I was just searching through the forums for an Atomic 4 mechanic in the Baltimore area and stumbled upon the thread with your responses to Marcus.
I've got a 1982 Catalina 30 sitting on the hard at Old Bay Marina. It's been sadly sitting there for the past 7 years as I've been living and working overseas. I've been told recently there is some water in the drip pan of the engine. I've read quite a bit about the maintenance and this specific issue from the forums, and it seems that there may be easy fixes for it. Trouble is I am not there and I don't really know anyone in the area who could have a go at it.
I would really love to find someone very familiar with Atomic 4s to have a look at the engine and see what shape the engine is in.
The batteries are dead so it would require someone with the capability of jump starting it or with a portable battery of their own.
Hi Ed. I saw a post from 2010 that you were asking weather or not to remove Vee Drive before pulling engine. I saw the post with the idea of taking first pick through silverware locker. Please tell me what you think is best for removing the engine. The engine runs great BUT it uses a quart of oil in 3-4 HOURS... I don't see any way to check the cylanders- They had no ridge when I had the head off years ago.
Are you STILL a fan of the aftermarket PCV valve?
Could THAT be the source of my big oil consumption?
I just bought a 1979 C&C 34 with an Atomic 4 engine. I have the Atomic 4 blue booklet and the C&C Owners's Manual. I decided to winterize my boat myself. I followed the procedure set out in paragraph 2 on page 4 of the Atomic 4 blue booklet. I drained the cylinder block. I was not able to figure out how to drain the water pump or the manifold or the exhaust sytem. Is it important that the water pump, the exhaust system and the manifold be drained. I understood everything in your post about winterizing without starting the engine except the parts dealing with "replace the empty housing" and "clamp off the by pass". What is the empty housing that I should replace and what is the by pass that I should clamp off. Also, how will I know if I have a "water lift muffler". My boat is not close to a water source so I can't run the engine. Any help will be very much appreciated.
I noticed you had visited my profile page. I'll spiff it up with some pix sometime soon and let you know. Thanks again for your thoughts on the 'rpm' post. Hopefully, I'll carve out some time in the next couple weeks to work on it. I've been helping put a new roof on the Clubhouse at our sailing club, 'Tsa La Gi Yacht Club'. (I have several pix of that project - haha). Dave