Interested in a 1992 Sunsport. Need opinions.

[wotan2525]

Yep -- I'm not one to go throwing money away on Marine parts that are the same (or good enough") as the auto ones, but you can't and shouldn't be using the auto version.

And to the guy above that said he just pulls his doghouse cover off to "air out" the gas fumes -- gas fumes are heavier than air. This is why you MUST have a marine starter. Gas fumes/vapors will sit down low in your bilge and if the conditions are just right and there is a spark.... boom!

Always run your blowers. Always use a marine starter.

(And I'm one of the few that's comfortable using an automotive distributor. The fumes/vapors would sit too low for that to cause a problem. Hopefully!)

[trayson]

Well, on the journey of making this an amazing boat I'm on to tackling low voltage at the dash. I have another thread dealing with it, but bottom line is that I'm tracking down more issues that will likely result in cleaning up some connections and maybe running some new wire to the dash area.

On another note, we got a sweet night shot!

[92SupraComp]

for the dash, every boat, dont care the manufacturer, has horrible grounding. Just add a nice ground buss bar and run extra ground and you will over come the *low volt* problem.

[villain]

Not on every boat. I thought that initially, and had to run a new power wire from the perko to under the dash. Bit ford engines are really bad with the grounds. Everything has to be clean and in order for everything to run right. Every ford I have worked on is similar in that regard.

[trayson]

Okay, so I ran a new 8 gauge power wire from the perko switch to the distribution stud of the fuse block. I also bought a Bus Bar and installed that below the fuse block. I likewise ran a new 8 gauge run from the battery to the bus bar. I put the perfect pass on it's own circuit and have it going through a relay so it's getting switched power. I gave it a ground to the bus bar. For the first time ever, I got over 12 volts on the PP voltage display with the engine off. From the battery to the PP voltage display, I have about 1/2 a volt loss. I think I can live with that. I'm not sure where PP was getting it's power, but it seems like it was getting it from somewhere that was WAY up by the top of the gauges. I'm thinking that it was just robbed off the power for one of the gauges.

I haven't replaced the ignition or the breaker, but I'm thinking I might do that eventually as preventative. We'll be taking the boat out tonight, so I'll be able to report back on how the PP functioned with the better voltage.

[trayson]

Did some upgrades on the tower!!!

So I splurged and used a little birthday money the wife gave me to get me started on doing some tower speakers. I had read a lot and since my real goal was to get music to listen to while surfing, I knew that I needed to do it "right" and go with the Compression Horn technology. Now there is no way that I can afford to get Wetsounds or Exile or other big name players. I did a lot of research and it seemed like a good middle ground was to go with the Compression Horn Tubbies made by Bazooka. They are still kind of expensive but I got a screaming deal on them via an ebay auction. New pair of black 8" compression horn tubbies for $166 shipped.

This is what they look like:


I drilled the holes in my tower to fish the wires. I only drilled 3/8" holes and kind of regret going that small. I scraped up the housing on my wires a bit and totally risked stripping the wires. Up the Port side, I ran 2 runs of 14 gauge for the left and right tower speakers, and a run of 18 gauge to power some LED strip lights that I put on the tower speakers. Since I was planning on using the "INT LT" switch to power my tower lights, I ran the 14 gauge wire up the starboard side.

The most effective method for getting the wires fished through the tower was to drill my holes and then tape over all but the two I wanted to fish wire through. Then I taped the hose of my 1 gallon shop vac onto one hole and fed kite string through the other hole. It took a little trial and error, but in the end I was able to have string running through all the key points on my tower and used that to pull the wire. It was also handy to have some picks and small needle nose pliers to get the wire out of the hole if needed.

Rather than drilling holes in my hull, I just decided to feed the wire from the bottom of the tower into the mesh of the air intake grills. Then I drilled a hole in the plastic tray that sits under the grill that the intake tubes go through. All my amps live in the storage compartment below the obverver seat (along with my 2 batteries and my perko switch).

