I thought it was time for an update on this thread. I'm for the long absence but it has been just crazy around the house and work. We've had a busy spring.
I did get the head off, broke 3 more bolts in the process and totally destroyed the head. That head costs about $500 IF you can find one. I already had a spare off my parts motor. That's 5 broken head bolts out of the 14 that hold it on. Of those 5 bolts, 2 would not budge. Welded nuts on the studs and they just continued to break off. Bit the bullet and drilled them out. Got one of those re-tapped well enough to proceed and while re-tapping the second bolt broke the tap off in the hole! OUCH! That's case hardened steel.
Well, using a couple different center punches broke the tap up into little pieces, one by one and finally got almost all of it out.
Then decided that the only way to move on was to repair with helicoils. That went really well and I am pleased with the results. Got the new head back on and went with a slightly, very slightly, shorter bolt on that one hole with a tiny bit of the tap still in it.
I forgot to mention that after I got the old head off I found no signs of the split reed, no signs of scoring on the cylinder walls so I put it all back together. I used a leaf plate and reed off my parts motor as the broken one had some issues where the reed was impacted and split. A new reed would not have fixed that.
After I got it all back together it was time to fire it up! So far it runs really well on the muffs, what a relief!
Both motors are almost ready to go for the season. I am changing gear oil in the lower units over the weekend and we hope to splash sometime this weekend as well.
Thanks for all the support and guidance on this issue. It was a huge undertaking for me. There were times, of course, that I felt it would never run again. I was worried about the length of time that had passed since I started this project last year. That's one nice thing about the twins, I had a perfect example hanging on the port side of the transom! Thanks again to you all!!
See you on the water, good fishing, and everyone have a safe holiday this weekend!!
