Whats new at Iowaboy1’s Shop

Well guys and gals, many things have happened in the last year and a half since I opened the doors to Sheldon’s Auto & Marine Services.
The best thing to happen is my FW Sparklesonthewater joined me full time last May to take over the office work, and she has become quite the technician handling all of the oil changes and brake jobs !! not only that she is taking carbs off of outboards and tearing them down to be cleaned and gone through, so blessed to have her on board and helping out!

We have been very blessed with plenty of auto and marine work and we have been spending every extra dime investing back into the business so without further ado,,
We now have thee best diagnostic system known to man for every major outboard and inboard manufacturer at our disposal, it is the CDI electronics MEDS system.
that stands for, Marine engine diagnostic systems, I can now communicate with 3 generations of Mercury, J/E, Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, MEFI-1 and Canbus systems.
It is paired with a Dell rugged 5420 laptop which allows us to read all outputs from the engines ECU and we can update maintenance records, read and clear codes, print before and after repairs as well as read every sensors data stream in analog or waveform view.

To top that off we have invested in a marine engine dynamometer which is built right in Isanti MN !!
the dyno we purchased will work on outboards with normal and counter rotation gear boxes up to 250 HP and inboards up to 260 HP.
Sadly the dyno wont be here until sometime between late July or sometime in Sept as the business who builds them has been taken over by new owners and they are a bit behind schedule getting up and running again.
I bought the International marine dyno as I have used that system when I was a Mercury tech and am familiar with it and its built right here in the USA!

this allows me to fully load an engine inhouse and do all of the diagnostic work at rpms above idle without having to go to a lake and burn a bunch of time to and from and I dont risk getting tossed into the lake when the throttle is slammed to full open.
I can only hope that when we are done with a full load dyno pull the dyno doesnt say,, whadjathinkofthateh??

how far have we reached out?? the most western part of the states is when Superdave1959 from Utah bought a Minnkota riptide from us, Chuck100 to the East, The Scratcher to the North,, and everything in between, oops, the south you ask??
well, a buddy in Florida ordered one of my shirts lol.

thanks everyone who has wished us well and we hope you are blessed in return !!
Sheldon

Congrats Sheldon! Sure glad everything is going so well on your end. Make sure you’re getting some fishing in.

Sheldon knows the electrical situation I’m in with a 2007 gmc Denali. No one can figure out the 7amp continuous draw on my battery after shutting the ignition off, forcing me to jump start it to get it started again. Battery & alt tested to be perfect… wish I weren’t 5hrs away, this thing would be in his hands tomorrow with full faith he’d soon figure it out. I’d BBQ too, & sure as hell won’t include spam or bullheads

Wallyhntr1 wrote:

Sheldon knows the electrical situation I’m in with a 2007 gmc Denali. No one can figure out the 7amp continuous draw on my battery after shutting the ignition off, forcing me to jump start it to get it started again. Battery & alt tested to be perfect… wish I weren’t 5hrs away, this thing would be in his hands tomorrow with full faith he’d soon figure it out. I’d BBQ too, & sure as hell won’t include spam or bullheads

seven amps !! thats danged neart a dead short !! I didnt realize it was that high!!
of everything we have discussed the only thing left is the trans controller module or the prndl switch, man its a wonder it hasnt burnt to the ground with that kind of draw !!
I will meet you half way to figure this one out !! I want to see it pronto !!

At this point I’d welcome a complete burn… this truck with the 6.2 has been a beast towing my boat. Only has 170k miles & would easily go double/triple that, engine runs perfect.

PM me with location Sheldon. I’ll drive it to you.

SAMS
28 East St,
Kellogg, IA 50135

COOL,,,,,,,,,, a dyno.

Years ago when Waterloo Boat and Motor was still in business they had a dyno at that time. I wish my local shop had one.

Maybe you can send me a faked readout that says 9.9hp for my 60hp, so I can get on Lake MacBride during the summer?

I take it for granted but am blessed to have one of the best mechanic, boat or auto, within a 15 min drive of my house! Sheldon has helped me out many times in the past year and you don’t come away from there wondering if you got taken advantage of. It’s hard to find a business owner that is open to giving you advise without asking anything in return! Taking my Suzuki in Tue for the final mounting adjustments, couldn’t be happier! It’s worth your drive if you live away some.

how do I get in touch with Sheldon to get some work done?

