Chapter 5: In Which the Engine Spits.
The engine is a Volvo-Penta Aquamatic 80 I/O: a four cylinder, overhead valve, water cooled, 80 horsepower machine. The Volvo-Penta website indicates that this small engine was made for “high speed, lightweight boats” – not exactly a good description of this boat.
The engine cover was only partially on, for who knows how many years, and it was quite a mess. Rusted, covered with leaves and other junk, with various hoses and wires disconnected, it looked a bit rough. I did quite a bit of general cleaning on it, and also made some semblance of order out of the wiring, but since my father is quite proficient with engines, I left this project for him. He did some other minor maintenance – changed the oil, replaced the hoses and plugs – before doing any major work.
He tried to crank it by hand to see if the cylinders were loose – they weren’t. He tried with a wrench, as well, but they were pretty frozen. If they were really seized up, we were sorta screwed, so I was hoping he could get it turning. We left it for quite a while, but the question of whether the engine was any good was eating at both of us, one Saturday in August 2004, he, my uncle Jack and a fully charged battery went out to try an engine defibrillation. They removed the spark plugs, hooked up the battery, and then, using a screwdriver to make a connection, tried to crank the engine. We all disappointingly looked at each other when the first and then second tries were failures. On the third try, it unseized, throwing motor oil through the air and spattering the inside wall of the transom as well as my dad’s face. Very cool.
