New member - A-4 in a 1974 Sabre 28

[GregH]

Looking at the pics with the bulging stud holes, or in the one instance, a crater surrounding the hole - aren't they just parts of the head gasket material?

[wagner]

Greg, the bulging is definitely block material.

I have since bought another *supposedly* running a4 on ebay and going to swap out when it comes in.

Will let everyone know what happens!

[wagner]

Impending Motor Swap

Greetings Afourians,

Between work, family and other obligations, various things have kept the A4 swap on our Sabre 28 from happening. Until this week!

The transplant motor is running well on the pallet! Will remove most of the oil before craning into boat.

The existing original (1974) A4 is coming apart and disconnected piece by piece. The only items left to do are remove the shaft half coupling, drain the oil and pull it out. We have removed the starter, alternator, manifold, distributor cap (donated to new motor...) and various hoses/wires. Motor mount bolts came out ok.

the shaft half coupler has one bolt out and two bolts remaining. both of them are wicked rusty and refusing to budge despite a liberal PB blaster regime and an impact driver positioned by a contortionist (me). started to cut one of them using an oscillating multi tool (more contortion), but was slow going. I can get an angle grinder in there...just barely...but I am a little hesitant to start throwing a lot of sparks in the tight area. There is still a full gas tank about 15" away. The set screw on the shaft is also very rusted and is likely not coming out.

My current thought is to pull the prop and just pull the whole shaft out with the motor and cut the bolts with a grinder or sawzall before pulling the engine out of the open companionway.

Thoughts from those who have been down this road?

[sastanley]

wagner, Why cut all that up? Have you thought about removing the shaft along with the prop out of the bottom end..pressing it out the aft flange? Since it is a new-to-you motor, I would replace the rear main seal while i was there, and also replace the cutless bearing in the strut. I did all this many years ago when I found some shaft wobble in my old bronze shaft.

[wagner]

Shaft removal.

The question of pressing or cutting is somewhat secondary to physically reaching the parts that need to be pressed or cut. At the moment I can’t actually reach the back of the engine well enough to do any of that which is why I am thinking of pulling the prop and sliding the engine with the bare prop shaft all the way forward.

Once there, I think the only thing I’ll have to cut is the bolt heads on the prop side of the half coupler. Once I nip those off, I should be able to separate the half coupler from the engine half coupler and save the shaft and prop side half coupler for use on the new motor.

Obviously this can only be done with the boat out of the water, and this is the urgency to get this job done—to get the boat IN the water!

Hopefully obtaining a puller today for the prop....

[wagner]

Update!

Hello Aftourians,

By way of update, the engine swap has been a success!

The mechanic (me) was able to get the new engine running well on the pallet and set his sights on removing the existing a4 from the boat (sabre28-1). Using an 8” puller, he torched and quenched the prop and shaft and it came off after extracting appropriate penitence from the mechanic. The mechanic uttered a jubilant “yawp” when the piping hot prop popped off.

With the prop off, the engine slid forward without to much trouble. As an added bonus, the stuffing box and its hose came with it, coming detached from the tube. The mechanic recited prayers of thanksgiving that the stuffing box and hose had not detached under other circumstances. The stuffing box on this particular vessel has been written about at length on this forum under the previous previous owners care. It is unclear that the stuffing box had been serviced since that time. Two wraps of packing material remained.

The shaft coupler proved now to be as stubborn as others have suggested. Torch and quench, pb blaster and general banging yielded little results other than blasphemy and newly invented curses. The next day saw a grinder and a chunk of mineral wool (to catch sparks) come on board. The mechanic used the grinder to cut two slots in the joint between the drive and shaft couplers and to create two metal wedges using two slotted screw drivers. With the wedges, the shaft and coupler came off and another prayer of thanksgiving and repentance (for the curses and blasphemy) was offered.

The rest of the swap proceeded in a manner similar to what is described above: new coupler, shaft and prop to machine shop ($350 at Rose Marine in Gloucester); pump out oil on existing engine; small crane ($300 Clay Sign Service) to lift out old engine and lift in new engine. Engine install took approximately 6 hours once in the boat. The hardest parts were attaching the coupler to the engine, bolting on the exhaust flange (more innovative curses and invocation of divine condemnation), and bolting on the shift linkage bracket.

The engine refuses to idle super low, but this appears to be a carb adjustment issue that can be dealt with.

Otherwise, this adventure has been quite enjoyable and successful, with a reliably running motor now in the boat. Sea trials were conducted by the mechanic and a co-owner on a 6 mile motor sail in Salem Sound in 15-20 gusting 25+, rain and 6-8’ sea. Two reefs in the main and half the Genoa. Asides from the high idle, the motor ran flawlessly at 150-170 degrees and about 40 psi of oil pressure.

It could not have been done without the active and passive help of this forum and its tireless contributors. Truly, you gentlefolk make this forum one of the most helpful, pleasant places on the internet.

The mechanic now looks forward to starting an new overhaul/rebuild thread for the old A4.