1979 Ski Tique Resto-Mod (Purist Need Not Apply)

[LFEngineering]

With the snow melting I was finally able to get the CNC Plasma setup in the driveway and cut some new trailer steps.

[s_kelley2000]

Awesome work on the rebuild! you have some serious talent. What lakes do you typically use? I am in central MA, mostly on Fort Meadow or Quinsigamond. Hopefully our lakes will start thawing soon....

[LFEngineering]

Oh I'm all over the place. Everywhere from the CT River to Webster lake and any other watering hole with a boat ramp.

[LFEngineering]

Well, it's been an interesting past few months. The reader's digest version is:

- Took it out for an opening day ski, ended up pushing through slushy ice to get to open water. My buddy trick skied and the boat worked great with the exception of the carb dripping from the boosters

- I rebuild the carb and went back the following weekend for another test. Motor ended up puking milky oil out of the PCV valve all over the place. After a week or so of testing I had eliminated the intake & the exhaust manifolds so I pulled the intake to find a 3" crack in the block.

- After crunching the numbers on a rebuild I opted to go with a reman long block. Delivered in 2 days I spent the next week preparing parts & swapping them from one motor to the next.

- Since the break-in is so critical I had my buddies brother (total gear head), run the break-in which went great. Only problem was there was a huge vacuum leak and we couldn't get it to idle down below 1800 rpm. I fixed the gasket leak as it turned out to be a mismatch gasket between the carb spacer and the intake manifold.

- We re-tuned the carb as best we could but there's still something wrong with it. Since the bowl threads were already messed up and I don't know how it's been taken care of I opted to go with a reman carb aswell (still hasn't arrived yet 5/21/15)

- I took the boat out the other day and it seemed to run OK. I had to time it by ear on the water as it was too bring to see the timing light, but we got it running enough to ski. Every now and then it would backfire in the holeshot under load and you'd get a whiff of gas while skiing. Since I was still running the questionable carb I didn't think much of it.

- Yesterday I decided to look into this occasional backfire. I pulled the plugs and found 2 & 3 were more discolored then the rest. Didn't take long to find that the 2 & 3 plug wires were swapped. I put them back in their proper place and the boat runs great.

- I'm still waiting for my re-man carb to come in, but once that's installed and the timing is fine tuned it's goign to be an animal.

[LFEngineering]

Here are some pictures from yesterday's lake trip:

[LFEngineering]

Got it lettered last night. Not to bad for $17 vinyl, a laptop + projector & a x-acto knife.

[4th ski-doo]

Very nice! I love the old school boats!