So a couple of weeks ago Karen and I took the kids to Havasu for the first time together. This was the first time the kids have been on the boat in 2-3 years as we'll. we had an awesome day playing in the channel, going to Friendly Island and jumping off the rock, and a trip up to Topoc where the kids played Marco Polo in the pool. Everything was going great until we started heading back to Windows. Just north of the main sandbar I opened it up a little and ran up to 95mph for a few seconds. As I started backing off the throttle the motor stopped. Opened up the engine hatch and didn't see anything alarming. Cranked the motor over but she wouldn't start so we called Vessel Assist since it was dusk and we didn't want to be floating down river at dark. So we're floating there engine hatch up, girl friend and young kids in the boat watching at least 10 boats fly by us and never give us a second look. We started float over into the tullies north of the sandbar when group of guys in a 30' Eliminator Eagle saw us and offered to tow us back to Windors. I politely said thank you but if you could just pull us to the sandbar Vessel Assist is on their way. These guys were so cool, not only did they tow us to the sandbar they waited for VA to arrive before they took off. I offered them some cash but all they said was "pay it forward" and if you have a beer that would be great. I handed over enough beer to fill their cooler but all they wanted one beer a piece.

Now for the carnage. I drop the boat off at Menace Marine to have Dustin look at it. He goes through his analysis and believes I broke a timing chain and he's going to pull the motor. Not the best scenario but definitely not the worst. So he pulls the beast out of the boat and starts dismantling the motor. As he turns the motor over to pull the pan Dustin hears parts falling around inside the motor, NOT A GOOD SIGN. It takes him a hour to get the pan off because of the mangled screen, when he finally pulls the heads and turns the motor over the piston and rod fall out. A mutual friend post pics on FB before Dustin has a chance to make the dreaded call, I actually believe Dustin was sick to his stomach to see what had happened. So I get him on the phone and he is consoling me as if I lost a family member, I ask is it really as bad as it looks? His response was, "Myke I haven't seen something this bad in a long time". He goes on to tell me, you have a broken rod that ended up breaking the block and sending the piston into the head which lodge a valve in to the cam and broke the cam which then broke the timing chain. Ok Dustin, what Is salvageable for the new motor? How does the valve covers, intake and accessories sound? I say expensive... So the entire long block is junk? Dustin's response, yes! Wow, this is much worse than we expected...

So that was the end to my season. It is going to take me some time to rebuild after the last build. Getting reemed by a local shop before I ended up at Dustin's door has left me too exhausted to continue on this season. So now I am in the market for a good long block that will handle 1000+ hp.

Enjoy the rest of your summer HotBoaters.


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