1963? Hydrodyne custome deluxe 1700 restoration thread

Huh, I guess the center oak boards also taper. Might not be my week to be right....

This picture is of the back of the cockpit where the removable wall section goes for engine compartment. The oak here is about 3.5" wide as the end of the balsa strips is right at 8" out.

And I really do not want to hear anyone complain about working on these boats, there is a ton of room! I put carpet down and was laying down to cut out the fiberglass under the engine. No front mounts are nice! Lots of room! You try to change a starter on a twin engine application of an offshore boat, that will make you try to add some leg and arm joints you were not designed to have! Wow, this is almost fun compared to the Formula! Here is my other water toy......

 

I have always wanted a boat like that Brian. The wife would strenuously object to a 4th boat in my fleet - especially one as expensive as your Formula. The only way I got my 3rd (the Dyne) was to buy an old one and unfortunately it needed major work and so I can gradually slide the expense into the budget with minimal waves. I will cross the expense of the 2 motors when I get there.

Your core is an obvious mess and will need to be totally removed down to the hull shell. I would recommend a new 3/4" core out of end grain balsa or Divinnycell and take it from there. Old Dynes had the stringers over the core but I put a couple of transom knees in before I re-cored to try and get the best of both worlds. I would also recommend thinking ahead to the floor level to set stringer height and core accordingly. I did not think far enough ahead and had to do alot of finish carpentry on floor pieces as a result.

How fast does the Formula go and how big waves can she handle?

 

Well, we got most of the wood removed. Everything except the thin tapered piece of oak on the port side is out. On the starboard side I am clean up to the first piece of oak, the one after the center board. This piece of oak is loose in the middle, but still seems secure up front and in back, so I will have to pry it out. The question comes what to do after that. As I have 3 strips of balsa, another oak board, and then two strips of balsa. Some of the balsa we have started to remove, but that second oak board will probably not come out as it is still dry and secured in. Not sure. First will be to finish removing that oak board just inboard of the keel, that will let me know what the balsa is like. I think in back it will come out, but everything up front is still solid and dry. Been in there over 50 years, if it is dry and solid I will leave it.

Under the gas tank some of the balsa will come out, seems like I had a small leak there when I thawed it out. It is wet, but not rotted. I chiseled some out yesterday, did not want to come out. I think it is recent as I put my moisture meter on it. The wet spot was 50% moisture and then over a 2" span (along the grain) it went to less than 10% moisture. No way to have that range of water in long grain balsa over 2" unless the water got into it very recently. I probably broke a spot when I was chiseling or shoveling the top plywood out and cleaning up. I had standing water in that area for a couple of days while it was thawing. Either way, I will keep chiseling away and see how it goes. If it is loose, it comes out. If it is wet, it comes out. Dry and secure, it might stay.

I cut a couple of pieces of glass off the inside transom, and it has moisture. The top and middle look good, but moist. The bottom couple of inches might have some rot. Have to get the motor out first and then remove the inside layer of glass. I was amazed at how little glass is on the transom and floor. Looks like it will come apart easy. After cutting up the 87 bow rider and working on the 86 offshore, this thing is really light! Since I have to remove the motor, it will not be going back in. I am prepping the 3.0 merc for installation and getting my dimensions down, so this restoration thread will document the installation of a merc into this thing, and also take on a modification aspect. The 3.0 is 250 to 350 pounds heavier which I do not like, but also produces another 25 HP. The weight is more of a hull capacity issue and stability, than performance. Not going for performance, more of a cruise hull or tubing. But I have also seen these boats with the old ford V-8 in it, I think an Eaton drive? So I am confident the hull will handle the weight with the rework I am doing, just don't want to make it too heavy.

The Formula
The formula would run 58 to 60 with the stock 260HP engines in it when new. I just installed the new engines and only ran it once last year. It now has 325 to 350 HP a side and throttle response is fantastic. I expect it to go that same 60 mph with my 4 blade aluminum tubing props on it. Step up to the 3 blade stainless and it should run north of 65, maybe 70? Not sure, these hulls were wave crushers, not speed demons. It is a losing proposition dumping HP into them after 70 mph, small returns. Plus above 65 is where the alpha drive starts to have issues unless you modify the nose cones. Either way, I am hoping for tubing to be able to run 60 or close on a small lake, yet it will still stay on plane at 15 to 16 mph. Kids love to tube at 20 to 30 mph, works well. Go to lake Michigan and put the stainless on it and run close to 70, have a nice cruise at 50mph.

