Cobaltchat.com

It's definitely promising that you haven't actually seen a crack. Sounds like you have the resources to do it right whatever you do find, though, which could mean an absolute steal of a boat.

Check the oil. When my father cracked his block there was water in the oil.

He just ended up giving the go ahead on the rebuild. He has a 7.4 in his 226. He's getting a new block and rebuilding with the remainder of what he had. Out the door he's looking about 3500 with install but he did a lot of the work on his own. He just retired so he has the time.

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't had the chance to post in awhile. When I was down in the hull unbolting the seat cushions I saw the crack in the port side of the block. I was kinda hoping there might be an off chance that a freeze plug had pushed out, but that's not going to be the case for sure. We're going to try to pull the motor next week and start the process of stripping it.

All the seat cushions that need love have been pulled out and ready to be recovered.

This is going to be a fun project!

Sounds good. Keep us updated and pictures.

Today my motor was pulled and stripped down to a longblock. When I took this picture I was having a very weird feeling. I'm happy that progress has begun, but at the same time a little creeped out because my boat looks like a salvage wreck. I guess in a way it kinda is... The motor was setting on the ground and the entire interior was loaded into the back of my truck.

The freeze crack is more like a freeze explosion.

And now the block is in engine... purgatory!

I pulled these little puppies out and it wasn't fun! And then after searching the Web over and over for a way to redo or refinish them I discovered Tecnographics in Florida. They have the contract to do all the dash panels for Cobalt, so I ordered OEM replacements.

Not cheap...but I also learned that by doing it mysef, it would have taken a very long time, and this time of year that's something I don't have a lot of. Also, the intrument panel is fine, and I was worried about getting an exact match.

Then the lettering was an issue. I looked into several different methods of silkscreen, or something similar. . This problem could have been worked through, no doubt, but in the end I justified the extremely high price for the convenience of placing an order and getting the exact panels I need.

Those are pretty rough. When I look at buying a boat those are the panels I look at to tell if the boat sat out in the sun. Good way to tell. Glad you found replacements. That's good to know. John you may want to bookmark that company some how?

I made a new parts for sale/trade/free subforum and moved the posts trying to sell things there, and created a new post in the now cleaned-up parts forum mentioning this. Might be worth making a sticky with a list of manufacturers at some point too.

I finally got my panels back in the mail. They look great! Now I'm probably going to pull my dash and do the same thing so they'll be an exact match, but that might be next winters project. I also picked up my interior. I'm doing things just a bit different to get a little pop out of the appearance and I'm hoping when it all comes together it'll look right. I had red piping added to the seats and a few other strategic places.

My original steering wheel is toast, and a replacement from Cobalt is ridiculously expensive, so I ordered one of these from Lacarra. After the red boot stripe is added it should all tie in (fingers crossed) Then I took Big Blocks lead and bought this on Ebay. One of the last things to address will be the stereo system, speakers and LED lighting.

I don't know why my crazy phone won't turn the pictures right. Sometimes I'd like to throw this thing like a grenade!

I have learned to take all pictures with my phone sideways.No more up Right pictures. For some reason forums don't like them that way.
I like what your doing.nice touches.

My motor is done. They bored a replacement block 30 over so I got new pistons and rings. Pulled all the components out of my old block and checked tolerances, and it was all great. Reinstalled the components with new bearings, bushings, seals, etc. All the machine work was done to the heads and everything went back together perfectly. Loaded her up and carried her back to the boat shop.

They got the engine installed, reinstalled the outdrive, and started her up to break in the new cam.

Eeww.

My fuel pump screeched when it first fired, so they pulled the pump assembly off, broke it down and cleaned it out. It was full of goo...

The mechanic cleaned it out and put it all back together. It's running, but the pump has me worried.

I may end up ordering a new pump assembly, or at the least the HP side to carry as a spare. Dang.

I've been reading and researching all of the problems that seem to be inherent with these Volvo pumps. Black paint, the hp side running super hot, yadayada. Anyone else here have any fuel pump issues?

The saga continues...