[cnoffsin]

So I traded my old 15 foot bass boat for an old Bayliner with a 50hp Force (insert force motor joke here). I have 3 and 5 year old boys and frankly its just too unsafe to take them out on a bass boat because they lean right over the edge. So the Bayliner came with a working bimini top (which is frankly my favorite part) and has removable cushions for open bow seating so I am going to put a removable bass boat seat up front and I got a Motorguide bow mount trolling motor for it so I can fish off it as well.


The guy gave me the receipt for recent service he had done to the motor paying 700bucks to replace the CDI in it and you can tell. It fires up faster than any motor I have ever had.


But its loud and of course pulling the cowl off that awful foam they put in there is flaking off and getting in the intake. So after a lot of research I have attempted to deaden the sound.


Dynamat is too expensive so I bought Fatmat off of Amazon for 20bucks and it came with a nice little roller and a razorblade.


I used a hair drier per everything I read the adhesive on the Fatmat which from what I understand is similar to Peel and Seal roofing product needs heat to attach well.


I also from my research got Loctite Pro Spray adhesive from Lowes and sprayed it too.


I had some packing foam that I wanted to insert in spots that there were gaps in the cowling but frankly I didnt want to put it everywhere because I didnt want to crowd the other parts.


I may add some more later.


I cleaned off the old adhesive with a scraper and cleaned it briefly with alcohol.


In the end,


the cowl is not heavier as I have read other people say,


It seems to have adhered really well probably because I used a really high powered hair drier thanks to my wife,


I have 2 layers of Fatmat at least everywhere.


I will let you guys know if it helps. I have the boat torn up pretty good right now replacing the floor, gear lube, wiring, and prop this week.


Just wanted to post this because I notice people are good at saying what they are going to do in other forums but not post whether it works or not.

 

[fishinnc]

You may want to watch things with the foam pieces in there. This is an engine compartment and the probability of oil/gas getting on or soaking into that foam and creating a fire hazard is pretty good. If you have voids not covered by the mat you could use rattle can undercoating to dampen some of the sound. Just something to think about.

 

[NCTribute]

The white foam also might melt and create a mess. Would try with out the white foam and see what it sounds like.

 

[speckhunter80]

Bayliner and a Force

 

[Crabby Captain John]

Every time I hear "replace the floor" my stomach goes into a knot as visions of stringers and transoms come to mind. Worse this time because of little children........

 

[sundrop]

not to bash and I mean no harm, but when you get that thing looking good do yourself a favor and sell it. Bayliner and Force are just bad juju in the boaters world. Neither is very well made.. Otherwise be careful about engine heat those 2 strokes get very hot under that cowl...

 

[cnoffsin]

In comparison to the foam that was in there I am using way less of the space in the cowl. The was an inch all the way around of foam and now I am only using half an inch where the fatmat is and an inch where the foam is now but where I put the white foam there is 3-4 inches of gap in between the engine block and the cowl. So there should be way more space now under there than there was.

I will keep an eye on the foam to see if it melts I appreciate that suggestion. I used a very high heat hair drier to heat up the fatmat and it didn't melt. The other foam (which appears to be the same that was in my other motors) was flaking off into the air intake. I did a lot of research before I used these materials and there were others that used this. Mainly I read if you used the heat gun/hair dryer while installing it would get everything to adhere really well and you wouldn't have an issue.

Sundrop I know the Force sucks and I know Bayliner is the Yugo of the boating world but it's solid, all stringers look good and has been taken care of well except for a crappy piece of untreated plywood that was put down for flooring and painted which I have now ripped out and I will replace it properly. Underneath that plywood the fiberglass is fine and I am not replacing any stringers. Just marine plywood, screw down, adhesive, carpet.

I will use the Force til it inevitably blows up and I have to use the trolling motor to get back to the ramp (or someone tows me in) but it starts right up and its a 2 cylinder 2 stroke engine that if I take care of it properly maybe could last me the 10 times I use it in the next two years. I know the 4 cylinder 150 135hp motors had crankshaft issues but once again, the CDI was just replaced and even my old Johnson and Mercury didn't cold start as well as this one.

In trade for my old Procraft bass boat the other guy did not know this but I paid $400 for the bass boat, so I got his boat, motor (which had just been serviced for $700) and his trailer for $400. He wanted way more than that in cash. I gave him the trolling motor on it so I had to go get one off Craigslist (I got a great deal on a Motorguide 40Lb bowmount with the gator mount for $150). Trailer is in great shape.

One day, when all the cars are paid off I will finance a nice boat but today ain't the day and I am not going off shore with it, just to Holt Resevoir and Falls Lake.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[Brenardo]

I understand your frustration with some of the replies as they can come off harsh. I am not a boating expert but I do know that have any boat as long as it runs when you need it to is better than not having one at all.