Kenneth Rocus wrote:

how do I get in touch with Sheldon to get some work done?

Kenneth, you can reach the shop Mon-Fri at 641-526-3060.
we are open at seven thirty AM to five PM and closed between twelve and one for lunch.

Thanks Denny O for posting my address, I went to bed before that question was asked.

I’m going to throw in another vote in for Sheldon.
I just picked my boat up today and have no doubt tomorrow that it’s gonna haul a$$.
I’m so confident in his skills i took a friend and his boat down for him to look at.
Thanks Bud,hows the cheese?

chuck100 wrote:

I’m going to throw in another vote in for Sheldon.
I just picked my boat up today and have no doubt tomorrow that it’s gonna haul a$$.
I’m so confident in his skills i took a friend and his boat down for him to look at.
Thanks Bud,hows the cheese?

I aint opened it yet in case I have to make a refund LOL !!
Guys, I have to tell on Chuck100 and why I may be a bit nervous about his motor.
It was a VRO unit that has been converted to oil/gas mix and these motors smoke like a mother because most times the idle circuit hasnt been rejetted to accept the richer oil ratio at idle and they are a roosterfish to tune like that.
I will rest easy once he blows the cobs out of it with some fresh gas and tells me he can stand the boat straight up and down when the throttle is pinned.
until then,,, the seal has been broken on the gifted 1.750 and there is no looking back, it may be that I will be making a trip to Platteville next weekend if Chuck aint happy!!

Give it a good home Sheldon.

Sorry I’m late with this Sheldon. It got buried in my t-shirt pile.

Thanks ib1 & sparkles!!

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That kind of entrepreneurial spirit is what made this country great. If we could just govt out of things we would be that much greater. MAGA.

HA! thanks MX1825, I had forgotten about sending that shirt home with you know who, looks like a good fit for ya too !

Sylvan boat, thanks ! and I agree, the property taxes, insurance, ,inventory, and utility costs are terribly high on any business.
If I could take home what I spend monthly on these things I could be making some dang good money.
I have to turn a minimum of four grand a month just to turn the lights on, then lets pay quarterly sales tax and income tax on top of that.

I have yet to take a dime out of this place for myself but I can say we are putting everything we earn back into the business to keep growing it.
The best part is, Sheryl and I own it, I have control over everything, honesty and quality are priority, fair pricing for the customer as well as ourselves.
Now if I could just get parts to show up sooner !!

This ship has a great Captain, we are certainly blessed I will say that !

I detest equipment that doesnt perform as advertised, sure, the stuff I originally bought served me fairly decent until lately when it cost me five hundred smackers when a plastic part failed.
Without further ado, here are the latest two additions to the shop, hope I can stay busy enough to make the payments the next three years!!
And I am still waiting on my dyno, dang it !!

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You need anyone to run that machine?

Yes I do EPG ! but as we have discussed off site, try to find someone who cares as much as you do, has the passion to figure things out, respects the customer and treat them like family, will show up on time, wont fidget with their phone or spend too much time on the web.
OOPS ! speaking of which, I gotta get my butt to work, no one else wants to,,

LIved in Isanti for 30 plus years, I did not know there was a dyno builder for outboards lol.

Sheldon didn’t your mother warn you to stay away from that Snap-off truck?

Nice machines though.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

You need anyone to run that machine?

It actually wasn’t a question, it was more of a statement!

You will not find anyone with the passion you have running your business. You have to settle and believe that there are good workers out there. You just need to sort through quite a few pieces of coal before you find the diamond.

So nearly a year in the making my dyno showed up thursday !!! YIPPEE!!
It was a long journey getting it here, shut downs, Parker hydraulics taking forever to ship the right pump etc.

I worked with new owner Kevin of MRC machining in MN to get this thing built and the wait was worth it!!
I tried my best to not pester him too often about it and I tried my best to extend every courtesy I knew during an overly long,,,,,,well, you all know what we went through the last two years.
I was told when I ordered it they were just getting up and running and it would be a bit before they could build one as they didnt have any blue prints to build by.
They only had an old model sitting there they had to reverse engineer.
Then I was told pumps couldnt be sourced, promises of a ship to date and the wrong pumps were sent out.
Finally, the right pumps showed up!!!, I teased Kevin about sitting on my money for so long without any interest being payed out, we had several laughs about the way the world was going but I never once thought he wouldnt come through for me.

