Hey Guys , I just purchased a 1988 36 convertible with crusader 454's. the baot was super clean and shows really well for her age. were making a 110 mile run with the boat in two days leaving from FI Inlet to montauk and to Block Island. Been waiting a long time to do this trip . It would be better on the pocket if they were diesel. I will really see what she is burning on this trip. I plan on running her at 2800rpms. according to Tiara spec with these motors. i should burn 22gph at 17mph .79mpg. I know that sounds like on the light side but we'll see. I'm looking for fish boxes for this boat. Does any one know of any salvaged 36 tiara around?? We love the Boat!!
This brings back great memories. Forget the manufacturer test data for a used boat. Some extra gear on the boat and a bit of slime on the bottom and props and you can be way off this number on fuel burn. Post back and let us know how it goes, but I know this configuration extremely well, and I doubt 2800 will get you on plane. 3200 would be more like it. Did you sea trial your boat and if so do you have numbers? Fuel burn will change a lot with the level of your tanks. 400 gal of fuel weighs a lot! On light tanks expect more like 0.55 or 0.60 mpg (standard miles, not nautical), and on heavy tanks below 0.5. It's just the nature of the beast--a heavy boat that makes for fantastic seakeeping, a somewhat wet ride, but burns a lot of gas. Plan with these numbers and perhaps you will do better.
Coat your windshield with RainX before the trip. This makes a big difference. And buy some rubber stoppers to fit into your fuel fills below the cap. Stopped all my chronic ethanol separation problems and I always find some water on top of them when I refill. By the way, there is a fuel crossover valve.
Gonna guess on the stoppers: The fuel fill caps would leak so solid rubber stoppers (without holes) are placed in the filler neck before the fill cap goes on to catch any water that may make it's way through the cap. First I've heard of this but seems simple and effective if needed. What's nice is after a heavy rain, boat wash, etc you can remove the cap and check for water. Just not sure why a replacement o-ring on the caps wouldn't solve the issue...
Yes, the rubber stoppers stop water that gets beyond your deck fill cover and prevents it from going further down into the fuel fill hose. Stopper MUST be large enough to never ever get pushed into the hose, so make sure it has a sufficient taper to prevent this. I grease it to make it easy to remove. I also put a screw into the top of the stopper so the deck fill cap pushes on the screw and holds the stopper firmly into the hole.
In a perfect world, the o-ring around your deck fill would stop water from coming in. But I have greased and even replaced that o-ring to no avail. The metal sealing surface needs to be sanded and polished to create a better fit, and you cannot do that easily on a tank fill without worrying about an explosion. Hence the cork. On a 36 Open the fuel fill cap is continually getting wet with run-off. So any small leak will put water in the tank. Perhaps something peculiar to the placement of the fill.
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