2004 250 in MA/NH

[slideruleracer]

Hi folks!

So nice to find an active, friendly group of Cobalt owners!

Last August, I flew down to Baltimore from MA to inspect a 2004 250 in the Chesapeake Bay. Had a handful of imperfections, but negotiated such a terrific price that it didn't matter and bought it that day. Flew home, bought what was supposed to be a NOS trailer the next day. By Saturday morning (after having to completely redo the trailer bearing nuts and master cylinder), I was on the road with my Dad driving down to Baltimore. We picked her up Sunday morning and were back home with the new boat that night.

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I spent a full day cleaning it out and washing off the mess from the Osprey that lived right next to the boat and starting to make it ours.

We used and loved it from August into October this year and then I towed it home for a whole bunch of winter projects. The first big one was to replace the exhaust manifolds and risers, as the service history was unclear and there was enough corrosion on the exterior of the engine to have me concerned. Well, unfortunately the exhaust manifolds didn't play nice and I ended with 2 broken studs. I decided to pull the heads so I could fix the studs properly and then discovered that 2 of the head bolts themselves were corroded beyond recognition. So the exhaust manifold project escalated into pulling the motor and doing a much larger motor rebuild.

In addition to the motor rebuild, I'm also planning the following projects:
-overhaul and repaint the entire outdrive
-clean and repaint the bilge (might as well, right!?)
-new controller, shift cables and possibly steering rack and cable
-re-cover the rear sunpads and replace the foam in the rear seats and rear sunpad
-new stereo with subwoofer and amp
-new head - going to try to fit a separate tank with an electric flush head
-'repairs' to swim platform. Turns out that underneath the stair mounting plate water was able to get in and corrode some internal steel plates. So I'm going to try to clean those up and then dress the swim platform up with seadek.

If money and time permits, then some lighting upgrades would be pretty cool as we do a lot of night time boating and I'm sure the kids would really dig some underwater lights, but considering what a significant (and pricey) project the engine has turned into, some of my wishlist items might have to get shelved.

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[slideruleracer]

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Upon disassembly I found that the water jackets in the engine had built up a LOT of rust/scale/sand?. It wasn't pretty. Additionally, the riser temperature sensors were not installed, the oil pressure switch had rusted it's connection off. Despite the large motor, the boat was only topping out at about 49MPH during our usage. I now suspect that without the temp sensors and the scale in the engine probably throwing off the knock sensors, that the computer was pulling a bunch of timing and the boat was running less the at full tilt.

When I pulled the pistons I also discovered very slight pitting in a couple of cylinder walls - indication that indeed some water had managed to find its way into the exhaust at some point. I'm hoping it cleans up at .030 over.

I've managed to find a brand new cam from the Gxi motor and I'm going to open up the intake. It looks like I'll need to purchase the tuning software for the older MEFI-4 computers but if all goes well, after the rebuild I'll be looking at around 440 HP.

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[slideruleracer]

When I drove it home from Baltimore, I thought that maybe the bunks were not quite as ideally placed as I would have liked and that it might have been sitting too far back, so I made some tweaks to them after launching it in NH. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to test my adjustments before having to pull it and get the boat home, so I made some adjustments in the driveway! I also added some UHMWPE strips to the bunks.

[Bfun220]

Welcone from wisconsin.
Nice work, Love that you included a video.

[ajcampen]

Welcome from Ohio. Watched a couple of your videos....pretty great what u can do

[slideruleracer]

Thanks! I enjoy documenting my noteworthy projects on Youtube. I expect that a LOT of the 250 projects will end up there (as a few already have).

[cmattj]

Welcome from California!! Great videos and storyline! I felt like I was with you on your purchase!!

You've came to the right Cobalt family as we have members that pull engines and outdrives during a commercial break. We have members with skilled mechanical minds and electronic prowess on every level.

Now we may hijack your thread for a day or two and blow it up beyond recognition....but after awhile we usually get back on point.

Have fun.. start a rebuild thread and we will all be there along the way!!!!

[AsLan7]

Now we may hijack your thread for a day or two and blow it up beyond recognition....but after awhile we usually get back on point.

Aint that the truth!

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Welcome officially to the Cobalt Chat forum slideruleracer. You're the 6th new member for 2018!...So glad you found us.

