Southwest Boat Works LLC

07/12/2026

The Larson is back! Brian brought his boat in for an exhaust bellows. Without pulling the outdrive, I was able to get the new one installed. Wasn't fun, but truly beat having to pull the outdrive. We have a list of things to take care of when this Larson comes back to get winterized. Thank you for allowing me to keep you on the water!

07/12/2026

Garrett brought me this tri-toon with a 200 Mercury 4 stroke on the tail. The reason he brought this big Betty in was because she was not showing a tell tail and while throttling up she would shake, but in idle she would just purr. After getting the tell tail back I dug into why the motor would shake while RPMs climbed. I hooked up my techmate pro and 1st checked my alarm horn to make sure the horn was working. From there I moved to alarms. It has zero alarms. I moved to test functions, I tested injectors and they all passed. I then put water on it and went to drop test. 1,3,4,5,and 6 all dropped the motor. Cylinder 2 has ZERO change. I then pulled all the plugs and did a compression check. All cylnders were in perfect range. I moved in the shop and tested all the spark plugs. All thw plugs except the plug that came out of cylinder 2 fired on the stand. I decided to put them all back in swapping cylinder 2 and 4 for my last test even though the stand results showed my problem. I fired it back up and went back to drop test and the problem followed into cylinder 4. Which confirmed my test stand on the plugs. I ordered in all new plugs, gapped them to the manual and installed. I put the computer back on and fired it back up. She sounded even better and all cylinders reacted to drop test.

Thank you guys for calling and getting this big Betty in. Thank you guys for trusting in me to keep the fun on the water.

07/07/2026

This tritoon showed up this morning. Customer stated that the motor was not "Peeing" and when he gave it throttle it would start to vibrate and shake. I started by hooking up to the flush port and working on the water side first. WITHOUT starting the motor, turning on water. This motor will show tell tail. Mixed emotions from others about running on the flush port, to each their own. Once I got water to show I then moved being able to start the motor. Got my Techmate hooked in and started troubleshooting. Went to drop test and found cylinder 2 had zero change. Stopped and moved to compression test. All is well there. Placed plugs in the test stand and cylinder 2 did not fire. Installed them all back, but swapped 2 and 4. Put water back on and started back up. Went back to drop test and the problem moved to cylinder 4. Ordered in new plugs. Will get them gapped and in and I think she will be good to go home as soon I get my hands on them!

07/07/2026

So this has been my baby! This is the 95 Astro that come in for possibly having Stator issues. Well she is not having stator issues and a post for that will come later. These here are 1995 OE thermostats. Although this XRi 150 is showing a tell tail, I made the decision to order in a new set of thermostats. I feel they are opening late. With some previous diag and fixing the original problem, I think this is an issue that runs side by side with the original problem. I will feel alot better sending her home with a new set.

07/07/2026

This little 115hp Mercury is a return customer. Last time I worked on this guy was in 2024. This boat came back for an alarm. We got the Techmate hooked up and seen it had kicked a low oil alarm. The tank was full. We pulled the tank foward to access the sensor. We disconnected it and jumped it on the boat side. The alarm stopped. We were able to find a brand new OE tank, got it in and she is back to normal! She is going home today!

07/07/2026

Blake got things handled in the shop while I was gone. This little 90hp yamaha needed some love. We got the Impeller changed, fresh gear fluid, broken speedo hose fixed. Was running a bit rough , went in to check compression. All was fine there. We then looked at the plugs. Cylinder 1 was gapped at .010, cylinder 2 at .020 and cylinder 4 at .040. We tossed in a new set of plugs gapped at .040 and she straightened up quick. She needs to be ran. Told the customer for the 1st outting put the hammer to her and let it breath! He was pretty excited. The trim unit needs attention, but we will be getting her back this Fall for that. There is nothing that won't stop him from enjoying this little skiff for the remainder of the summer.

06/26/2026

Down to 3!!! All these are already diagnosed and just waiting on the post man to bring me the goods! I will be out of the shop from the 29th through the 6th, but have no fear Blake will be here!! As fast as he can get the parts I'll be ringing in to the customer. Fingers crossed they get here tomorrow and we can have them all out before the 29th!

06/24/2026

In roughly 7 days we went for 8 boats to to 4 standing. Just finished the cockpit carpet on the z91 Ranger. We have a beautiful 95 Astro waiting on 1 rectifier (already did the water pump and installed the lower rectifier last night. They for some reason shipped in 2 packages) and I have a smaller nitro waiting for a hole in the shop. It's been through test and we know exactly what the problem is, just need to get it inside to pull it apart. Last but not least I have a yamaha waiting on spark plugs, impeller, and gear fluid to show up. We are right on track to leave for a mini vacation and watch our forever #21 bang some softballs in CO.

06/24/2026

Welp, another project completed. I would of definitely been lost without Hunt Clint on this one. I learned so much about laying carpet. If anyone remembers this boat had the "Surprise milkshake" in the cockpit 🤢🤮. I ordered a precut cockpit from a company only and it was completely wrong after being reassured that it was right. Called them and they ghosted me. No problem here, ill eat it and I can use the carpet on other projects, so no major loss there. Clint suggested that we just order in a complete section and do it ourselves. Thats exactly what we did. A few days of scraping and cleaning all the old glue off the floor and pulling all the trim. We were able to get the carpet section square and folded to start making cuts. Not going to lie.... I was doubting the whole process. One wrong cut and the section is ruined. I'm extremely pleased with this outcome. Although the boat has been here for some time, we finally get to send her home! Thank you for always bringing her SWBW!

06/21/2026