Future Brown Water Cruiser: 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit

[q240z]

Thanks Bowdrie!

With one end of the raw water system for the mains done, I moved on to the fuel system.

The tanks are in and I roughed out some of the basic plumbing back in 2016, but getting the fuel system done is essential to splash the boat ASAP. While working on the fuel gauge senders, I discovered that rat bastard thieves had siphoned 180 gallons of diesel from one of my tanks. May they rot in hell. Oh, and I discovered that Sunpro sells Made in China junk...I'm sticking with NOS American-made gauges from now on.

Anyway, over the next little while I'll be bending a lot of stainless tubing, getting the aft tank connected to the forward tank, building a valved manifold to control which tanks feed which engine, connecting the mains and genset to the system, and wrapping up the tank connections.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Fuel System

Cheers,
Q

[Rumrace]

OP you’re such a tease. What did you power it with? Is it the Chris Craft hull they went to war with? A pal of mine lives in Vietnam he restored a 60’s Chris. The metal artists there made him stainless silicone exhaust system as all the cast exhaust was shot.
I have an old power boat with a new LS3.
I gather you’ve found all the Chris Craft antique parts out their. The rubber steps in white are available for the detail. There are several antique wood Chris in the inland lakes here. Congrats on the float.

[Rumrace]

I have a couple bikes older than you boat. I had all the instruments restored. The Triumph is a multi gage Smiths and he sent it back New.

Classic Car Gauge Restoration and Repair. Vintage Auto Clusters

[q240z]

Rumrace, I covered the whole refit up to this point in my photo blog, including the repower, first with 120hp Ford Lehmans and then with 420hp Cummins 6CTAs. You can read about those at 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Engines! (the wrong ones…) and 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Engines! (right proper ones, this time).

The Refit Article Index has everything listed in order of posting if you want to burn serious time reading what I've done, including having the OEM gauges restored to like-new condition.

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

With the fuel gauge and senders working, I got to work on the fuel connections on the Cummins 6CTAs. They originally came with 1/2" 45° flare fittings on the supply side and 5/16" return lines. I swapped that out for 1/2" 37° AN fittings and 3/8 returns, and installed new Type A1 fuel hose as the flexible connection between the engines and the 1/2" and 3/8" stainless tubing I'll be using for supply and returns.

I realize that installing fuel hoses on the engines may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but this was a gas boat. It's never had diesel fuel lines. And once the fuel system is done, there's not a whole lot that needs to be done to get this boat floating.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: On-Engine Fuel Hoses

Cheers,
Q

[Rumrace]

Wow interesting read. I had 395’s in a Ray they were my first diesels. Now we have a cute 40hp. I’d say diesels were a pain in the bilge. But range.
Are there weight sacrifices or
I have had two boats I removed the cast iron 454 slugs and tossed in modified crate motors. I considered diesel but the cost was too high and motors too slow. The 350/370 Ray got 502 hawks which were astounding. Years ago we built a dozen and sold it. I picked up a LS3 at an auction in the crate. Found a Donzi 18 with a pretty much wrecked everything except her classic glass works. I had a speed drive 2 which needed welding and main , clutch End result we’ve run out of prop options and according to my grandsons ear we are going to loose the drive. We’ve contacted ZF to price out a SeaRex they have a six blade in a 25 pitch. We’ve already broken factory speed in big chop too. It means the hull goes back to the barn for major transom rebuild
Our major problem was shoehorning the LS3 in. The motor mounts were shot in the wrong place so. We built a carriage for new stringer connections and extended the frame under the back seat to hold battery boxes firm we have a Bosch fluid cooled alternator electric water pumps and oil coolers. We are convinced the Donzi hull Max is 200hp less and around 65 mph we broke 71 with lots of throttle left when it started to chin walk. We were correcting on one crest the correcting again on the landing. It a work in progress like yours on a smaller scale hidden away in a barn.
Maybe my grandson will toss a hydrogen engine in it some day. Depends on the glass and it’s not kept on rollers.

[q240z]

Rumrace, I had a big gas boat before and didn't care for it at all...terrible fuel economy, relatively short tank life. Gas is fine for go-fast trailerable boats, but not big motoryachts IMO.

