So, on the Great Loop thread, I was told that I had volunteered myself to create a boat restoration thread for my new acquisition, which we named the Inconseavable - so here is that thread.

A little backstory on how I ended up with this boat:

In late October of last year, I was watching Wicked Tuna Outer Banks, and was drooling over the sportfishers, which have always been my dream boat for as long as I can remember. Of course, when I was in high school and college, these were priced WAY out of any potential budget I had, or at that time thought I would ever achieve. I decided to do something stupid; I opened up boattrader.com and started looking - just looking, as I told myself.

I was expecting to see all of these around 200+ thousand, I didn't have any idea what they were running these days - I have a 22 ft center console Hydrasport, and that was really as fancy as I had looked for. I've had it for about 20 years now, and bought it from a guy getting a divorce. Looking back, I think I paid 12K for it.

So anyway, i see a 46 ft Post for about $58K in Seabrook. I figure, what the heck, I'll go look at it. Convince the little lady and we head down to take a look. That boat was straight up rotten. literally big gaping rotten holes in the back wall of the Salon. Quickly let the seller know I am not interested, and start the drive home (I'm in Lake Charles). On the way, take another look and se e a43 foot Post in Aransas Pass (Yes, I like Posts). This one listed for $55K, but indicates there is a problem with the Port Transmission, and that the boat needs some love. I contact the broker, and he doesn't know what is wrong with the transmission, and quickly starts pushing me to look at the boat. I decline, but do let him know that if he sees any screaming deals, to not hesitate to email me.

3 days later, he let's me know that same boat is listed for 27.5K. I say what the heck, we'll go look. Make the 5.5 hour drive to Aransas Pass, meet the seller's agent and look at the boat. Hull is in fantastic shape, but needs new flooring throughout, a new salon window (hurricane damage), and the port transmission, as noted before was bad. Still, at 27.5, I'm considering it. She then tells me that she believes that is I offer 15K, he'll take it. For that price, if the mechanical inspection goes well (minus the one transmission of course), I decide that I would offer, not really believing that offer would be accepted. Formal offer submitted, and within an hour, I was under contract.3 weeks later, I own a boat bigger than any I ever thought I would.

Pros of the boat - Hull is great, both engines rebuilt with approximately 200 hours on each. Starboard transmission working great, and fluid testing is spectacularly good. All electrical seems to work (still figuring out all the switches), bilges work great, so does A/C. Brand new refrigerator. Does come with outriggers, not currently on the boat.

Cons - Bad transmission needing rebuild, needs new flooring, needs a real good cleaning, and for our taste, restaining the interior. Also, no furniture in the salon. Marine electronics are ancient - probably from 1986 with the boat (ok, not that old, but old).

And that is the beginning of the story. I will update as I work on the restoration process.

Good luck! I look forward to the updates.

Chapter 2:

After I got the boat, I headed to Cabo for vacation, and got to do some serious offshore fishing. Caught Mahi and striped marlin, with the biggest being 109 inches. I'll post pictures of those when I can get to them.

The entire time, thinking about this boat I just bought, and how I could be doing this on my own, no charters.

The Inconseavable








I get back, and after the holidays, start talking to my mechanic - we start to work out a plan, buy new batteries, and then I stop hearing from him. Completely. After a couple of months trying to track him down, I give up, and start calling other places, trying to find a mechanic to work on the boat. No luck. about 2 dozen tries over a month, and no closer to any work being done. I finally find a mechanic in Pearl River, La, that is willing to rebuild the transmission, the catch is, I have to get it detached from the engine, and deliver it to him. No problem, right? Wrong.

Part of the problem is that these are Capitol transmissions, no longer made, and no one wants to deal with them. They are mated to Detroit Diesel 671 TIs, each putting out about 485 HP. Not a blazing fast boat, but supposed to cruise comfortably at 20-23 knots.

I start working on this, and quickly realize that this transmission has not been removed in the lifetime of the boat, approx. 37 years. It takes me and a buddy 4 days to unmate it from the engine, and remove it from the engine room, which is under the salon, and up under the back flooring, making it very difficult to get to.


The engine and transmission are under this floor.



We created a hoist to get it out.

About 3 days in, and I get a call from the mechanic in Pearl River. he has injured himself, and doesn't have any idea when he will be able to work on the transmission. I'm frustrated at this point, and find the name of a guy in South Carolina who works on these, and he tells me that I can do it myself, it isn't that hard, and that I'd already done the hard part by getting the transmission out of the boat. I say what the heck, and decide I will try to rebuild the transmission myself.



