Newbie Here

[DriftinMT09]

Hello guys and gals. Brand new to the forum here, but have been checking out past threads for the last few days. My wife and I were looking for used boats up here in MN, and we found one that fit our size needs, and picked it up on Tuesday. It's a 1981 Lund S16, with a 1990 Johnson 30hp. Boat has been well used, and painted a few times over. Took it out last night for our maiden voyage in it, and we only had a few issues.

The two I am most concerned about, were that the motor while in gear, but very low RPM, would just randomly stall. I was able to restart it with a little throttle manipulation both times. Running higher off idle, it never happened. Not sure if I need to do a thorough carb clean or maybe just as simple as a new set of plugs.

The other is that after our 1-1/2 hour time on the water, there was around 1-2" of water in the back area of the boat around the fuel tank. Previous owner said he saw a very slight trickle from the bore around the drain plug, but didn't suspect it was the plug itself. As I am new to owning my own boat, and my experience with my parents boats is not really relevant (they have a pontoon, and used to have an Alumacraft Phantom), I've not much experience with open bottom riveted boats. Is there a chance I have some loose seams that are leaking?

 

[Weldorthemagnificent]

Easiest thing to do is plop the garden hose in the boat and put a few inches of water in and crawl underneath and mark the leaks with a sharpie. Put a good dose of seafoam in your fresh premium fuel.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

 

[DriftinMT09]

Easiest thing to do is plop the garden hose in the boat and put a few inches of water in and crawl underneath and mark the leaks with a sharpie. Put a good dose of seafoam in your fresh premium fuel.

Sent from my CLT-L04 using Tapatalk

With it on the trailer, after we got back home, I was looking for any water drops on the underside of the hull, as it had standing water in it. I couldn't see any places where it was still wet, or forming water droplets. Maybe there just wasn't enough water in it, or water in the right places.

It is fresh premium, mixed at 50:1 with Quicksilver oil. I'll add some seafoam for good measure, and thank you for reminding me about it.

 

[JL8Jeff]

You might need to adjust the idle air screw on the carb(s) to get the rpm's up a little bit at idle. As for water getting in the boat, the weight of the boat in the water will create pressure allowing the water to squeeze in but with the boat sitting on a trailer with water in it won't have any pressure to force it back out showing where the leaks are. You'll most likely need to put the boat back in the water and sit patiently looking for the slight leak. You need to keep the inside dry so no wet shoes or anything else dripping so you'll be able to see the leak. You should have a bilge pump in the boat regardless of the leak so plan on doing that if it doesn't have one. If you got caught in a downpour out in the middle of a lake, it would take on water quickly and become unstable, so the bilge pump is nice piece of mind. My guess is worn down rivets that are allowing the leak. I would look along the centerline of the boat to start since they tend to wear faster. Check the drain area for possible cracks or dents. If the drain plug hole isn't round it could leak around the drain plug.

 

[DriftinMT09]

You might need to adjust the idle air screw on the carb(s) to get the rpm's up a little bit at idle. As for water getting in the boat, the weight of the boat in the water will create pressure allowing the water to squeeze in but with the boat sitting on a trailer with water in it won't have any pressure to force it back out showing where the leaks are. You'll most likely need to put the boat back in the water and sit patiently looking for the slight leak. You need to keep the inside dry so no wet shoes or anything else dripping so you'll be able to see the leak. You should have a bilge pump in the boat regardless of the leak so plan on doing that if it doesn't have one. If you got caught in a downpour out in the middle of a lake, it would take on water quickly and become unstable, so the bilge pump is nice piece of mind. My guess is worn down rivets that are allowing the leak. I would look along the centerline of the boat to start since they tend to wear faster. Check the drain area for possible cracks or dents. If the drain plug hole isn't round it could leak around the drain plug.

I'll have to look up info to see if I can find where the idle screw is on the carb. It doesn't seem to do it when in neutral, so I am thinking it may be overloading (overfueling) when at low rpm under load.

It has a bilge pump, but I'm not certain it works, and the hose cracked in half last night. A new one is definitely in order.

 

[DriftinMT09]

Went out to the boat early this morning, and cleaned off the (very poor) paint around the rear drain plug bore, wiped clean with brake clean, and applied some JB MArine weld around the outside of the bung. Noticed there were two smaller areas where it looks as if the bottom hull panel is split away from the transom panel. One area is around 2" long and the other is about 1" long. Not sure if I need to try and form those back together or just also clean and force some JB Weld into the gap.

 

[DriftinMT09]

Any of you guys that are more experienced than I, do (did) boat manufacturers back in the day mine was made (1980) use a sort of seam sealer along all the seams of aluminum when they were riveted together? Could it be that I have more than one source of a leak, as I can see some gaps in the seams along the chines that are riveted to the bottom of the hull?