My cousin actually has an old Dixie with a Force on it and it is probably one of the least maintained hardest used boat I have ever seen. Yet I have all confidence I could fish off of it tomorrow.

I am extremely interested in the sound deadening project and I seriously hope you respond back with your results. My Yamaha is quite but if I could make it even more quite I will do so.

Best of luck with your new toy!


Sent from my XT926 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cnoffsin]

Thanks Brenardo.

From what I can tell and from my research a pretty easy to resolve issue with these Force's was the prop. If you look at the prop in this pic its got a really low pitch. I am getting a Michigan prop for it this week with a higher pitch that I hope will make the motor not have to rev so hard to get it to an acceptable speed while I know this will have me sacrifice top end speed. Not doing any water skiing with it.

 

[Brenardo]

I had an issue with my Yamaha 115 "making oil" and after trial and error I found the prop was a contributing factor to the issue. The engine simply wouldn't rev high enough. I went from a 19 pitch down to a 17. Now it will touch the rev limiter with just me in the boat. Haven't made oil since the prop switch.

Lost 3 mph on top end, but you can't catch fish running 36 mph
Sent from my XT926 using Tapatalk 2

 

[speckhunter80]

Force got a really bad reputation in the 70's and early 80's after Bayliner purchased themfrom Chrysler and has never been able to overcome it. Part of that was because they were the cheap alternative motors on the Bayliners. In actuallity they were never as bad a motor as folks accused them of being especially after Mercury started making them. Forces from the id to late 90's that are badged Force built by Mercury were some good no frills workman grade motors.

 

[cnoffsin]

This thread here is a very long but interesting read. Or maybe I am just a nerd I don't know lol

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010046.html

 

[204Angler]

Bayliners were a Brunswick creation to get the average person, with the average income on the water. They did a really good job because you go to a decent size lake on a sunny sunday afternoon and you will probably see a dozen 1980-90 something bayliner capri or whatever...some have Force, some have mercruiser with alpha 1. Bayliners got a bad reputation from rotting stringers...and the fact that in the 70's it was a cool thing to have a "hand laid hull" and bayliners started out in plugs set up under a bunch of auto spray guns shooting chopped mat. You still see 30 year old bayliners on the lake....they cant be as bad as a lot of people say. Went out on my buddies 25' Trophy W/A...that thing did awesome on the ocean. Force motors...well, I have never had one (not yet) but, apparently they aren't too bad because I see them on the lake, craigslist, on the river etc...
Just my .02 but, if something was really that horrible, it wouldn't be around after 30-40 years. Make sense to me anyways

Have a lot of fun with that boat!!!! Fix it how you want it, use it and make memories. It'll be fine

 

[204Angler]

This thread here is a very long but interesting read. Or maybe I am just a nerd I don't know lol

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/010046.html

VERY interesting read! It is funny how much public opinion of something can sway the masses. I bet you more often than not, people wont know anything about Force motors except what they hear other nay sayers talk about and then they continue the trash talking. I know that Force wasn't the best but, neither was the '99 Optimax or the FICHT years of evinrude....
Crap, you got this boat/motor for pretty cheap and that motor had a major component replaced....I have a different outlook on things than most people (obviously) though so I might be way off.

 

[Brenardo]

My Dads good friend had one of those FICHT motors and he said that they should have dropped the F and C, added a S and changed the order of the letters and it would have been a better name for it.

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[Drum Runner]

VERY interesting read! It is funny how much public opinion of something can sway the masses. I bet you more often than not, people wont know anything about Force motors except what they hear other nay sayers talk about and then they continue the trash talking. I know that Force wasn't the best but, neither was the '99 Optimax or the FICHT years of evinrude....

The cold hard reality of capitalism is this.
Force earned 100% of it's reputation.

Any time you take a sub standard product and put it up against better products, your sales might be out the roof for a while. Eventually though capitalism chews you up and spits you out and your reputation suffers. That is what happened to Force.

I won't own one. Good luck to those that do.

 

[204Angler]

Didn't say it was all about "swaying the masses". That is just what happens, it is a byproduct of a substandard product that several people have bad experiences with, then a couple old salty outboard techs start telling everyone about a Force with a con rod sticking out the side of the block.... Then some guy that had them winterize his searay goes and tells everyone that he knows that if you get a Force, a connecting rod will bust out of the block---so be careful guys!
Anyways, it is what it is. Honestly what I have heard about Force is that once they've blown and have been rebuilt with Merc parts, they are fine. Who knows. I have been an A&P mechanic and as ASE certified tech and trust me I heard my fair share of "horror stories" that I helped spread even though I didn't know for sure.

 

[cnoffsin]

Just to put a bow on this, It was 100 times quieter. Well worth the 20 dollars off amazon for the Fatmat.

The foam did not look like it had any signs of melting after using the boat a few times.

It did not smell either as had been said in some of the other forum posts on using it for this type of project. I think this is because I used a very high heat hair drier to apply it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TU6066/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1