The transmission after I got it out of the engine bay. (Just a touch rusty)

To be continued...

That's so freakin cool. I wish I had the time and patience (and money) to do something like this. I'm in.

Chapter 3:

I got the transmission home, and went to working on it. Got the clutch pack out. Everything was rusted. Sent fluid sample to lab - lots of water, lots of iron. Yep, rust. Called the mechanic in South Carolina, who instantly knew what the issue was. The cooler had failed, and flooded the transmission with seawater. Salvageable? Who knows until I crack it open.

So, I crack it open, get to look at and cleaning parts, sending pics to the mechanic. Amazingly, other than the clutch plates and some tension springs in the gearbox housing, he believes that it is actually in pretty good shape, and so I decide to continue on, even though my prior mechanical work consists entirely of gasoline powered automobiles.. Order the clutch plates and gasket kits, about $1200, and get to work, getting everything torn down to rebuild.

Of course, at this point, I get sick for a week and half, and everything is put on hold. I should be able to get back to the rebuild this weekend. From what I can tell, the gears are good, not pitted. May have to replace a race and a bearing, and will rebuild the clutch pack, and put it all back together after thoroughly cleaning and painting everything. And then, of course, I have to get it back in the boat. I am pretty well dreading that.

And that is about where I am at the moment. I will continue updates, but it will likely be slow for a little bit - busy time for me at the casino.



Clutch pack



This may have been the least rusty part - the gears in the transmission



Clutch pack was totally rusted. Believe it or not, an overnight soak in Evaporust, and nearly every part is in great shape.



The clutch pack before being removed from the housing



What my dining room table currently looks like.



Bonus picture, old radar unit. I have purchased and will be upgrading to all Garmin electronics, but that is what is in there for now. It's going to be a painful, but worthwhile project. Oh yes, already painful, ha! Thankfully, just a sprain trying to manhandle the 500 pound transmission...



That's it for now...

This is awesome

Awesome build! I can help crew when ready!!!

Awesome! Following

While you have that transmission out I strongly suggest you do lots of cleaning and inspecting in bilge. If you can, depending on humidity and condition of the bilge, you might consider doing some painting and heavy duty cleaning.

In a former life I spent a lot of time working on SF boats and spent a year doing serious work on Hatteras hull #35. One of the things I learned was take serious advantage of having an engine or transmission out. Good for you taking this shot.

There are probably some on this board with much better mechanical knowledge, but if I remember correctly the higher HP rated 671's were prone to turbo issues and there several fires were attributed to the turbo's. You might do some research on that with those engines being up there in age. I loved dealing with the 71 series Detroit's, they were the easiest diesels I ever had to do stuff to. And while better than the 56 and 92 series in terms of leaking oil, they still did and that is a major issue nowadays.

Post's are comfortable boats. I have only fished on one a couple of times and it was a decent boat.

Sure looking forward to following your progress.

I have no desire to ever take on a boating adventure, but dammit if this isn't the coolest project I've seen here in a long time.

Excited to follow this.

In! I love old sport fishers. I'm in Kemah, TX. Holler if you need a hand with anything. I have a good friend that is a wizard with marine electronics, wiring, sea keepers, etc. He has his own small marine electronics business and travels to jobs all over in his Beechcraft. He has done extensive work on the Pappas family boat, and many others.

Im impressed! Lot of balls to take on something like this yourself.

The best part is, you'll gain the knowledge and skills to know how to work on your own boat. The confidence that comes with that will be invaluable.

This is my kind of thread. Outstanding OP!

100% plan on cleaning out the bilge. I'm thinking I will be going down next weekend (have to work this weekend) to completely clean it up. It looked very good, and the interior of the engine bay was surprising clean, until I got oil from the gearbox in the bilge while I was taking it out.

Thanks for the caution on fires in the 671s. I'm hoping the recent rebuilds will help mitigate the risk, but one of the things I will be closely examining next is the fire suppression system, which looks very old, and I'm afraid not in great shape. Will be fixing all that before I get underway.

Thank you!

I'm IN on this one. I love boats and the sea. I also love to follow along as I have attempted stuff I didn't know how to do before, and am fascinated by figuring things out as I go also.

I always enjoy the build/resto threads on 2Cool and Hull Truth. Looking forward to watching this one unfold

Yeah man, on your 671s

If both of those have 200 hours on the you should be good. Very solid motors. They are reliable. The best part about these motors is very minimal electronic systems. In fact almost none other than a few analog gauges and sensors. And maybe a shutdown solenoid. Other than that very simple.

