Performance Boats Forum banner

Rod's Mach 1 project

14K views 117 replies 30 participants last post by  hotrod56cars 
#1 ·
This is a project thread, my project. I have another thread for this project on another forum, but never say never because a lot of people lost information (temporarily) when HotBoat went down and I don't want that to happen to me.

Around August of '07 I bought a 1978 Mach 1 Tunnel jet project boat. I paid $1500 for it. It has a old style Dominator pump, a wedge with a droop snoot, a hydraulic Place Divertor, half primered/half painted hull, a long time ago painted seats, and a very blown 468 Chevy (rods have left the building Elvis).

After getting it home, I went on HotBoat.com and saw a thread on the boat I just bought. A little bit of internet drama later... :|err

So here's some pics of it when I bought it. I paid $1500 for it.
 
#4 ·
Oh yea, I almost forgot. I installed a rectangle port intake on my oval port heads using oval port gaskets and got water in my oil, was maybe running on two cylinders, and just not a good thing... so I paid a pro to go threw my engine to tell me what I did wrong and for him to put it back together. Wrong intake manifold gaskets.

3 1/2 hours later of testing and just complete disappointment at 49 mph at WOT the pics show what went first before I ever even got it remotely close to get it to run correctly.
 

Attachments

#5 ·
This year I've got a pile of parts I'm working on in making an engine out of. I have a friend that's in the know for higher HP engine builds and he's lending me a huge hand. It will be a 468, the block has been machined at Ed Hale's and is ready to go, used and checked out to be good Ross 13:1 forged pistons, Manley H-beam rods, GM forged 454 crank that still needs to be checked and polished, Crane solid roller cam, Crane solid roller lifters, Comp roller rockers, and for now probably a 850 Holley. I have a pair of 781 oval port heads for it but I'm not sure if that's what I am running yet. I have a complete Kinsler MFI set up for this project but I think I would rather get the suker wet again before I deal with any major tuning problems (MFI). The engine should be together in a couple of weeks. I have Borla SS dry header copies also.

I got some killer news today. The seats in my boat have been painted, the paint is heavily cracked and so is the vynl. A friend of mine's G/F recently bought a industrial sewing machine and sewed my friend up a complete interior for his boat and now she's goinhg to replace my seat covers for me. His looks really good. I am stoked.

I want it on the water by June 13th.
 

Attachments

#6 ·
Of course I like BAE 557's boat, we have similar hulls and in the Mach 1 world that's a pretty big deal at least to me, so I thought I would "copy" his, just a little, in the pump's looks department. I swapped out a 4 degree wedge and a Berkeley droop snoot for a Rooster Booster and a spacer. We will see how well it works for me...
 

Attachments

#7 ·
Back in December I got into a little accident in the desert on a quad and now my knee is a little AFU. It's difficult for me to bend my left knee far enough to sit in the thing for any amount of time. I think I'm going to extend the colum, move the seats back, and move the gas pedal back so I won't have to bend my knee as much when I sit in the boat. I looked around the boat today and the gas pedal and seat have been moved forward at some point of the boats life, the old holes are still there. I've been looking at tunnel hulls on the net and haven't seen anything that stands out at me as being super comfy. Probably the nature of the beast. :D
 

Attachments

#8 ·
That pump setup is badass looking!:)devil I love how all the aluminum has a satin finish on it, much better than polished aluminum, that is a pain in the ass the keep clean.:D I might consider doing something like that to my pump at some point in time.:)bulb

What is the thing with the springs on it and the cable going to it?
 
#13 ·
That pump setup is badass looking!:)devil I love how all the aluminum has a satin finish on it, much better than polished aluminum, that is a pain in the ass the keep clean.:D I might consider doing something like that to my pump at some point in time.:)bulb

What is the thing with the springs on it and the cable going to it?
The badass looking pump pic is BAE 557's boat. The part with the springs is called a pop off valve designed to alleviate the pressure in the pump in case the engine shuts down at a high speed. It also has a manual control on it so it can be opened manually. As my project progresses I'm going with a red white and blue theme on the boat which is also going to be carried on the pump.
 
#11 ·
There was one SWTD that was fit with the T-Deck Deck on here a while ago. I believe Mouzer bought it then Big Proppa got it from him, later selling it. (Shocker there. lol)

Rod, there is not a whole lot that you can do to make the boat comfortable and safe in the event of a sudden exit. You really don't want your leg streatched out under the deck but you can move your seat back to help a little.
 
#14 ·
Those SWTD's are badasssed. I like to be a little different and this hull is the ticket for me. The pod on it sticks out like a sore thumb that's been repeatedly hit with a hammer :D and I am thinking of someday down the road shortening the pod, again similar to BAE 557's boat. But I may not, after all it is a part of the boat that makes it different than the rest.

Those T-decks are sweet also, but every T-deck interior that I've seen in person makes the size of my boat's interior look like a limo. Cool dash, but very small interiors.

I definately don't want to stretch my leg under the bow. :)st
 
#15 ·
The first pic is of a pump on a Rogers that I am sure a lot of you on this board are very familiar with. I want to do something like this to the pump on my boat.

