As I mentioned in my introduction I bought a Bearcat April 5th at the Portland swapmeet. Thought my boat that's been sitting unused for 16 yrs could use this.
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I needed a place to mount it to see how it would run so I moved over the Johnson and stuck it on the boat.
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The engine was stuck when I bought it and after freeing it up I proceeded with firing it up. While it sounded good but it has compression issues and as Bill Roberts informed me the engine was a 1970 but someone had replaced the block with an early Homelite. Enter Engine #2, I picked this one up April 19th, Also a 1970 with the correct F series block which is what I was after. This engine had been worked on about 4 yrs ago by Ed Ewing and had the Ed Ewing blue paint which I've been removing. Check out the wiring mess!
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Wiring removed and working the paint removal.
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Cleanup of the wiring and a few other items to repair, the block plate needed a new gasket.
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When I bought engine #2 it came with a '61 shortshaft parts engine. This engine rolled through but #3 cylinder has a bad exhaust valve.
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Engine #1 and #3 will eventually come apart to make one good engine. While #1 was on the boat I discovered another problem, my transom had rotted after all the years of sitting, CRAP! I really needed this.
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After a few days of work, the new wood is installed, coated with West System Epoxy.
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Transom completed!
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Now back to the Bearcat, I'll mount it up Sunday, this will be engine #2 which seems to run good, has even compression in all four cylinders and has the Pertronix electronic ignition installed. I heard it run before I bought it and it seemed like it ran decent, also checked compression before handing over the cash. Yep I was just going to toss #1 Bearcat on the back and take the boat out, yeah, sure thing!!!
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I needed a place to mount it to see how it would run so I moved over the Johnson and stuck it on the boat.

The engine was stuck when I bought it and after freeing it up I proceeded with firing it up. While it sounded good but it has compression issues and as Bill Roberts informed me the engine was a 1970 but someone had replaced the block with an early Homelite. Enter Engine #2, I picked this one up April 19th, Also a 1970 with the correct F series block which is what I was after. This engine had been worked on about 4 yrs ago by Ed Ewing and had the Ed Ewing blue paint which I've been removing. Check out the wiring mess!
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Wiring removed and working the paint removal.
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Cleanup of the wiring and a few other items to repair, the block plate needed a new gasket.
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When I bought engine #2 it came with a '61 shortshaft parts engine. This engine rolled through but #3 cylinder has a bad exhaust valve.
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Engine #1 and #3 will eventually come apart to make one good engine. While #1 was on the boat I discovered another problem, my transom had rotted after all the years of sitting, CRAP! I really needed this.

After a few days of work, the new wood is installed, coated with West System Epoxy.
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Transom completed!
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Now back to the Bearcat, I'll mount it up Sunday, this will be engine #2 which seems to run good, has even compression in all four cylinders and has the Pertronix electronic ignition installed. I heard it run before I bought it and it seemed like it ran decent, also checked compression before handing over the cash. Yep I was just going to toss #1 Bearcat on the back and take the boat out, yeah, sure thing!!!
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