On Feb 2nd, after putting water in my Atomic, which blew the head gasket shooting water out of my spark plug holes, I thought my engine was dead.
Well, $2,000 and 3 months and 17 days later, every day off pretty much spent working on it, yesterday was the moment of truth, and my Atomic 4 started back up.
Note: I'd already replaced the gas tank, exhaust system, and bought a new alternator, water pump and carb when I bought the boat, so I also didn't want to waste the money I'd already put in to the engine.
I want to shout out to a lot of help from friends and people I hardly know or just met who were critical to my little Atomic starting back up.
Bryan Drew- My good friend who told me not to give up, and that it might just be the head gasket. We pulled the head off, and sure enough, that was it.
Rich my neighbor- Best neighbor anyone could have who also said it could be fixed, and advised along the way.
Tom Thatcher- An Atomic Wizard in our neck of the woods who's come up with a lot of improvements on the A4, and who helped me get my engine across the finish line with a few tweaks that without, I wouldn't have gotten it up and running.
Tom from Indigo Electronics- taking countless calls and walking me through getting the electronic points system up and running.
Ken Moyer from Moyer Marine- For taking so so many calls, and having the parts I needed.
Brad Johnson- an excellent electrician around Ventura who advised through the new wire harness I made.
Once we replaced the head gasket and it passed the compression test, no cracks or warped block or head, and not having the 15-20k to repower, and some hope my engine might live, I decided to not only make it run again, but clean it up, and make it better than it was.
Had I not killed it by putting water in the engine, it would have died soon anyway given the engine's condition.
During discovery, the water jacket was almost full of charcoal.
The poorly made wire harness from the cockpit to the engine had been run through the middle of the bilge and sustained substantial damage
The gaskets were possibly 4200 sealant or worse, and leaking.
The head nuts were wrong and had washers.
The raw water strainer was leaking on the water pump.
With no thermostat, the engine wasn't being cooled properly.
There was rust.
All the gaskets were in poor condition.
The fuel filter was not a fuel water separator.
The carburetor, even though quite new, was shot from water in the fuel.
The list of what I did to the engine-
Replaced all gaskets
Replaced water jacket plate
Replaced some fittings
Cleared rust.
Ospho'd engine and external parts
Painted Engine
Painted bilge and hull around engine
New Electric Points System
New Carburetor
New Fuel Water Separator
New hoses
Redesigned raw water strainer
Improved water cooling
Gonna follow up with some before, during, and after pics