2004 Formula 34PC Engine Hatch Removal

[gustaf]

Has anyone had to remove the engine cover from their 2004+ 34 PC? If so, how did you go about it? I see that it’s easy to unbolt but it’s not exactly something that you can lift off by hand.
Unfortunately I had an injector go bad and flood a cylinder on my port motor - not a good start to the season. So now in the process of pulling and swapping a new one in.
Any help those who have gone down this path with hatch removal would be much appreciated.

 

[GSENT]

I used the marinas crane. I used two nylon slings and basketed the straps. Worked very well.

 

[2006_31PC]

I have a 06 31pc. I was able to simply unbolt the ram and hinge the hatch backwards and let it rest on the swim platform. I put cardboard and padding down first on the platform side so it didn't hurt anything. It's heavy and you probably want 3 people. 1 in the bilge to unhook ram and lift up, and the other 2 on the platform taking the weight once it gets past the center point on the hinge and starts coming down to the platform. We then brought a forklift in from the side to pull the motor.

 

[gustaf]

The 34PC design is a bit different than the 31PC. The 34 will not let you flip it to the swim platform based on the hinge design. I’m thinking of doing something similar to what GSENT did. My only concern is when lifting it will the straps try to fold the bottom edges of the fiberglass in and cause damage.

 

[TurboJoe]

I just went through this during the winter to change my transom assemblies. The hatch is relatively light in machine terms, especially compared to the engine you have to pull right after it.

We used two nylon crane slings wrapped around front to back, and hooked them onto the crane we had on site to pull the engines. Then put the hatch down, un-pin and unscrew the hinge. On ours the metal hinge was stuck to the fiberglass hatch with what must have been 5200, we needed a huge pry bar to pry it off and it took fiberglass with it. You may want to check with formula to see if taking the lower part of the hinge off the boat is a better method. Once the lift and hinge are off, simply hoist it up and out of the way somewhere.

When you put the hatch back on you can sit it flat in place, lift it a tad to get the straps out, and one person can move and align it back up to the hinges. I re-glued with 4200 when I put the bolts back in.