The 427 Engines Return!

Vancouver is socked in with fog. The picture above is of the downtown with the north shore mountains in the background - the sea planes are grounded and the fog horns are constant in the bay. The first picture is of Vancouver from Cyprus Mountain looking south over the city.

Paramount is readied to return to the yard for the engines to go back in.

We could not have done this project without the internet. The Commander Forum was a great source in locating parts, and for learning how other owners had approached similar work on their boats. Craigslist was the source for the two spare engines, that provided choice parts for the rebuilds and for locating the fresh-water risers from Troy in Springfield. eBay lead us to the Chris Craft original engine decals and engine tags.

Shrouded in fog Paramount rolls out of the barn after an extended stay in "intensive care", every inch of the gal has been gone over and the engines are "BTN" (better than new) the performance Edelbrock intake manifold eliminates the "hot spot" cross-over in the Ford design, carbon it was found, builds up here and chokes the engine. The increase in horse-power was surprising. 

Every screw has been removed and re-bedded on her topsides and hull. Let it rain! She will be dry. Enough of this fog.

  

Pacific Parts workshop have done a brilliant job rebuilding the engines, "G" the machinist responsible for the build is featured here over-seeing the return. When it comes to classic anything an extra keen sense of time and patience is required. P's engines were all stock 40 year old iron legends when they arrived at Pete's - original to the nuts and bolts. G is young enough to realize the old saying is true; they don't build them like they use to.

He's gone the extra mile to build them with pride.

 

 

  

Doug and Scotty watch with horror as the big blocks fly through the fog. 

All in a days work, the crane operator Gord, relaxed as ever. G has a grip.

One in and over it must go, standard rotation is moved to port and the counter-rotation comes in and goes straight down.

There is Gord again - Cool Hand Luke, reclining as he moves 1000 lbs of steel with one finger. 

Here Doug holds the brush handle out the port salon window to guide Gord, and Gord brings in the boom for the lifting of the port engine over from the starboard engine bay on the mark!

"Captain Scotty" keeps an eye on the 3" of clearance and protects the gel-coat and window edge - just in case Gord slips - never.

Port is in place and the second engine comes in for the starboard side.

It is a beautiful thing to see a 40 year old engine recycled and renewed. The rush for new misses the quality of old.




 

G and Scott over-seeing the installation. 

Dick Avery - Commander Designer

After knocking the designers choice of wall-to-wall carpet - I have to take my Captain's hat off to Dick Avery - the Commander designer. The video below is from the Chris Craft Commander site. It features Chris Craft designer Dick Avery talking about how the Commander series was born. How many times does he say "sexy"?

Top to Bottom, Stem to Stern

The Cabin Sole

B.O.A.T. "Break Out Another Thousand" or by definition; "A hole in the water into which one pours money" the scariest thing would be to have a hole in that hole.

Nothing is ever simple or easy on a boat. The above picture is of the no-longer used thru-hull for the forward head. Laws in America require heads be plumbed to holding tanks and Paramount was converted at some point leaving behind this ticket to Davy Jones' Locker.

The designers at Chris Craft were at the leading edge of interior design, wall-to-wall carpet was all the rage. Not to worry that access hatches are covered. To find this thru-hull you almost needed a metal detector! We have Dr Doug, who has left no hatch unturned.

The sea-cock was frozen in the open position and the galvanized iron pipe that looked not-so-bad from the outside, but as you can see above very rusted on the inside, there is a reason for never using anything but bronze for these critical fittings! This could have sunk Miss P.- it would have been almost impossible to locate where the water was coming in. Access hatches have to be accessible.

When it came to new flooring for Paramount the wall-to-wall is being replaced with wood. In a house everything is pretty well square when it comes to flooring - not on a boat! This is the dinette area - about the only "square" - in all of her total square feet.

Below is the forward V-berth as Joe our master boat builder knows, another jig-saw within the jig-saw. Worse in fact, as each and every tongue & groove board had to be fit, the next cut made, the area pulled apart and fit again and so on until every angle was tapered in. The grey square is the hatch - it is going to be covered with floor and trimmed in oak with a handle installed to make access easy.

 

Bridge Brightwork

Ten down - Two to go!

It seems excessive, almost compulsive - however it is the long standing practice to apply 12 coats of varnish to woodwork that gets direct sunlight.  Each year the top three or four coats takes a pounding from the UV rays, damaging these layers, and each year you should sand these layers off and refresh the top-coats to protect the underlying base. If you don't follow this maintenance schedule, you end up having to go back to "new-wood".

Like a jigsaw puzzle with a 1000 pieces Miss P is starting to look a pretty picture again as the pieces fall into place. The new panels have been fitted to the helm station/bridge, all the trim has been screwed down to check for fit before the final wet-sand and last coats. It all looks good, the fear is a scuff when the engines are replaced, so we are holding our breath waiting to lay the final coats, seal her up and button her down - ready for the 09 season.