My system is as follows:
- Rockford Fosgate Punch 360.2 Powering the 4 MB Quart Onyx 116 6.5" coaxial speakers. (wired so that the amp sees a 2 ohm load, 180 watts RMS x 2 at 2 ohms)
- Rockford Fosgate Punch 500s mono (500 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms in bridged mode) to a Phoenix Gold 10" subwoofer in a ported box that's covered with bedliner (it was made this way). The box is just behind the walkthrough and I have a cushion on top of it so it functions as a jump seat.
- Phoenix Gold Ryval V1502 to the Compression Horn Tubbies. (4 ohms: 150 watts x 2 chan)
- Using the Wetsounds WS420sq as my head unit. Installed in place of the factory headunit with a pocket above it. One of the inputs goes to a car dock for my smartphone, the other runs to the driver's mesh pocket by the throttle.


I have one amp mounted to the wall of that storage locker on the wall that faces the walkthrough. Another one and the perko switch are on the back wall of that locker, and the 3rd amp fits on the wall that is on the port side. The 2 batteries are in the middle. I also replaced the Court light there with an LED bulb and have tapped into that circuit to get power to my LED tower light strips. I ran the light strips around the front and back of the tubbies. I'll get you pics of them all lit up soon. I can't wait!!!

I had also found a set of used tower lights on wake world that I was able to pick up for $75 shipped and it ended up INCLUDING the tower clamps! What a score! Of course I would have loved LED's but 5 lights and an aluminum light bar with the clamps was a great deal.

Pics to follow...

[trayson]

I've actually had a chance to hear my system with just the boat speakers and the Tubbies. It makes all the difference in the world. The compression horn tubbies are designed to be 3x louder than their regular tubbies and I believe it. Plus I went with the 8" versions, so that's awesome. The Wetsounds EQ gives me bass/midbass/midrange/treble adjustment of the boat speakers and tower speakers SEPERATELY. Plus it gives me independent level control of the tower speakers, the boat speakers, the sub, and the PA. Yes, it has a built in PA system so that when I talk on the mic, it mutes the music from the tower speakers and those become my PA speakers.

I haven't had a chance to listen to it with the sub in the mix. I bought a slightly different Phoenix gold amp off a kid on Craigslist. He seemed really honest and polite and I was in a hurry so I was foolish enough not to test it on the spot. Turned out that the amp is stuck with the protection light on. He's 17 and has no job and already spent the money, so I got screwed on that deal. I had to man up and buy a new replacement amp online because I'm sick of getting burned on CL and having to wait a ton longer while I figure out how to deal with the situation.

Tonight we'll get to hear the full system. I did crank it up a little in the driveway and it sounded awesome, but I didn't want to piss off the neighbors TOOOOO much...

Here's pics of how the tower turned out. The angle is a little odd and it looks like my tubbies are pointed really wierd, but they're not. they're just a tiny bit outwards from being straight back, and a little bit pointing up so they aim better when the boat is porpoising when surfing.

[92SupraComp]

Wow. Impressive setup. Most I did was a $300 budget build in the CC. Im very happy with it. Blows away the blose premium in our 07 LTZ Suburban! How much money you got in that? Me personally, I dont think I could sink that much just into sound...

Also, for the power, the gauges and their back lights are all run off the same small feed from the IGN switch. One small wire daisy chained all the way around. I didnt like having the lights on all the time so, I put a small relay on the back of the tach and the trigger comes off the nav lights. And after my rewire. 14 volts when running, 12 volts not. Good enough for me Before it used to set off that stupid beeper. Out of all my friends (the ones with out the full blown EFI engine) I am the only one to still have a working beeper. My CC had it unplugged and when I touched the beeper the back side just fell off breaking the incredibly tiny wires connecting the circuit board to the beeper its self...

[trayson]

Wow. Impressive setup. Most I did was a $300 budget build in the CC. Im very happy with it. Blows away the blose premium in our 07 LTZ Suburban! How much money you got in that? Me personally, I dont think I could sink that much just into sound...

