water the water looks like. with the rain we are having this week might be putting a lot of trash on in the river. will try to get out and let people know.

I'm bringing an extra prop!

[yesrej]

I'm bringing an extra prop!

the way the river was two weeks ago, thats not a bad idea

[Tantrum]

the way the river was two weeks ago, thats not a bad idea

What time are you working to on Friday?
We will be at the marina most of the day Friday. Give me a call when you get there.

[yesrej]

I will. I'm hoping to be there by three. Ill call you when I'm on the way

[JoeD]

Whos running these companys on friday?

[STOMPER]

Nordic - no good. was not the drive. either lost a rod cap, or ate a piston. yanking the engine out tomorrow. spark plug was hit pretty good, did not drop a valve, so it was something in the cylinder. either it ate up a piston or just lost a cap. praying nothing more happened and it is a easy fix. going to take the engine down to Fonse Performance (they are exp. with marine engines and have a dyno to fine tune it) unless anyone can recommend a place local. that are all the way down near Philly, but have a dyno and know marine tuning well. email or call me with the info if anyone knows a good place. Mahopac Marine, any recommendations?

Mike - 973-296-0433
mike@asatllc.com

[Nordic95]

Nordic - no good. was not the drive. either lost a rod cap, or ate a piston. yanking the engine out tomorrow. spark plug was hit pretty good, did not drop a valve, so it was something in the cylinder. either it ate up a piston or just lost a cap. praying nothing more happened and it is a easy fix. going to take the engine down to Fonse Performance (they are exp. with marine engines and have a dyno to fine tune it) unless anyone can recommend a place local. that are all the way down near Philly, but have a dyno and know marine tuning well. email or call me with the info if anyone knows a good place. Mahopac Marine, any recommendations?

Mike - 973-296-0433
mike@asatllc.com

Before you run it down there call me... I have a couple options for you and one is real local.1-732-921-3355 Anthony

[STOMPER]

thanks anthony, i was also thinking about LRB performance in Franklin. i am going to call him in a few.

[Pro1]

going to take the engine down to Fonse Performance (they are exp. with marine engines and have a dyno to fine tune it) unless anyone can recommend a place local.

My buddy Tom 32 Baja has A Fonse engine brand new with 2 hours on it and the same thing happened. He blew up the new Fonse motor within a few hrs. The machine shop we use has a Fonse motor on the floor where the lifter valley was reworked by Fonse. The lifters seized in the block so bad they had to throw the block away. He is sueing Fonse.

Have you read OSO under beware? We have a machine shop in Westwood NJ we use who is pretty good. He does about 300 motors per year.

Read all the stories on OSO.



WOW! Seems like 540's are their weak point. F*O*N*S*E Performance.

Here is an example they were contracted to build a turn key, fully dressed 540 with a procharger useing the Fast XFI system and to be tuned by al himself.

The motor came back not dress, no headers, no xfi harness, no starter, 2 bolts missing in the blower bracket.

So I thought no big deal he told me the harness is all plug in play its in the box. well that was a joke. i called him and he was confused. so he sent me another harness. this one had 1 more of the plugs on it that i needed, but it also cam with a few cut wires, melted wires that i had to repair, the coil harness was not there, we had to integrate the XFI harness to the Merc harness. all items that were supose to be done.

so we removed the valve covers to paint them because they scratched them with the lifting chain. we noticed a milky substance laying on the head so i called him and sent pics of it. he told me it was assemble lube mixed with oil, or condesation because of the cold water used to dyno it, and i should not worry and just put it in and run it.

we also noticed the rollor of the rocker is not centered on the valve which it should be according to dart and crowler. some rockers have less than half the roller on the valve. again called and sent him pics. he said quit worring and just run it.

so we finished dressing it. dropped it in, got it running, and had a nightmare of a time getting it to run or idle. the harness he sent had a broken wire under the covering. supposed to have been a new harness. once running the idle was all over the board.

so finally we get it in the water. idled it in the marina about 15 min. messing with the idle. seems to be ok.

now we are ready to go out we idle out about 5 min ride to open water i ease it up on plain it struggled a little poured out black smoke then plained out. now we are running 40mph checked all guages seem good running smooth i go about 3/4 mile saw another boat coming at us on our side so i wanted to pass on the other side so i stepped it up to 45- 50 mph for 10-15 sec. and went a round. then backed off to about 40mph for about 3/4 mile to a straight in the river and figured lets push it up a little so started throttling up now running 52 mph again keep in mind this 800hp motor is in a 28 foot low profile cat that ran a true gps 99.6 mph with a 700 hp motor. so again at 52 mph i check the guages all ok continuing with more throttle but no more speed, guages still ok, i trim it up thinking maybe the drive picked up something. but not the case. now almost full throttle (guages still ok) i start backing off the throttle watching the guages, the oil pressure has dropped to 40psi i continue backing down to idle and the oil pressure went to 0 psi engine stalled and locked up. oil had blown out the breathers and was milky but the oil looked ok on the stick and smelled of fuel bad.

so towed it back got in touch with al which is nearly impossible through out this whole job(shop meetings, he's on the dyno, at the doctors) he had all the excuses. so we tow the boat 2 hours to him to check it out. after a week i get in touch with him. he finds water in 1 cylinder and claims my water cooled header was leaking but when we got down there we tested the header and it did not leak, but when we got home we heated the header and checked it again there was a slight drip not a stream or major leak. we tested it with with 25 psi of water pressure. more than under normal comditions.

so i pulled the motor at his shop and left it for his guys to dissasemble monday. so after almost 2 weeks he tells me the crank is shot, i need all new pistons, and a complete head job. so we go down (2 hr drive) to see this. boy were they surprised to see us. al jr didn't want to talk to us so we talked to sr and the guy who took it apart. sr was showing us the block in the engine stand and he said let me turn it over as he did the crank fell out on the floor. at that point i knew i was taking the motor home.

the crank was burnt so bad on the first cap it turned the block and crank black, there are 3 melted pistons, and clearly 1 blown head gasket pointed out by al sr and agreed with by his assembler.

al claims all this is from my header, keep in mind there was that milky substance in the heads that i questioned even before we started the motor. also i now find out he dynoed the motor with his manifolds not my headers about a 25 hp difference.

he now tells me $5500.00 to fix it. WHAT HAPPENED TO WE STAND BEHIND OUR MOTORS? THATS A JOKE!

yeah they stand by it and tell you how much it will cost to fix it.

we had 2 engine builders look at the damage and a sample of the oil that came out Which had a ton of fuel in it and barely any water in it. both builders came to the conclusion that this motor was hurt on the dyno and most likely poped the head gasket on the dyno and the first time out just did it in.

now i'm left with a blown motor an empty pocket, and no help from al or his company. yes his ad on offshore looks great and proffessional. but it is far from the truth. they were great to me when i dropped it off then i was just a number.

beware and stay away from them.

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