New to Wellcraft 3400 Express Cruiser

[ExplorGM]

Greetings!
New owner of a well kept 1984 3400 Express Cruiser. (Not a Gran Sport) Would love to hear from other owners of the same model! There does not seem to be many of these non Gran Sports out there? Ours has the twin 454's and v-drive. Have owned several outboard and sail boats but first time inboard owner. Where would the sacrificial anodes be placed on this boat? The previous owner barely used it and actually had someone else pull it from the slip for the "sea" trial for him so I'm checking various maintenance items as although the motors were gone through less than 30 hours ago, its been several years...
Thanks for providing this site!!

[Billm]

Assuming you are in salt water, you will be using zinc anodes. One on each of the propeller shafts, about 5” forward of the strut so as not to interfere with water flow through the cutlass bearing. One on each of the rudders round 5” diameter. There should be holes already there. One on each trim tab, small round ones. You may need to drill holes to mount them. You should inspect your green bonding wires. If you have FWC, some heat exchangers have pencil zincs. Some don’t. You can probably get through a six month boating season with them. But anything longer, you will need a diver to change them midseason.

Do not go to a marine store to purchase them. You will pay an arm and a leg. Boatzincs.com and their shipping Is really fast and cheap.

[ExplorGM]

Thank you very much for the fast reply! Great information. It is moored in a freshwater lake. Its been there for at least 7-10 years. It was hooked up to shore power for that entire time. Although it had $12K worth of work on the motors in 07 and the impellors done recently, I need to go through the whole thing and bring it up to date. It does seem to be down on power or some other issue as it only achieves 20mph top speed (7 aboard and a gas at half). I still need to check RPMs at speed to see if its props, throttle adjustment, plugs, etc... I've seen 30mph quoted several times for the express cruisers with 454...

[CptBill]

The ones you want to look at the most would be on the prop shafts, the rudders and on the stern also if you have a closed cooling system in the heat exchanger

[Billm]

I see that you are on a fresh water lake. Therefore you would not use zinc anodes. Aluminum or magnesium only.

I have some questions on your performance issues.
1. 20 mph or 20 knots?
2. How many rpm’s at 20?
3. Does it accelerate normally up 20 and seem to hit a brick wall?
4. Where are the throttle levers at 20?
5. Are they equal?
6. Are the engines original from 1984?
7. Do you run ethanol?
8. Is the bottom clean?

[ExplorGM]

1. 20mph
2. Need to run it again to note RPM's. Did not note it down during the test run.
3. Yes. Seemed to accelerate smoothly to 20 and then hold there. ( my 14' inflatable kaboat hits 23mph with a 20hp motor and my 75 Chrylser 17' runabout with 135hp Chrysler 2stroke goes almost 40 so looking for more!)
4. Will note next time. I want to say they were all the way forward which makes me wonder if the carbs are adjusted correctly at full throttle.
5. Yes.
6. Don't know yet, but I think the blocks are orginal only. About 1000 hours total on each engine on the meter. Heads seem to have been done in 2012 and again in 2013 after a failure. I was told that the motors were rebuilt 30 hours ago. Can't tell from the paperwork if they went through with a complete R&R or just a replacement of all gaskets, hoses senders, carbs etc... They did pay $12,500 for the work. I am hoping the marina guy can shed some light on this as it was done here at the marina. Going through all receipts this weekend. About 4" worth... While typing this, I just found a receipt for an engine rebuild kit from Engines Unlimited in GA, for $5800 in 2013 so it looks like they were rebuilt with everything from rebuilt heads, pistons to roller cams etc... Looks like I am the 4th owner. 1st owner bought it new for $125K and owned it from 1984 to 1987. 1987 surveyed at $91k. The 2nd owner spent over $25k on maintenance and engine work from 1987 to 2015. 3rd owner impellers, bellows, starters and fluid mostly.
7. I am meeting with the marina guy on the 14th and will find out what they use. The owner has only filled it up at the marina.
8. Doubt it. Things turn green with growth pretty fast on this lake and the boat has not been out for 7 years. Trim tabs are green... That is why I was asking about anode placement as I am planning to get under the boat to clean and update anodes if possible. In Lake Tahoe I would scrub my 58 Glasspar every couple weeks with a mask and airline myself. Bottom paint was sanded and painted with 2 coats of Interlux 200E and 2 coats of Interlux Micron CSC in 2014.