The old wave crushers will pretty much handle whatever your knees and back will handle. Michigan is different than an ocean swell, so you boat different I guess. The boat is still new to me, so not sure what I will handle in it. I know there isn't a rough enough lake around me other than the great lakes to even challenge it. Lake Wawasee is 4 miles long and two years ago, we were on the sand bar when a storm blew across. We were quick to get in the boat because the wind and waves blew everyone right off the bar and turn the lake to white caps. Everyone drove to coves for cover and about 2' waves, peak to trough came down the lake. It was a blast! Trimmed to bow up to make it run light and had fun playing in the waves all alone for about 20 mintues before it passed. Waves were splashing over the pontoons as they scooted away and I still couldn't get the whole hull out of the water or even phase the boat. Real 3' waves would be fun in it, 4' waves would be rather sporting. People who have owned them have been out in worse, but not sure my middle age body or nerves could take it.

 

Brian,
Here is a picture of my old Formula. (It was a 357. ) I had it for 6 years and replaced it with
the Wellcraft Excalibur. We wanted a boat we could keep in the water all season long at the Yacht
club we belong to. Putting in the Formula and taking it out every weekend took its toll on us. The
Formula had twin 502's with the Speedmaster 3 lower units. It was great boat and we had a lot of
fun with it. The Wellcraft has twin 6.2 Mercruisers and will top out at 57 M.P.H. Not bad for a 38
foot boat.

 

That 357 is a true wave crusher right there, very nice looking boat. You owned something and experienced a ride that most people will never even comprehend. And fuel usage that would make most faint! 57 mph in a condo is a lot faster than a lot of people realize on water with waves! That must be a very comfortable ride.

 

Ran into a problem, wondering how to remove the engine from this thing. It is coming apart really easy. Insanely easy actually, what I can see of inside stuff looks new. The ball bearings are perfect in the flywheel cover.

Trying to remove it as one piece, but doesn't seem to be room. Also seems tail heavy, so I am guessing I am supposed to lift at the lifting loop with the flywheel cover removed. Going to try that next unless someone here that has removed a volvo 4 cylinder from a Hydrodyne custome deluxe chimes in.

Brian

 

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engi...ves/589312-removing-aq130-from-transom-shield

 

So I pulled the drive off and got the engine pulling stand built over the boat. I just used a 4,000 pound come along since I didn't feel like taking the chain fall off the I-beam trolley at the shop. It worked out great. The double 2x4's take all the weight, it is just secured to the house so it can not tip or move sideways. Once the weight was off the boat, I started removing the six bolts at the rear that hold the flywheel cover to the transom shield. Everything came apart easy but there was not enough room to actually pull the motor. When the front hit the boat, the output shaft was still in the transom. Not enough room to pivot the whole thing either. So at that point I new I had to remove the flywheel housing.

Oh, the older AQ110 boats only have the six non-threaded holes. No threaded holes to push it apart. Was not a problem, as with the bolts loose I could just push forward on the engine and it would slide forward. Nothing was stuck on the boat. Look how clean the splines on this thing look!

 

So I pushed the tail back into the transom shield, put a couple of bolts in it and started to remove the flywheel cover. Couple things I learned, the starter is held on by two of the flywheel bolts, be ready to catch it as you loosen it. Luckily, they are through bolted, so the nuts just spin until you realize it and put a finger on them. yeah, a finger. Didn't even need to use a wrench on the nut end of the flywheel cover bolts! Anyways, the bottom shield is held on by three smaller bolts, I think a 1/2" head. Remember to remove them first. Then the top bolts, maybe six of them, have a 5/8" head. remove them. Then the flywheel housing should come loose. The splined shaft that goes into the flex plate and the pilot bushing was stuck a bit, so I had to rock that back and forth a few times and it came right out. Once that was done, you could then pivot the motor sideways and lift the flywheel cover out of the boat. Yeah. Winch it up, slide boat forward, drop it down on a cart. Done. Back to cutting glass to remove most or all of the transom..... Why do I do this???????

 

Nice lifting rig.

In a previous home I had an I beam in the attic above the garage with a trap door. There was a post inside the outside wall and a removable post at the other end which was in the middle of the garage. I bought an old planetary drive chain hoist and rebuilt it. It was above the trap door. The attic could support the I beam with no load on it. It had joists on 16 inch centers.

The only problem was that it was stationary. I have more storage room here, so I use an engine hoist. I have a friend that has an engine hoist mounted on a small trailer which hooks to his golf cart or truck. He can pick up a big outboard and take it anywhere.

jim