New Thing to Worry About

[walteman]

I had my airboat out hunting a couple weeks ago. Long story short, I had my buddy drop us off and run to the other side of the island to wait for us to walk it to him. When we were finished, he started up the boat to come get us and there was a terrible metallic banging. Come to find out, the wing nut that held the air cleaner cover on the throttle body someone worked it's way off and the vibration from the engine caused the air cleaner stud to snap off at the base of the throttle body. the approximately 3" stud that broke off fell through the intake, through the intake valves, and into both sides of the engine. You can imagine the damage that occurred from there.
Motor is now in the shop getting a full rebuild and hopefully the heads can be saved. going to be about a $3000 wingnut by the time all is said and done ....

[flcracker9]

That sucks! Maybe a nylock nut instead of a wing nut? It's amazing what will take an engine out, like a 30 cent wing nut!!! Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, as we speak we are tearing down my Son's engine. Went to the KRVSA Poker Run yesterday, and his 350 spit a rod out through the pan! No prior indication anything was wrong. One minute running fine, next minute hole in the pan. Gotta tear it down too see the extent of the damage, before deciding what to do. Like you, we hope at least the heads are salvageable, I think we already have a lead on a 350 that just needs freshened up. Keep us posted on your rebuild!

[Birddog247]

That sucks! Maybe a nylock nut instead of a wing nut? It's amazing what will take an engine out, like a 30 cent wing nut!!! Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, as we speak we are tearing down my Son's engine. Went to the KRVSA Poker Run yesterday, and his 350 spit a rod out through the pan! No prior indication anything was wrong. One minute running fine, next minute hole in the pan. Gotta tear it down too see the extent of the damage, before deciding what to do. Like you, we hope at least the heads are salvageable, I think we already have a lead on a 350 that just needs freshened up. Keep us posted on your rebuild!

Sounds like a bad day. Where you in the marsh?

[terrible ted]

So what lesson was learned hear.


Never use a wing nut. Nylon lock nuts. leave nothing to vibrate off and go thru the prop. Tie all caps with safety cord or wires so your fuel oil cap cant come off.

[glades cat]

That's bad to lose an engine but thanks to you sharing your unfortunate event will cause a lot of folks on here to take another look at their boats for non-locking nuts and bolts and correct the situation…me included.
I like to look at other peoples' boats to see how they do things and learn a new trick here and there. Sometimes you see different but ingenious ways of rigging a boat and you can tell something went wrong previously and they're bomb-proofing it so it doesn't happen again.
I also safety-wire the air cleaner assembly to keep it from going into the prop if there is a retainer failure.

[Olf Art]

Never use a wing nut. Nylon lock nuts. leave nothing to vibrate off and go thru the prop. Tie all caps with safety cord or wires so your fuel oil cap cant come off.

Safety wire is your friend. I made a rain hat for the air cleaner on my last motor out of a stainless steel salad bowl with a hole drilled in the center and turned upside down over the air filter, then drilled two small holes in the rim of it and safety wired it to the intake manifold. Two reasons, one of which was I didn't want it to get loose and go through the prop.
If something is allowed to vibrate it'll eventually either break or loosen. Sorry you had such bad luck, man. I'm sure that's not the way you'd planned to start a new year.

[Tomo]

.....Safety wire is your friend. I made a rain hat for the air cleaner on my last motor out of a stainless steel salad bowl with a hole drilled in the center and turned upside down over the air filter, then drilled two small holes in the rim of it and safety wired it to the intake manifold.... .

Olf that's funny, I used a stainless dog water bowl to cover my air cleaner and had read on here about safety cables and like wise drilled a hole in the rim and wired it to the intake as well as wired the crankcase breathers also. Blue locktite on the stud and a nylock holding it all on.