Personal Narrative: The Old Boat Engine

Waves splashed against the boat, a steady stream of water shot out of the engine, the smell of exhaust created a thin fog on the water. The engine’s forty year slumber had come to an end. With the ferocity of a rudely awakened grizzly the engine propelled the boat through the glassy, cold water. My weeks of effort had finally paid off. The sixty year old boat engine was alive! My resurrection of the old boat motor started in the waning days of summer. School was starting up and I was looking for some productive way to spend my time after school. I had always known that various old boat motors were down there but I assumed all were weak and would only propel a boat at a dismal pace. This time however, something caught my eye! It was an eighteen horsepower 1957 Evinrude fastwin. I never knew an engine this powerful was in our basement! Like frankenstein's monster I was going to breath life back into this old engine!
The old engine would require all rubber parts replaced and it’s entire electrical system inspected and tested. I would also have to rebuild a old gas tank that used the self pressurizing system that the old engine required. This list of thing to do didn’t even include rebuilding the boat motor’s carburetor and replacing the spark plugs! I had a lot to do! The start of my repairs was getting new spark plugs for the engine. I did this to check on the status of the ignition system. If I could get a good spark from the spark plugs then I would know the ignition coils and condensers were still good. I put on the new spark plugs and had my dad hold them on the side of the engine to check the spark. I gave it the engine one good pull and to my surprise, a brilliant white spark appeared on the spark plug! This flash of light filled me with encouragement. I was determined to get this engine