Drive height Honda Cougar 225 inboard convertion

[DAREDEVIL]

Nice work with the carbon !!!!!!!!!

[Jon Holmes]

I really like what you have done there Freddy, that is going to look excellent when completed.

Keep up the good work.

[PerformanceDodge]

Well boat building seems to take for ever and probably five times the amount of work that I expected. Still plodding on, it will all be worth it in the end. Took the boat off the trailer and turned it up side down, so much easier than trying to lay up resin up side down.
Going to put the boat back on the trailer up side down so I can take it to get it painted in doors. All modifications to the hull are in carbon laid up with marine grade epoxy.

[Scand]

any updates?

[PerformanceDodge]

Originally Posted by Scand

any updates?

Hmmmmm, bit of a sore point

Took the boat mid Febuary to have the bottom filled and painted as I work on it outside and was restricted by the weather and was quoed 3 weeks.

Was told the boat would be ready for collection saterday, some 14 weeks later and this is what I got back. Ten coats of paint, very little filler, a real of masking tape still attached and embeded under 1mm of paint and half the sand and gravel of Brighton beach. Here are just a few of the pic's taken sunday when I washed it off otherwise as collected.

So I am now back to square one and probably another month to get it re done, hey ho.

[Jon Holmes]

That is heart breaking after all the good work you have done on this boat.

[Scand]

Shame when this happens. Very interesting project, some very nice work done.

[jordaniel]

well i hope you aint give the painter any money yet (WELL YOU CAN'T CALL THAT PAINTING I KNOW) all that time and hard work you have put into this boat and some muppet does that to it so sad hope you get it sorted soon

[PerformanceDodge]

Originally Posted by jordaniel

well i hope you aint give the painter any money yet (WELL YOU CAN'T CALL THAT PAINTING I KNOW) all that time and hard work you have put into this boat and some muppet does that to it so sad hope you get it sorted soon

No, drove into the yard hitch it and drove off whilst be chased by someone telling me I could not take the boat without paying. By the way, I was told a month ago it was ready for collection and when I went to see it was translucent matt orange with runs, splurges and white patches and again not filled as requested. See the pic’s below. I took legal advise and was told I had to give them a chance to put it right. I gave them a fortnight and after loads of promises “We’ve just got to put another coat on” oh and "we are just cleaning it and tacking the masking tape off" a month on and that is what I got. I was told that they had really put a lot of time and effort into it this time.

Well upwards and onwards, but it is now costing me more money than originally quoted as firstly the sand and sh*t has got to be flatted out of it, its got to be re filled and because of the masking tape that was left in the rain for a month before being painted where it pealed at the top the paint ran down the inside of the masking tape as well as flowing over the top, and because someone tried to remove the tape with a scraper it has now got to be painted up the side to the first molding line. I expect they will try to take me to small claims court for payment, but as its all documented and photographed before during and after I think they will look pretty stupid.

Looking on the bright side at least I haven’t got a 6 month legal battle to get the boat back without paying the bill, and have scratch made some lovely bits out of stainless, will post them next time.

[PerformanceDodge]

Booked it in with a local painter for it to be re done, took 4 days and came out stunning. He flatted it, filled it with epoxy filler, primed it with high build epoxy primer, primed it is white epoxy base coat, then painted the top coat with Intenational 2 pack paint . Did and excellent job

After the long delay will turn it back up the right way and start fitting it out.

[Scand]

looks good!
Looking forward to seeing the conversion and the installation of the engine.

[larby]

Awesome!
I absolutley love this build, it's as though the boat was built for an inboard and I love what you've done with the back end.
Glad to see you've got your issues sorted and look forward to seeing you on the home straight! I'll be racing you to the water at this rate!

Cheers, James

[glen76]

any updates?

[PerformanceDodge]

Hi and thanks for asking. My original plan was to get it up and running this year and convert to crawl in cuddy next year, but the original fuel cell was perished and I was quoted £2500 for a new one and even with a new one they have a 5 year life span. So decided on and aluminum tank which although the same size will not fit trough the bow hatch or the hole with the foot well removed.

I decided to bring next years plan forward and remove the navigators dash and foot well to make an access to the front cuddy. This then left a problem that the was no pace to mount the chart plotter so I then modified the dash with a large lip to protect the chart plotter from flooded as it is a touch screen but will cope with light spray.

[PerformanceDodge]

When I started this project and decided on the engine, I spoke to a few engine tuners about the ecu and reprogramming it for stand alone use. When it actually cam down to it 9 month later and asked for conformation that they cold defiantly make it run correctly before I parted with some money they all started to stutter and say “ah yes, hmmm, well we think it can be done but it will cost you £150 to remove the drive authority chip and we think we can get round this by doing this and that and by the time I had bought an ECU, loom etc I would be £1500 in to engine management with no guaranteed result an what would realy fe a fudge unit. .

This was also confirmed by Bosch UK technical department in a two hour long conversation as the original ECU is hard wired to integrate with drive authority, ABS, ESP, Traction control, wheel sensors, Gearbox ECU, emissions sensor cat temperature sensors, Alternator charging and ancillaries ECU (which switches alternator off, air con off and other electronic equipment monetarily whilst overtaking to give more power to the drive chain) just to name but a few. Because of all these factors and the complexity of the programming a lot of which is just not accessible, it just would never run out of limp mode properly.

If anyone is thinking of putting a modern common rail diesel engine from a car into a boat or anything else for that matter, please take it from me that it impossible to run these engine’s out of the vehicle that the they cam out of with the original ECU.

I then spoke to Simtec bodylogic UK who have developed a stand alone, turn key stand alone ECU for Pizo injected diesel engines such as the OM642 Mercedes 3.0 liter V6 turbo diesel engine that I am using. I still had to have the devlopemnt done for this specific engine.

Dyno testing and set up is now complete and I have now taken delivery,. The dyno results are excellent, torque is up from 515Nm to 590Nm and power has been raised from 215bhp to 240bhp on my current set up with further potential for tuning.

[PerformanceDodge]

The ECU was very expensive and no electronic like sea water so I decided to do away with the rear seat side insets and to convert these into watertight lockers. Pieces of wood were cut to size the epoxyed in place, then covered inside out with woven glass cloth and epoxy and then filled wit epoxy filler. I also did the same with the bottom of the locker to make them water tight. The right had locker will have the Engine ECU, fuses and relays for the engine, 1kw 12 to 240 volt inverter and the 20amp 12 volt batter charger. The left hand locker will be for ropes and fenders.

[PerformanceDodge]

As I have decided to have the whole of the top painted now, I want to finish all the hull modifications before painting and fit out so as not to be clinbing in and out of the boat too much and damage the new paint. I have removed the first bow bulk head and left a 4 inch lip, and I am now strengthening this with Kevlar roving before adding two layers woven carbon to make it into a riggid hoop.

[PerformanceDodge]

I have also made a mock up of the aluminum tank in MDF to make sure that it is a good fit and last week delivered this to Steve Colley of Oval 316 in Pool. They have many years experience of making marine fuel tanks for pleasure and racing.

[PerformanceDodge]

Have also been bissey fabricating and polishing stainless components for the boat.

[PerformanceDodge]

Few more pic's of the dash mod befor and after.