I tore out all of the carpet that had been spray tacked to the bottom of the hull yesterday, so hopefully I can go dump it in the lake before the weekend, and take some towels to try and dry off any areas that get water in them so they can be marked with a sharpie.

Any tips on how to replace or reform any loose rivets without having to take the boat somewhere would be ideal.

 

[nytebyte]

If it turns out to be just a few loose rivets- I made a couple bars out of old railroad spikes. One is ground down flat then I hollowed a place on it for the rivet head. Second one I just ground flat. One person under the boat putting pressure on the rivet head with the ground out one with another on the inside to give it a good tap or two. When you locate the loose ones mark them so you know and after you get them rebucked add water to the bottom inside to check.

 

[jasper60103]

Greetings from the city of lakes. Welcome aboard and enjoy your new rig.

 

[DriftinMT09]

If it turns out to be just a few loose rivets- I made a couple bars out of old railroad spikes. One is ground down flat then I hollowed a place on it for the rivet head. Second one I just ground flat. One person under the boat putting pressure on the rivet head with the ground out one with another on the inside to give it a good tap or two. When you locate the loose ones mark them so you know and after you get them rebucked add water to the bottom inside to check.

Thanks for the suggestion. The plan is to find out where the leaking area(s) are, and mark them with a sharpie so I have a good idea of where to look for damaged seams and/or rivet heads. Now I need to see if I can find some old railroad spikes from somewhere.

 

[DriftinMT09]

Greetings from the city of lakes. Welcome aboard and enjoy your new rig.

Thanks Jasper. I'm from west of the cities, but work in Minnetonka. I have been enjoying it already, but just need to button up the loose ends to make it less worrisome. Then I can decide what to do for making a front casting deck, and whether to remove the middle bench and reconfigure for a flat floor.

 

[jasper60103]

Greetings from the city of lakes. Welcome aboard and enjoy your new rig.

Thanks Jasper. I'm from west of the cities, but work in Minnetonka. I have been enjoying it already, but just need to button up the loose ends to make it less worrisome. Then I can decide what to do for making a front casting deck, and whether to remove the middle bench and reconfigure for a flat floor.

I'm from south of the metro and work in Bloomington.
My old Crestliner had the original open flat floor, but somewhere down the line someone removed the side steering console.
I really liked that setup. Great for fishing.

 

[DriftinMT09]

So I was looking tonight, for further inspection of my leak. Haven't had it back in the lake since Saturday, but I did get the majority of the carpet torn out so the visibility of the bare bottom is better.

Looking for damaged rivet heads, I saw what appears to be corrosion of some sort on the outer port side chine. I'm hoping this it's nothing big, but as it's right under the battery foam, not sure if a battery exploded leaking acid all over?

 

[DriftinMT09]

This picture may be better.

 

[jasper60103]

I had a wobble wheel trailer. That pic looks like the indentation where my boat sat on the roller.

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[DriftinMT09]

I had a wobble wheel trailer. That pic looks like the indentation where my boat sat on the roller.

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Not so much worried about the very minor indentation from a roller wheel, it's the corrosion around the riveted chine that I'm worried about.

 

[DriftinMT09]

So after some digging, removing the rear bench, and cutting/cleaning out the floatation foam, I found a previous owner of the boat had a battery that had leaked out all over the floor. The foam that was "melted" was indeed saturated at the bottom with what was likely battery acid. The floor underneath the saturated areas was no longer solid, due to electrolysis pitting. Quite a few areas were no longer structurally solid, and I'd bet I could have stuck a pocket screwdriver through them with little to no effort. Was maybe going to attempt to temporarily patch the areas, and then I found the transom wood was all rotted out. Not really the news I wanted to see.

After weighing the options with my wife, we decided to cut the loss on the hull, and I picked up a brand new 2021 Alumacraft V16 on Saturday. It's setup the way I was going to go with the Lund anyway, and now I don't have to finish stripping/prepping/painting the exterior and interior.

 

[DriftinMT09]

Pics of the old vs the new.

 

[hounddog]

Wow! That is a really nice looking rig! I think you made the right choice.
You will love that brand new boat. Are you putting your original motor on it?

 

[DriftinMT09]

Wow! That is a really nice looking rig! I think you made the right choice.
You will love that brand new boat. Are you putting your original motor on it?

Yes, it's a 1990 Johnson 30hp. Just replaced the impeller and housing, head cap gasket, thermostat and gasket, and I have the rebuild kit for the fuel pump and carb. Should be ready to go (or at least I hope).