22.09.2008
Painting a 65HK Suzuki.
Summer 2008
It seems that all 2-cylinder, 65hp Suzuki outboards sold in Norway, finds its way to Dal in Eidsvoll outside Oslo. The first one I found had been for sale for quite some time. That should have warned me, but as an ever lasting optimist, I bought it. One piston was broken, and I tought that it shouldn't be too difficult to get a spare one. It isn't eighter, but there seems to be more to anything than meets the eye. An old engine seems to corrode quite a bit, and that often makes headbolts a bit hard to remove. Someone had tried to remove these, and most of them were twisted off. The remains were just long enough to keep the head in place. That again lead to larger tools than optimal. Cowbar and hammer had been used, so the whole head was in bad shape.
When I got this engine, the head was taken off the engine block. I tried to make a list over things to do. After some studying I came to the conclusion that I would have to find a second project to complement my first engine. Preferrably an engine with a good powerhead, but maybe a bad gear case. I found that an hour drive off home in the spring of 2008. It even came with a second block, and parts enough build two motors. Well, so it seemed anyway. I got it home to my "workshop" and started off to rebuild it. I mounted the gear case from my first engine on to this new one. Now everything was ok. The looks of this motor however, gave it a shabby appearance. It had to be repainted. I had repainted a few Yamaha 25 engines earlier with a one-component aerosol paint from Biltema. (Like bying industrial paint at K-mart...) This paint is known to fail in contact with gasoline. Not very good for a 2-stroke engine... So this was not an alternative.
Ok, let's try to find better solutions then. The search on the net left me with more questions than answers. DIY it will be. I need a system which is cheap, easy and easily available. Special stuff from small company a thousand miles away was not an option. Jotun is a large Norwegian company which has a lot of paint products. Any hardware store has it. Ok, what can be used on aluminium? They recommend a primer called Arcanol, acrylic one-component. And then a one-component acrylic enamel as a finishing layer. Easy as that? I gave it a try. One obvious disadvantage was that it was not supposed to be thinned. That made it hard to spray, which was my idea here. Well, it came in several colours, and I chose Iris blue. Not with metalflake, but that didn't bother me. I sanded the whole outboard and degreased it with acetone. Then I sprayed on the primer. Bright white.
Two days later, I was ready for the next application. This was Bengalakk as recommended from Jotun. Still one-component. And still not to be thinned. I had to rise the air preassure to use with the spraygun, but it went well. Everything was nice now. I mounted all the parts needed, and put the engine in a tank for testing. It started at first stroke, and I was quite exited. So exited that I put the engine in forward. 65hp in a small tank with water. I had to rush in and change my pants... I left the motor standing in the tank, and it remained there for a week. I sold it, in order to get funds for the other 65hp still lying in pieces in my workshop. But as I hoisted the engine out of the water, I spotted, well, just that. Spots! And a lot of them. All of the engine that had remained in the water had small spots. I had to give the buyer a discount. The lesson was costly. One-component was not good enough. It will not work exposed to water.
Now I was back where I started. I started to assemble the parts I had in my workshop, but then the phone rang. The guy I bought the motor I just had sold, had another 65 hp for sale now. He experienced a problem with that engine, water trespassed into the lower cylinder.
I bought it and was now on track again. Unfortunately he had tried to sell this engine to some boys he knew. They were not the most experienced mecanics. They had replaced the head gasket, but met some problems with the head bolts. They had bored 3 boltholes to overdim (M12, 1.75) and 5 other boltholes to M10 1.5. The consequense of this operation was that they did not get enough torque to the bolts and they blew the new gasket when they fired the engine. I have now ordered a helicoil-set (M10 1.25) to fix this problem.
To get this right, I had to take off the whole powerhed. It is fastened with 8 bolts and one nut. Then I went on sanding the lower unit. The original anode mounted under the cavitation plate was twisted off. I took a drillbit and drilled it out. Then I used my random orbiter with 80 grit paper and sanded the gearcase smooth and nice. I still want this attempt to be cheap and easy. But I will use 2-component stuff this time. After searching the internet, I found that Aluminium should be primed with an etch primer to seal the metal completely. The only thing I could find at the local hardwarestore was Internationals etch-primer. Not the cheapest stuff, but probably good and durable. And a small can will last for several outboards. This shall be applied in a thin coat, and must be sealed off with another primer within 24 hours. (I think it was..) I mixed up about 50ml and applied it to the lower unit and gearcase. Mustard yellow in colour, and slightly darkening were in direct contact with aluminium.
21.09.2008
With this product applied, it was time to find a system that can be used to make this look good. Still on a budget, I went to Biltemas Primer. This is a uretane-epoxy based primer that can be topped by the "Topcoat" also from Biltema. Both 2-component and less than half the price of Hempel's alternative. International's alternative could not be sprayed, and was even more expensive. I mixed the base and hardener as recommended 1:4 and thinned it to spray viscosity. It applied well, was easy to work with and built up fast and accurate. So far so good. I could not find any reaction against the previous primer or paint. It will now be followed with the blue topcoat. To be continued...
22.09.2008
The repaint interval for this Biltema product is 48 hours, so I went to work the very next day. I kept the paint indoors to ensure good temperature (approx. 20 deg C) and I turned on my electrical heater. I mixed the base and hardener to the specified ratio and thinned it. I measured the viscosity and got 18 seconds. A bit too thin, so I added some more base and hardener to make it 22 seconds. The viscosity measure cup is a small tray with a hole in the bottom. This is filled with paint. Then you lift it up and count the seconds until it's empty. I then coated the outboard with a first layer of paint. It seemed to work well. I continued with 3-4 layers with a few minutes pause between each layer The whole job was done within 30 minutes. I then took some pictures with my cellphone. Not too good pictures, but the paintjob looks ok to me. Now it will harden for a few days, then I will assemble the motor and start it up. I do hope this will work out as planned. It usually doesn't....
29.09.2008
Now the cylinderhead is assembled. The Perma-coil set arrived from the US with a detailed explanation. I tried to follow it, but it didn't work out. I ruined 5 inserts this way. With only 7 left, and 5 holes to be repaired, I had to try another approach. I tried to thread the insert through the tool and then thread it into the hole. This worked out much better and all inserts went in smoothly. Got 2 spares now...
I was a bit concerned when I began to put torque to the bolts. But it went well. Now I have to install the whole powerhead on the lower unit, put it in a tank of water and start it up. It's the moment of truth...