They are loud as hell and will blast your hearing. These motors have a very distinctive sound and are loud as hell. If you are out in the water you can immediately tell a boat that running Detroits just by sound. These two strokes absolutely scream.

The risks with these engines:

Detroits like this have internal fuel lines. If you have a leak in the internal fuel lines underneath the valve cover you can have fuel getting into the engine oil undetected and accumulate in the oil. Your oil will get thin because of a high concentration of fuel in the oil. If the leak is real bad you got the potential for a runaway engine and the consequences of that can be fire and catastrophic damage. So periodic oil analysis is key.

The issue with the turbo is oil accumulating at or near the turbo and flashing off. Any sort of vaporized fuel or oil of any kind will immediately flash off if it hits the turbo. So inspection, monitoring and cleaning up residual leaking oil is key. Any oil leak near the turbo is a problem.

that said these motors leak oil 100% of the time. If they are not leaking thn that means you have no oil. They are known for that. The best known solution for that is a thin coat of Permatex Ultra Copper on both sides of any gasket that touches oil. But if you are doing periodic oil analysis then it will throw that off.

You might check the zinc anodes on your engine there might be 3 or 4 anodes on that cooling system. Also I'd check the anodes in the marine gear cooler. Those annodes are critical and could be the cause of why your marine gear cooler failed.

Also you might closely inspect the hose clamps on the raw water system. Those have a tendency to corrode and break. that raw water system goes through at pressure and if one of those hoses slip off then you can flood the engine room from the inside. So the integrity of raw water hose clamps is key on those motors. A lot of boats have been sunk over the years based on the above scenario. So some kind of high bilge alarm is key.

If you just got the boat I'd for sure change out both impellers before your shakedown voyage. Theses no reason to ever take a risk with that. Those impellers lose their elasticity with heat cold cycles and loose their shape and become inefficient. Those engines have cylinder liners with water-jackets so not overheating them is key to longevity. And I'd look making sure the high water temp alarm is functioning. Clean coolant and of the proper marine grade and whatever Detroit recommends as far as anticorrosive coolant.

But they are solid motors. They are reliable, and they certainly have a character to them.

Thanks for all of that information - I've been so focused on the gearbox that I haven't learned as much about the engines as I want to yet. I may ask some questions of you later, if you don't mind.

Definitely a straight up learning experience for me at this point, and I feel like I'm drinking from a water hose, but I want to learn as much as I can.

Theres a couple things I'd be looking at with your marine gear.

If you had seawater in the gear oil then I'd have to look really closely at those tapered roller bearings. Those bearings are sensitive to water intrusion. Any kind of rust, debris or imperfection in the bearing race and they could fail. So I might think about closely inspecting those bearings.

I might find some way to pressure test the cooling system on the marine transmission. Make sure it's not just the cooler that failed and nothing else cracked.

The internals of that have to be clean. Rust or debris in that that clutch pack can lead to subsequent failure.as those plates are bathed in oil. I'd do some research on those plates. If I recall they have to go back together staggered in a very specific way.

I'd also think about your shifting mechanism. Thats a hydraulic valve that sends oil to compress either side of the clutch plates. So if you had saltwater intrusion thats another machined surface inside that valve that wont do good with any kind of corrosion or imperfection.

For reinstallation I'd look at making some removable studs to screw in the bell housing to guide the transmission back in place. You can cut off the end of a bolt so long as the stud is smooth and you have a way to back it out.

But I'd get a second opinion on those clutch plates and the internals. Especially the splines the clutch plates mate up with as those plates have to slide freely. You might hire an independent expert on these marine gears and send them some detailed pics and see what they think.

I'd also look a the cost of sourcing a refurbished marine gear and sending that one back as a core. I don't know if that feasible but I'd consider it as an option.

I purchased all new clutch plates, and yes, they do have to go in a particular order. As far as the tapered bearing, I think I missed mentioning that u am ordering a new one and a new race. They look good, but there is some wear on the race, and if I am rebuilding this thing, I definitely only want to do so once.

I am.waiting on a couple of the pressure springs (at least that is what they look like) for the internal mechanism. I am basically using as many new parts as I possibly can - some are hard to obtain right now. But if I can find them, that's what I'm doing.

As far as putting it back in place, that is the part I am least looking forward to. I'm a big guy, it's a not so big space, and getting it to line up is going to be tough for me. Not fun. But at least the AC works, so im doing it in 75 degree Temps as opposed to the well over 100 degree heat indexes outside the boat.

The splines are surprisingly good. After I cleaned everything, I did a quick test fit and everything moves very smoothly and easily, hoping it will work out.