Next pic is a higly poorly modified pic :D of another boat that I'm sure will be famailiar to a lot of people on here too. It's kind of round about, kind of sort of, where I'm going with my project. Except for all the blurieness, crooked hull, etc... LOL

Last pic is a busted block and a cracked pair of heads with one of my headers and my MFI sitting on top of it, again just doing a little more dreaming/planning - depending on how you look at it. :|err
 

Attachments

#17 ·
My God Rod! destroyed the first two pics of my shit! lol
The computer mods are better than i could do! pretty talented M'er F'er!:D
I've kind of been dredding you seeing the my pic of my boat, woops, I mean the pic of your boat, no that isn't it either. :)grn

Destroyed is an understatement. But it gives me a general idea of... something... ?... :D
 
#19 ·
Don't know if this would help your situation or not. But, I put my drivers seat on an adjustable slide track because I am only part owner of the boat, and my buddy is much larger than me. This is only temporary though because as soon as I buy his half of the boat in a couple of years, I'm going to rigid mount it. Works great though, it is the slide track off of a ditch witch seat. Here's a picture.

 
#22 ·
Sweet...I look forward to seeing this baby come together. :)

Thanks for posting.

Sleeper CP :D
 
#29 ·
Today I put on a 6" steering hub/extension, moved the seats back 6", and moved the gas pedal back 8 1/2". I didn't think it could be but it's actually comfortable now.

I had to install the steering hub twice. I didn't see a key for the steering hub when I took it apart. So I went to a friends house and got a hub key from him, put the boat together, and found a hub key laying on the floor. Took the hub off and there was a hub key in there too. :D That's why it's dark outside in the last pic.

There was also a stereo on the floor, no speakers anywhere, so I removed it finaly.
 

Attachments

#30 ·
That thing is coming together. You bought that boat from one of my buddies. It wasn't the fastest on the river, but one of the fastest out of my group of friends. Glad to hear you moved the seat back. Hopefully you can lower it somehow too. That boat has the worst leg room ever. Sitting down your knees would be well above the deck. Last time it was out I remember some issues with the hydraulics on the diverter, but it also had a huge rooster tail. Those headers also look a lot better than the Bassetts that were on there. Good luck with the project and keep us updated with pics.
Khoi
 
#33 ·
Looking good hotrod ! I need to get one of those extentions for my project too.
Thanks Propless.

It's kind of funny, last year I never worked on the hull. I guess I'm kind of making it "miine" now.

I got a little bit done to it today. I replaced the forward reverse cable, that shielding on it was cracked pretty bad. When the control used to be in the forward position it used to stick straight up in the air and it was always jammed into your calf. So I adjusted the new cable so when it was in forward it was just far enough away from the dash to be comfortable. It gave me even more room. I just can't believe how comfortable this boat feels to me in the hot seat. :) I made a little bracket and used a cruise control cable clamp (been saving it since the 80's :p ) to keep the cable up. The cable used to literaly ride on the driveshaft. I also redirected the cable behind the gas tank instead of in front of it right in the middle of the floor where it used to be. I ran into an odd problem though. The control used to slide in and out of the gunwhale ( :D J/K Gunnel) (green arrow in the pic). It looked like it is missing a piece or something. So I used a aluminum large nut (blue arrow) (it fits very good) to take up the slack in the control's side to side movement. If you have a better solution please chime in.

In this hull's pump pod the threaded hole at the pump for the engine's water inlet has a nice AN fitting and SS braided hose. At the other end of the same hose is a partial AN fitting, the SS braided hose was jammed over the partial AN fitting, and it had a hose clamp holding it together. So I decided that probably wasn't a good idea, especially since it was before the inlet's valve. I used the correct size complete AN fitting I had on the shelf so I replaced the AFU parts.
 

Attachments

#34 ·
The second pic, the one that look's like the leftovers of my last Monday's praying session to the porcelin Gods, is actually the wiring that's in the back of the boat. You'd think that since I've been doing automotive, marine, and RV wiring and electrical troubleshooting since 1981 that I could make the wiring look better than it is. I'll get to it. My friend Brian is riding my azz about it every time we talk so it'll have to get done just to shut him up. :D

I think I want to change the engine's water dump line to SS braided hose also. I noticed the rubber hose in it now has a moderate bend that it has to do and it's slightly kinking the hose.
 

Attachments

#35 · (Edited)
I now have every part needed for my engine (carbed) with the exception of push rods and parts related to the valve train that I won't know what I need until the engine is partially assembled and clearences can be checked. I'm trading some parts for a pair of heads with a friend of mine and he's lagging on the heads, I'm not sure how that's going to pan out. I wish I had the coin to set up and plumb my MFI but not yet (or the coin to buy some nice heads too).
 
#36 · (Edited)
I loosely fitted one of the headers to the engine and soon realized that the plastic battery box wasn't going to last very long next to the dry headers.


I spent a day and a half on my off time making this battery mount. I also had to flex the hull a bit just to get the battery in there.


The battery box problem cured.


On the other side of the boat is another battery box that hold the hydraulic Place Diverter pump. I just turned that box and moved it back, it's currently held in place with a bungie cord. :D
The engine that was in this boat last didn't have a flywheel cover and I just didn't like the look of it. It also had a (guessing) 20 contact terminal strip with wires that were way too long and just kind of bundled up and zip tied. So I bought a flywheel cover off of eBay and spent more than 5 hours sanding it and then another hour polishing it. I had a spare "stock" terminal strip and used that after I polished it.
 

Attachments

#37 ·
I got the mo fo to run tonight! Very exciting sh!t. :D




I still got some work to do before it goes on the lake Sunday, it's a birthday present to myself. :D A few carb issue's still. I am not a carb guy. Anyway, I'm stoked that it's running and just wanted to share some blury pictures and the news. :)devil
 

Attachments

#40 ·
NICE! Trust me Rod, once you're on the water, it'll make all the headaches go away and you'll see just how worth it this venture was. Looks good man.

Skip
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top