My 2015 off pre-season upgrades and repairs.

[Ronnie]

So I broke down and decided to go the distance where wiring for the amp and other accessories are concerned. That is I bought high end wiring, rca cables and distribution blocks. I'm hoping to install the amp this coming weekend as well as hard wire the power for Garmin depth finder and a usb power port.

 

[Ronnie]

Today I managed to strip all of the old pipe insulation that used to seal off my engine's hatch and replaced it with bulb seal. I also ran positive and negative 4 gauge leads to the helm, terminated them with distribution blocks, and hard wired my garmin echo depth/fish finder in. Finally, I installed a dual charging USB port with cover. Although it doesn't sound like much it took all day.



I'm already prepped for tomorrow. I'm going to install a 6 channel amp and run the Xm antennae lead through the tower. With any luck, I will be on the water by tomorrow afternoon and may even be able to take a brunch cruise on Sunday, I sure hope so anyway.

I'm off to figure out how the 242's 4 channel head unit is wired to play over 8 Speaker, that is 6 x 6.5"s plus 2 tower tweeters. I get that the tower tweeters run through a cross over under the rear cockpit seats but don't know which set of the 6.5"s speakers the tower tweeters are split off from or if the cockpit and swim deck speakers share the same line.

Any insight on this would be appreciated.

 

[MikeyL]

@Ronnie .. Another one of your incredible write-ups. Super photos as usual.
So ......... We guess you are over being ill, we see ? Hoping so, Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[Ronnie]

Thank for the compliment @MikeyL . Sickness is just the polite term for addiction In my case. Unfortunately the only thing that has helped so far has been upgrading and/or boating.

 

[Ronnie]

Yesterday I got the 6 channel amp in and ran new speaker wires from it to the swim deck speakers. What a pain in the a$$! Got a late start so got a late finish as well but it's done and I'm happy about that. Not much to tell, the amp didn't fit In the cubby hole below the steering column so I placed it next to the opening. Basically, got a board, cut a board and predrilled the board, tested the amp, wired it to the board, put everything back together and cleaned up.

The amp made a big difference in sound clarity and its clear that I need new speakers. I will probably go with the fusion line. Also the stock wiring was "funny". It's an 8 speaker system powered on on four channels. The bow and tower speakers are connected and so are the cockpit and rear speakers. However, the bow and tower speakers are crossed. For instance, if I unplug the port bow speaker lead the starboard both the port bow speaker and starboard tower speaker die and vise versa. One more thing to add to the to so list. Thanks Yamaha.


Today I took the boat out for the first time this year. Acceleration is great no cavitation when going quickly from idle to Wot. If it lost an mph or two on the top end I didn't notice it but I had a few more people on the boat today and it was windy at times. The boat is also a lot quieter than I remember it from last season. The stereo is much clearer throughout the volume range. Nobody noticed the new USB charging ports his time Around but that is ok. we toured the delta a little and ate lunch near the water. It was a good lunch trip to start the boating season. Lastly, I'm a little rusty at retrieving the boat from and parking it on the side yard so I got a little closer to the house than I would have liked this time around.

 

[Ronnie]

I added distribution blocks to the port side and wired up a blue tooth device and USB charging port. I also split the 3.5 mm aux line in so I can use the Bluetooth device or plug directly into the head. I also added an amplified radio antennae. Finally, I reconnected the wiring to the head unit and tested but didn't install the sub. There is still some more work to do but things are coming along nicely.

 

[Ronnie]

Most recently I drilled trough the top of the tower to route the xm antennae lead through it, eventually. I ended up buying a round Sirius radio antennae and mounting it on the boat's gps antennae (aka the hockey puck). I don't know if It will effect the speedo performance yet but am sure to find out soon.


I also custom fit the sub remote gain control into the dash, where the 3.5 mm jack used to be.

Last but not least I installed a 10" alpine subwoofer. I was interested when I was shopping, on the fence when I was taping things off, all in / committed when the rotor zip was tearing through the fiberglass like a hot knife through butter.


I put some silicone in the hole I srillwd in the top of the tower, that maybe something I pursue later, just didn't want to deal with the rest of it today. By the way, I drilled 7" to 8"to get to the hollow center. Had to get an extra long bit to do it.

 

[Ronnie]

Also placed the amplified fm antennae on the dash.


Things are looking about done this offseason.

 

[Geiger41]

Does that FM antenna help out at all....my fm signal BLOWS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Ronnie]

The amplified antennae does seem to do a good job of boosting existing signals, I'm going by the fact that a got a few clearly yesterday while in spots that I usually don't get them at all or the signal is week. I got it a pep boys for $25 and saw it at stereo shops for $30 to $70, the latter being the premium model. The only pita is you have to power it.

As for my other upgrades:

The subwoofer and separate control work perfectly. Now I want to add another one under the copilots seat.

The blue tooth device for the head unit and USB charging port were a big hit with my wife yesterday. The former lets her control the music from where she is sitting and the latter allows her to use her to Use her phone without worrying about battery life.

The ribbon delete/intake manifold upgrade sleeves made no difference in rpm whatsoever, last year I maxed at 7,600 yesterday was the same.

The impellers made a noticeable difference in pick up and acceleration (no cavitation throughout the throttle range even when moving quickly from idle to wot). Last year my tip speed was 50.8 mph (I remember always rounding to 51) now the multi function gauge is showing at top speed of 52 mph.

I think the extra sound deadening helped as does my wife but we have not checked this with a db app yet. I'm done with that mod for sure, noise is not as much of a factor in the 1.8 liter powered boats anyway IMHO since they only wind up to 7,600 unlike the 1,052 cc 160 hp engines which wind up to 10,200 rpm and sound like jets or turbos after about 9,000.

I will post other or update results soon.

 

[HARY5150]

Didn't get nearly as much done as I intensed to this weekend. Just the additional sound deadens material, havent installed the bulb seal yet, too damn hot by the time I was available today. The end result (engine hatch and front wall of engine compartment now have 3" of sound deadening material on them) looks good but it will be a few weeks before I can test it.
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Just wondering how well the sound deadening foam worked out, how much difference did it make?