Quote:

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Detroits like this have internal fuel lines. If you have a leak in the internal fuel lines underneath the valve cover you can have fuel getting into the engine oil undetected and accumulate in the oil. Your oil will get thin because of a high concentration of fuel in the oil. If the leak is real bad you got the potential for a runaway engine and the consequences of that can be fire and catastrophic damage. So periodic oil analysis is key.

The issue with the turbo is oil accumulating at or near the turbo and flashing off. Any sort of vaporized fuel or oil of any kind will immediately flash off if it hits the turbo. So inspection, monitoring and cleaning up residual leaking oil is key. Any oil leak near the turbo is a problem.

---

Statmonitor for the win. That is exactly right on the Detroits, I was on a boat with 853's that ended up with a runaway engine, not a pleasant situation. On many of the boats with the 671's and 692's TI's there was also an issue with clearance from the deck of the ventilation part of the turbo. At times the turbos would starve for air or something like that. I don't know as much about all the precise mechanical workings as I think Stat does, as I was only a hired hand for years tasked with keeping things clean, running, and making sure we could fish.

On the Detroits, they will never leave you stranded if you keep ahead of the maintenance, but the turbo system on the older Detroits is touchy and can be dicey. I would have those Turbo's gone through. All my bad experiences with Detroits, offshore mind you, involved a Turbo.

On the transmissions, Capitol transmissions are big and heavy and from what I remember they are slower to engage than the Velvet Drives and some other models, but they didn't have the quirky problems that some of the other transmissions seemed to have. I was around some re-powers in the mid 00's that replaced Capitol's due to the weight and lack of parts. In today's world it isn't hard to source rebuilt or used parts and even though you are in the middle of the rebuild you might look at upgrading to something newer. The engines you have are good for thousands of hours with care and upkeep. But those transmissions will always be a little dicey, specially one that got water in it.

One of the other things I remember about Capitol transmissions is that alinging the shafts is a little difficult due to the shorter lenghts of the shaft and the weight. In a situation like yours I would also do a very good inspection of the shafts and bearings.

Take your time on this rebuild and shake it out very well. There are lots of older boats out there are extremely nice and reliable, and yours can be no different. It just requires a lot of time and meticulous care.

If you scout and look around you will be able to meet and find an older captain or mate that has extensive experience on keeping 671's running well and you can probably glean a lot of information on how to keep them running well.

You mentioned outriggers came with the boat. On a personal opinion, depending on what make they are and the age, I would look at replacing them with new or newer ones, as if they are very old they will be heavy and a PIA to deal with. The modern stuff that is now available, while expensive, is much better and easier maintenance.

Thanks Agfencer! I love boat build / refurbishment stuff, and especially a good Post story. Those have always stood out to me too. Looking forward to following along!

It always surprises me when they don't build these boats with the provision to attach a chain or electric hoist above the machine spaces for easier machinery removal. If the attachment points to place a couple of eye bolts were built in and properly designed to bear the load, it would make getting the heavy bits in and out much easier, and for not much added to the design and construction if designed well.

I've read about the ventilation issues, and I've been talking with a bunch of Post owners on both Facebook pages and the Post forum, so I did have a heads up on that one. And if there is a part that looks like it even may need to be replaced, by me or either mechanic, I'm doing it - there is no skimping on this one. Considering a full rebuild was quoted to me between 10-15K, I have no problem buying the parts.

As far as the transmissions go, a full swap is not currently in the immediate plans, but is a future potential upgrade. At this point I am trying to get the boat fixed and reliable enough to oget it back to Lake Charles, where ALL my tools are and where I can work on it every day, of I want, as there is so much to do.

The outriggers are actually newer Rupp outriggers, nice and light. At one point not too, too long ago, this was a fishing boat out of Grand Isle (where I had actually seen it before, funny enough) and had to have the outriggers replaced.

I appreciate all the input, keep it coming.

Had a few minutes this morning, and found some of the Cabo fishing pics. Had a blast, and would definitely use this outfit again. In 5 hours, we limited out on Mahi and boated 2 Striped Marlin, the bigger being 109 inches. These guys put us on the fish immediately.

We also saw a good sized blue that we casted at, but couldn't get his interest.

It was the first time I'd been fishing like that in a while, and it wore me out.



The big boy. Released back to the ocean, but not before getting measurements for a mount.



A pic of him tailwalking right beside the boat.



One of the Mahi we caught.



The crew of the boat - they were fantastic. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Ok, now I gotta get to work.

This thread needs to be stickied at the top

over/under on when this boat is for sale?