You can just make out the original colour behind this panel, the sun had turned the brown stain to a pumpkin colour and the grain was lost behind the UV damaged varnish.

The contrast between the picture above and the one below is a flash was used on the second - lighting-up the grain.

The headliner arrives this week. And the helm will be complete. 

WIP (work in progress)

The Shiny Bits - The Fun Part!

There isn't much that we have not covered at this point. What was old is new again. Original if possible, improved if necessary. All the old seals under fittings have been renewed, leaks sealed and good to go out in the rain.

No More Leaks!

The track for the forward bench had not been off in a very long time, the original gum sealant was all but gone.

Once the bottom was painted we removed the rub rail along the waterline, where the molds are joined and found some sling damage or a "whiskey rub" that had been allowing water to enter behind the master head vanity cabinet.

Every inch of 47' of rail times two (both sides) + X (the transom) was cleaned. Old screw holes were filled, the repair to the split was made and Dr Doug was ready to install the new wider 1" rail.

The wider 1" rail will afford more sealant along this join. When we first lifted Paramount we found water in many outside stringer compartments, where the lumbar holes were either clogged or non-existent. Doug drilled and opened all of the areas found to be holding water. We found close to 200 gallons of water trapped in pockets that were virtually inaccessible. At 8 pounds a gallon that is like ten uninvited guests off the boat.

Rotten wood!

After the boarding ladder was stripped and sanded small areas of dampness became obvious in the freshly exposed grain. Areas that looked fine under the varnish were in fact rotten and it is lucky that we discovered it before someone was injured. If you have ever contemplated a wooden boat, take this as a lesson! Mahogany is known for this - looks good but...

This picture was taken to show the beautiful grain of the first piece sanded, it wasn't until all the boards were sanded that the damage became evident. To lose original beautiful grain like this is sad.

The Engine Room

Gone is the CO2 system, replaced with a new Fire-Boy, all of the pressed paper/board has been replaced with new foil .

More Chrome! More Shine!

The chrome fittings are being replaced with new wire runs.

The original sea-strainers have been cleaned and re-bedded.

The bronze rudders have been cleaned, epoxied and ready for a coat of hard bottom paint, once we are close to launch date.

The teak swim-grid has been sanded and oiled with the Interlux Teak Oil. The grid had to be moved to put the new rail on. While it was off it had to be done.

The Maternity Ward - the engines are tested (video)

After a few delays and searching for the right parts the engines are ready to be tested.

After everything was given the once over at low RPMs the engine was readied for it's first full throtle to 4500 RPM.

The sign on the test room door at Precision Racing Engines read "The Maternity Ward" As Doug comes in - you can see why they have the sign.

Here are the "pea-shooter" exhausts that restricted the flow in our tests.



The dyno screen at Precision Racing.






Engine #1 was rebuilt using the stock intake manifold. The maximum HP attained was 285 at 4500 RPM. Engine #2 was tested with a high performance Edlebrock intake manifold and the HP was increased to 325. This was with a restricted exhaust set-up. We should expect a further increase to as much as 375 with the correct Chris Craft exhausts when the engines are reinstalled in Paramount. Engine #1 will be upgraded to the Edelbrock.







Below is engine #2 waiting to be tested. You can see the difference in the height of the Edelbrock intake manifold.

Better Than New "BTN"

Sink or swim, laugh or cry.

With any old boat there are bound to be problems, even the best new boats have their share. Paramount is 41 years old and almost completely original. As we started to bare her bones we found a few not-so-nice surprises along the way. Had Miss P been a wooden Chris Craft from the same era we might have been sunk.

The biggest surprise we found was the shafts and the engine were never truly aligned. When Dr Doug uncoupled the shaft from the transmission he could feel that the alignment had been forced, as the shaft sprung downwards when released. It took three men to pull the shaft through the struts, as it had been bent, from the force needed to get it up to the coupler at the engine end.

The engine beds were 1/2" too high and the motor mounts were adjusted to their lowest placement - there was no room to correctly align the faces of the coupler - and true straight shafts are required for optimum performance and to eliminate deck and prop vibrations.

Doug has removed all 6 struts from the bottom and will re-bed these when the engines are back in the boat, he also lowered the engine beds in preparation and will align the running gear once the shaft is on the engine and he can see where the struts need to be to keep it all true.

Once all the bottom paint was sanded off we could see gaps around the shaft tube - where it exits the hull. The factory only used rove cloth for the inside of the hull. With the shafts pushing up on the top of the tubes, the hull and tube separated, allowing some water penetration.

At the end of the day, when Miss P is cruising on her first long run, the work completed will be in many cases, "better than new". Forty one years ago is a very long time in terms of sealants, epoxy and other materials available today. We are not changing the appearance of Paramount, it is about all integral, structural and systems operating as they were originally designed, without fail.