Also, for the power, the gauges and their back lights are all run off the same small feed from the IGN switch. One small wire daisy chained all the way around. I didnt like having the lights on all the time so, I put a small relay on the back of the tach and the trigger comes off the nav lights. And after my rewire. 14 volts when running, 12 volts not. Good enough for me Before it used to set off that stupid beeper. Out of all my friends (the ones with out the full blown EFI engine) I am the only one to still have a working beeper. My CC had it unplugged and when I touched the beeper the back side just fell off breaking the incredibly tiny wires connecting the circuit board to the beeper its self...

Good to know about the electrical.

Let's see...

Wetsounds EQ: ~$275
4 MB Quart Boat Speakers: $110
Used Punch 360.2 off Ebay: $42 (crazy deal!!)
Used Punch 500s off Ebay: $79
New Phoenix Gold 10" Subwoofer off Ebay: $60
New Subwoofer Enclosure covered in Bedliner: $68
New Phoenix Gold Ryval v1502: $146
New Bazooka Compression Horn Tubbies: $163
New Bazooka tower speaker clamps: $54
Misc Wiring: ~$100 (maybe more, that stuff adds up)

Subtotal: $1,097
Less: Sale of Kenwood Deck <$100>
Less: Sale of Kenwood Speakers <$40>

Net investment: $957

Of course, my PLAN was to only do a "phase 1" build of my system this season. If that was the case, I would have stopped before getting the wetsounds, tubbies and 3rd amp. That would have put me at a net of around $375. So, I more than doubled the price of my system by going with the tower speakers, amp, and Wetsounds EQ.

Of course, ONE pair of Wetsounds Rev8's with the Horn Loaded Compression Drivers costs more than my entire system. So, I've still got a budget version of a big boy system...

Of course, I've got more into it if you count all the LED lights and stuff, but whatever. It's fun to build up a stereo system, and we have a BLAST with it on the water. Tonight I was out surfing and while surfing I could jam to the tunes from the tower speakers. Great fun.

[trayson]

Perfect Pass not cooperating last night

Villain, I'll answer you here since my PP is more on topic in my general boat thread vs the picture thread...

So, when I got the boat, It'd always had a low voltage condition under the dash. I had never seen above 12 volts on the PP display ever. But it was working, so I didn't really mess with anything.

Then we had an evening where I hadn't topped off my batteries, and we went out and PP wasn't able to reel in enough of the soft cord and the wife couldn't get me up to surf speed. Then she forced the throttle and it unwound the cable even more producing slack. Of course, after re-winding the soft cord on the motor, we were able to function normally.

To remedy the low voltage, I brought in an 8 gauge feed from the perko switch and attached that to the stud of the fuse block. I also brought an 8 guage ground to the dash area and connected it to a bus bar that I purchased.

For the first time EVER, I was able to see above 12 volts on the PP voltage display with the engine off. I found I was getting about 1/2 a volt drop between the batteries and the PP display, and that seemed to be a figure I could live with. With the engine running, I was getting over 13 volts on the PP.

So, my KDW settings from the previous owner were actually 50. But, the PP had always worked pretty decent. Last night I cranked it up to 80 (which as I understand is the bottom end of the 'agressive' setting). And last night, it took forever for the boat to settle into a good speed. In the past the boat would come out of the hole, go a couple MPH over the set speed for a couple seconds, back off to a mile or two per hour below the set speed for a couple of seconds, then it would settle in and function pretty good.

Last night, it took a ton longer (10+ seconds?) at the "faster" speed before it would drop below for a while, then FINALLY, it would start cooperating... But I was having to keep the rope for a TON longer than typical because the pull wasn't consistent. We also noticed that the # sign was showing up with some regularity, whereas we never used to have it show up at all. It almost seems as if the throttle lever was backing off over time and that we'd have to push the thottle lever back down...

The most KDW I tried was 85. I also put it back down to 50 to see what that did. It didn't really seem to make a huge difference... Oh, and all of this was on really nice/smooth water.

The speed reading on the speed display has always been really smooth, so I don't have a big reason to suspect the paddle wheel isn't cooperating.

I'll be giving PP a call soon...



When the boat slows too much, I get the mush.... #notimpressed