YMMV

Speaking of fuel...with the on-engine fuel connections and hoses done, next I assembled and installed the fuel supply distribution manifold. Under normal conditions, each engine will run on its respective tank (stbd-stbd, port-port, genset-fwd), but if I end up with bad fuel in a tank, the manifold will let me run the engines off of any of the three tanks on board.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fuel Supply Manifold

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

I rehabbed the OEM engine room vent fan over several years and recently installed it. On a diesel boat the vent fan isn't necessary, as it is on gas boats, but the fan and hose were getting in my way so I decided to just install them. I upgraded the fan by making a nitrile-isolated hanger strap out of some 316 stainless I had laying around. I also repurposed one the of the hose clamps (also rubber-isolated) from the twin turbo and intercooled Super Seamaster gas engines that the boat was repowered with back in 1972. The clamp holds the strap to the motor, and the strap attaches to the cabinet framing overhead. So instead of having all that motor weight hanging off the plastic flange, like Chris Craft did (which broke), it's all nicely supported now. And the warning label on the repurposed clamp is a cool little Easter Egg: "MAINTAIN ALL 12 TURBO HOSE CLAMPS AT 6-8 FT. LBS. TORQUE. DO NOT OVERTORQUE."

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Engine Room Vent Fan

Cheers,
Q

Before


After

[q240z]

I got back on the fuel system next. I assembled the fuel filter assemblies, then attached them to the manifold. They turned out real nice. This is good progress toward splashing the boat, which I hope will happen before November.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fuel Filters

Cheers,
Q

[q240z]

With the supply manifold and fuel filters done, next I bent a long stretch of 3/8" 304 stainless tubing to supply fuel from the manifold to the forward fuel tank. Rather than drilling more holes in the exterior and installing another fuel fill, I decided to just use tubing internal to the boat and fill the forward tank from fuel in the aft main tanks.

One question I still wonder about is how pros straighten coiled stainless tubing? Even the 3/8" tubing is impossible for me to straighten out like it was never coiled. I get it close, then use rubber-isolated p-clamps to hold the tubing in position and straightened out. If anybody has tips and tricks for straightening coiled tubing, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Forward Fuel Tank Supply Line

Cheers,
Q

[Rumrace]

You obviously had good bones to work with but you are out doing Chris Craft.
Stainless tube hot roll on glass with a block of wood.
I would not leave 1969 fuel line to choice.
I can print you very strong small access panels. TYpical round or t rectangle. Cost 2$ in ASA and a couple $ freight.
There may have been a method to fish the line. ASk an electrician. I hate to see that line contaminate you’re work. I’m looking for rubber Chris craft craft steps for a pals 1927 Chris. we got the motor back together. It’s amazing Curtiss aircraft v8 motor with L heads copper jacket barrels. Wild rockers and pushrod are exposed to the elements. About 4 hours between lash adjustment
It’s the 503 CU 1925 Curtis and a stunning piece It looks like a real good guess of future 100 years ago
We clocked an easy 35n with half the throttle

[q240z]

Yup, Rumrace, I ripped out all of the OEM copper lines when we did the demolition on the boat back in 2008. Most everything you see in my posts is the new stuff I'm installing.

As for access panels, I've got great access pretty much everywhere I need it. But thx for the offer!

[q240z]

In my quest to splash the boat before the end of boating season 2022, I'm wailing away on the fuel system for the main engines. I recently got the 304 stainless fuel return lines installed, connecting the bulkhead fittings to the on-engine hoses. Bending the tubing has given me great respect for the artisan skills of guys who do this for a living.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Bending & Installing Main Engine Fuel Return Tubing

Cheers,
Q

[Rumrace]

I’m not a fan of rigid systems. But heck machining stainless or T6 anodized aluminum is not my thing. My thing is to find that guy or gal which makes it look easy. Our little power boat is never in salt water and rarely off the trailer (crib) so I have a welded aluminum battery rack bolted into my motor mount spars. That and the exhaust were my only tricky metals issues.
Fitting an LS3 headaches were not that bad and the battery engine mount frame ties cockpit and engine spars and ribs together.
I ran soft fuel lines. Silicone on the intercooler and vacuum hoses. I used a custom made TPU/Silicone exhaust port gasket. Just removing the 454 cast iron slug has made the boats’ hole shot crazy. So my mission to delete weight while tying double the hp into the hull. All my fittings pulleys are aluminum.
The local hardware store doesn’t have quality taps for Aluminum or Stainless of the hard variety. Bending ouch call the pros!

[q240z]

Rumrace, rigid liquid distribution systems make no sense in smaller boats, like the one you're working on. But on bigger boats, ships, factories etc rigid is where it's at.

I mentioned in a recent blog post that one of the reasons I went with stainless tubing over hose was because a buddy's 47' Pacemaker, which had hoses from the fuel tanks to the engines, dropped 150 gallons of diesel in the bilge when one of his hoses let go. There was nothing sharp near the split...the hose just got old and gave up one day. That's fairly unheard of with rigid systems.

Of course, even with rigid tubing, I used hose at every connection to things that vibrate, like the engines and genset.