Talking to Kevin was like talking to an old friend I had known for years, he put up with my young country boy mind and many questions, he went out of his way to assure me I would have one of the very first dynos they built.
Kevin, if you ever read this, thank you for all you have done to make this possible!!

A dyno, what is it good for?? well folks its like this, where my shop is its about an hour to any lake where I can open up a motor that is having problems under load or high RPMS, two hours round trip to and from said lake.
Then I need a second guy to drive the boat while I am hanging on trying to read the computer, check timing, everything without getting tossed out of the boat.
A half day is lost doing that and I have to charge for my time to stay in business.
Four hours at 90 per is 360 bucks plus paying a helper, I can make a run on the dyno for 150 bucks and that includes a half hour of diagnostics, do the math yourself.

So, without further ado, please welcome my brand new addition to the shop!!
International marine dyno built by MRC machine in MN !!!
It will handle 250 HP on outboards and 260 HP inboards, I have inside intel that it will handle more if I pay attention to the the hydraulic oil temps.

Now, all I need is Bob Lundy and Denny O to bring their Optimax outboards down to witness the difference in using Boysen reeds!!

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Ha, you ain’t fooling me, that’s a jack Daniels hydro pump!!! Those hoses come and go to a reservoir tank!!;🤭🤭

Seriously, nice looking gizmo, hope it works for you sir!!👍

Congratulations on your new arrival.I bet your one proud papa of that little baby.

chuck100 wrote:

Congratulations on your new arrival.I bet your one proud papa of that little baby.

Yes I am Chuck100!! Now all I need is an exhaust analyzer that will read temps under load as well as oxygen content.
Then I would be able to prove to everyone why exhaust temps using E-10 are 300 degrees hotter than non oxy fuel, and they wonder why pistons melt!!!
This can be done using simple math, but some folks need pictures and even then ya cant convince em,sigh.

Congrats ib1!
Is this the first dyno in Iowa?
Just keep crankin Sheldon.

MX1825 wrote:

Congrats ib1!
Is this the first dyno in Iowa?
Just keep crankin Sheldon.

Thanks MX825!! sadly no, dynos have been around for a long time, but they are not used much anymore, the advertising of ( dyno tuned ) and the idea that motors would run lean on a dyno and the advent of computers shut the use of a dyno down.

I have to make this known to those who do not understand, in no way will a dyno cause a motor to run lean under load, why??
With a little thinking its fairly easy to figure out, when a spinning propeller is propelling a boat forward it creates a scavenging affect or a vacuum if you will on the exhaust outlet.
That scavenging affect is part of a motor builders tuning as it will help a motor make more HP, especially in a two stroke as the exhaust pulse or pressure wave is a huge factor in making them run harder.
If anything, running a motor on the dyno will make them run a tad rich under load without the scavenging affect, true with four strokes as well.

To give you an idea of how important exhaust pressure or speed is, consider this.
In an old airplane of WWII era, the V-12 Merlin and other motors exhaust stacks were taken into account of the planes speed.
IE, one plane gained a ton of air speed when the stacks were swooped to take advantage of the supercharged engines exhaust output, something like 76 MPH was gained.

I will use the dyno to seek out partial or full load problems that cannot be duplicated on a hose with no load, now, I will be able to simulate real world load problems without leaving the shop.
Examples of that are coils or injectors that break down only under load and or heat build up that would take forever to find at idle.
ECU failures, fuel pump output, etc can most often be found under load as well even though the pressure gauges show normal pressure at idle.
I had this happen a year ago, fuel pressure on a 150 HP Merc indicated normal but it would falter under part throttle, it ended up being a corroded pump switch in the vapor separator when fuel full was needed, that took forever to figure out.

Modern computers are not the end all to finding problems.

Congratulations on the new toy!
I would love to play with a dyno for marine applications. Though I would need the ability to handle over 300 hp and compatibility with personal watercraft.