Introducing myself

[sailingLife]

Good Morning everyone,

I am new to the Atomic 4, and new owner of a 1978 Columbia 8.3
Engine hasn't started in at least a year according to previous owner. However, the neighbor said it has been 3 years since he has seen the owner or the boat move. So lets go with 3 years.
I have another post about rotating the engine to see if it is seized or not. Which I am still curious about.

About Me :
I have sailed a few times in the past, 2015 to be exact, and fell in love with it.
I have worked on engines before, mostly motorcycle, and car doing the routine maintenance, head gasket, and clutch swap. I am not too nervous working on this engine besides the fact that it is gas, on a boat and most people are afraid of it. However looking on here, gives me tons of confidence and I have some ideas to take a 120mm computer fan and just turn that into an exhaust that will always run.

Plans :
I bought this boat a few weeks ago and it is a project to eventually sail the Caribbean on. I am not documenting it, or trying to get YouTube famous. I MAY blog about it just to sharpen and improve my writing skills but that is still at this point a hard pass, I really do just want a simple life.

Anyways, I am excited to be here. To learn and to get this engine running and to also simplify it. The previous owners were / are... something else. There seems to be A LOT of wires attached to the engine that don't seem to belong there, I am picturing something like a 68 Camaro that is just engine, battery and distributor cap, so I would like to clean that up a little and get that image there if I can.