Congrats on your new (to you) baby...can't thank you enough for the video and pictures. Helps the winter go by a little faster here in Pennsylvania. Great stuff.

It certainly appears that your new 250 has been thru the ringer a few times. Fortunately, it sounds like you have the time, talent, and treasure to make her smile happily again. You'll fit right in with your abilities!

Btw, we enjoy all boats on the site. On which boat models did you grow up with your dad? Own any other boats in the past and/or is this your first Cobalt?

Once again, welcome aboard mate. Keep the great posts comin'!!!
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[Driller]

Welcome from Texas Sliderule. Thanks for sharing. Nothing we like better than photos and videos.

[NautiGirl]

Welcome from KY! We look forward to seeing more of boat's story!

[thunder550]

Welcome from AZ! Thanks for sharing the backstory, it's always interesting to find out how everyone obtained their boats. Pics and vids are great, we love them and they are great learning tools also. Looking forward to seeing you bring her back to life

[jhnmdahl]

Sliderule - another engineer on here perhaps? Great to see you (and your boat) here, and I'm looking forward to following your projects! Sorry it ended up being more than you anticipated, but you'll know the boat cold and it will be rock solid for this year's boating season.

John

[thunder550]

John, does that mean you is one? My undergrad was industrial engineering...

[slideruleracer]

Btw, we enjoy all boats on the site. On which boat models did you grow up with your dad? Own any other boats in the past and/or is this your first Cobalt?

My folks got their first boat around 1987 - It was a 21' Regal. A few years later they picked up a 1991 Wellcraft 233 Eclipse, which they kept until about 2001 at which point they bought a 30' Regal and sold me the Eclipse.

A couple years after I got the Eclipse I completely redid the upholstery (myself). I bought a $1000 Consew, a crap ton of vinyl and foam, and went about completely replacing all the vinyl (my wife thought I was nuts). I redesigned the cockpit seat to fold forward and back so the seat back could be used for piloting or as a reclining seat back when folded towards the steering wheel. I had that design way before the manufacturers did! I added lots of new usable nooks and crannies - Wellcraft left a lot of empty space in that boat. New speaker locations in the side boards as well as cup holders, fire extingusher storage, the rear seat seat back was converted to flip up to open storage for long small items - like lights and cover poles. Really loved how that all came out.

Anyways, my wife and I loved having the boat and a camper at the time. But in 2008, our second son was born and we had 2 boys in diapers - not a super recipe for going out on the lake for a day. So we sold the camper and boat and saved some money.

In 2012 we bought a house in a community along Winnipesaukee - the lake we've always boated. In 2013 we got back into boating with the boys, opting for something smaller and cheaper that we could store in the garage during the winter - a 2004 Bayliner BR185. It was actually a great little boat and had the 'big' engine (4.3l) so she moved well, but was simply too small for enjoying all of Lake Winni. Last year I got the bug again and had decided I would finally get a Cobalt that I've always wanted. Originally, we made an offer on a local 1997 252 that was in great shape for it's age but when we got to haggling over the last $1K, we decided to wait and see if we found something newer that we liked more. The one we bought ticked all the right checkboxes at the time and I bought it knowing that even if I had to put a new engine in it, we still got a good deal. Unfortunately, that happened earlier than I thought! (To be fair, the motor seemed to be running OK, but these service issues needed to be dealt with, and I don't feel like pulling the motor again anytime soon!)

That's our boating history in a nutshell. Here's some pics!

PS. I just found the funniest thing! In going through my pictures for the Wellcraft, I found a picture back in 2005 of a boat that I really LOVED on the lake.. Yep - It was a Blue and Yellow Cobalt 246! Ha!

[slideruleracer]

Sliderule - another engineer on here perhaps? Great to see you (and your boat) here, and I'm looking forward to following your projects! Sorry it ended up being more than you anticipated, but you'll know the boat cold and it will be rock solid for this year's boating season.

John

John, does that mean you is one? My undergrad was industrial engineering...

My undergrad was Biomechanical. Now I work as an Engineering Manager in robotics.

The SlideruleRacer moniker came from my motorcycle racing years at Loudon. It was a play on words between engineering and the various things that slide in Roadracing.