[Billm]

This is all good information. I think your boat is capable of much better performance. I don’t have first hand knowledge, but my San Tropez with small block Vortecs (300 hp) will cruise at 22 knots at 3000 rpm with throttles advanced a little over half way. I definitely lost a little performance when forced to switch to ethanol. Cruising at over 3200 rpm is to be avoided as that is when secondary carb barrels open up. I think fresh gas and a clean bottom will work wonders for you. I wish my bottom paint would last seven years. Sounds like your boat has received excellent maintenance. Maybe just has cobwebs.
Not sure what “bellows” are, maybe dripless shaft seal, but the boat would have to have been out of the water after 2015 for that.
Hopefully some Gran Sport owners can share information on their performance numbers.

[ExplorGM]

Thanks! I found some purchase paperwork from 1987 when it was sold to its second owner and it lists 35mph although this may be a dealer embellishment... It did get excellent maintenance with the second and longest owner. Found $26K worth of work so far! The last owner not so much in the last few years, but I believed him when he said he did not use it much as he was using a surrogate to move it in and out of the slip, so I'll be going through the all systems and checking as well as scrubbing the bottom as best I can while it is in the water. Thanks everyone for all of the great suggestions and thoughts.
Anyone know of a good canvas/ininglass/screen craftsman in AZ? The boat has a bimini and a full cockpit cover but is missing some of the camper enclosure pieces...

[ExplorGM]

Well, one mystery solved more or less. I heard from the 2nd owner, who it turns out is moored right across the channel from us, who owned the boat from 1987 to 2018. He said the boat has always had a top speed of 20mph with 1/4 to 1/2 full tanks. The boat was 3 years old when he bought it with relatively new motors. I guess I won't worry about that issue any longer. The rebuilt motors are running as new. Also met with the Manager of the Marina shop which did the rebuild and he was very familiar with the work.
Bottom cleaned today so we'll see if there is any improvement from that work. Of course, we just filled the tanks so that won't help!

[ExplorGM]

Took the boat out for a spin yesterday and to move it to its new slip.
Top speed 23mph consistently compared to the 19-20 before.
5 fewer people but 74 gallons of fuel more so maybe 250lbs less all in?
Bottom cleaned.
At 23mph the right motor was spinning 3650rpm and the left motor 3100rpm. Both levers pegged all the way forward.
At idle the Engine Sinchronizer gauge was balanced but at top speed it was pegged to the right.
The motor manual says 4200-4500 at WOT so we are well below that but also the manual is motor specific, not boat/hull specific so weight, hull shape and size can be big differences?? Guessing we should still be in the 4k range for RPM with stock props? Engines have 1064(R) and 1022(L) hours on them total with approximately 30-70 hours on the rebuilds.

Left/port gas tank was approximately 3/4 full with all but 24 gallons 87 octane. I added 24 gallons of 91 that I had in cans before we headed out. The right tank was full of 87. The manual calls for 88 octane. The marina does not use ethanol nor does my local gas station so theoretically no ethanol in the fuel. Unfortunately no lead either so thinking I might have to supplement as the motors are 84 and the heads may or may not have hardened seats...The 2nd owner said it has never had leaded fuel so I am wondering if that's why it is on its 3rd set of heads?

At the end of the day I did notice a slight knock at idle (500-600rpm) coming from the port engine which I don't think was there earlier?? Oil pressure and temps good all day. We ran out of light as we wasted a ton of time getting someone elses 3 jet ski hydro port docks out of our slip and by the time we finally docked and tied up we had to go.