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350 chebby boat and how to get BOLTED....

1K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  big2bird 
#1 ·
NOT just screwed, but BOLTED....

LONG story short, a series of 4 guys who 'know' cars, two into Fords, one into Pontiacs, one is a welder who owns the boat....22' Chapparal, I have asked about this here before looking for marine 350 chebby advice...

at any rate, it was VERY carelessly assembled by Ford mechanic freind of owner #1, who sells it to friend of freind ....#2 whom I have met several times, and so, my buddy the Poncho guy, and #1 install this engine in boat...
sells to guy 3, all sorts of troubles....finally get the mysterious harmonica balancer on the front, take it out for about 4 hours....runs like a top, everything fine.....

get to his house, wont' turn over....

pull it to MY house....one glance, and....pull the engine out....

tear it down, basic scrap, water/rust throughout everywhere....

machineshop building long block,

as it was torn down all you all would NOT beleive what I saw....

camshaft/timing gear bolts in finger tight, plastic/aluminum NEW timing gear, chain so sloppy it had 1" of play....rods marked #2 in 3 slots in the block, meaning someone assembled outta spare parts....3 separate engines...
cam worn, lifters convex and dimpled/pitted...wear/galling....

rust everywhere, STEEL cyl head gaskets, NOT stainless....

the list goes on....

some people need not air.....to breathe....

I give up....deliberate sabotage far as I see it....

:devil: :thud: :WTF

so 3 guys have busted their asses over this, and their hard headed failure to listen up to me, and when it was outta there twice before.....tear it ALL down for a complete physical exam including prostate....

:down: :devil: :crazy:
 
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#3 ·
So, I guess from all that, you need an engine for the boat. I've got 2, yes 2 +.030 350's (355ci) that run perfectly. Both were hand built by a long time Chevy mechanic that had his own shop until he retired. One has way more cam than a boat would like, unless you want to run at 6k all day and suck gas like no tomorrow. The other one is pretty vanilla. Both are 4 bolt and have all the good stuff inside..And Mercruiser uses the STOCK GM head gaskets- steel shim- NOT stainless..


:cheers:
 
#4 ·
Tim, Eric, the owner allready contracted with the machine shop to rebuild this engine correctly, using an automotive block/heads on an exchange basis, they did the machine work/assy on my vette engine here ten years ago, and it's been fine....

shipping would be a bitch to get yours, anyway....we tore it down last friday, took 3 of us about 5hours till totally apart, on the truck bed, and down the road....POS PIA.....

ANY 'mechanic' I don't car if its Ford, BMW, Chebby, Caddy, ANY mechanic do work like that is just forgetaboutit....needs shot at dawn....it was SO bad we noticed the head bolts came out at all sorts of differant torque settings....one would be so tight we hammer on it forever, others were about finger tight, cam sproket was finger tight....why that thing lasted 4 hours without sinking the boat is a mystery...

Tim, question for you.....did ALL mercruiser engines use iron oil pans?? or were some just sheetmetal??? Johnny remembers on Marks' boat that he swears the pans were cast iron on those Chris Craft twin 305 chebby engines....so wouldn't Eric's 22' here have a cast iron pan also??
something about blasting a rod out and sinking the boat,

you say Mercruiser used steel headgaskets...can stainless be used???

also the intake manifold on there is aluminum, seems strange to us being as it's salt water cooled....the amount of corrosion was allready evident and uncool....I would think it shoud have been iron from Merc....

comments??:WTF :crazy: :cheers:
 
#5 ·
Down here is boat heaven, I believe I read it has the highest concentration of boats in the country.

All the good Mercruisers that I have seen stock in boats use a cast aluminum pan and a lot of stainless. Fresh water boats use a tin pan.
The base models also use the cast iron exhaust manifold setups, but stainless is the way to go, but pricey. The exhaust manifold is the biggest problem with marine engines.

As far as gasket sets. They also are headgaskets with 300stainless fire rings, brass freeze plugs, stainless cover on back of water pump and some other minor differences. Felpro makes replacement sets.

Maybe the boats made for the fresh water market, don't have all this, but the salt water boats do.

Check with your engine machine shop for the marine gasket set or contact this engine parts distributer.

ERW 954-792-9800
You might have to get your machine shop to deal with them as they sell to jobbers only.:D
 
#6 ·
01, you really sure they were ALUMINUM pans and not cat iron, Johnny swears the pans on those twin 305 chebby were heavy as hell,, about shockingly so....I don't think aluminum would match his description/memory but it has been 6-7 years now....I have no recollection of that boat project as I just rewired the whole electrical system, nothing mechanical ....

Also, what about that intake?? aluminum or iron?? it's an AFB on there now...Edel.....

:cheers:
 
#7 ·
I've never seen a cast iron marine pan for sbc.
The aluminum pans are bigger and thick 7 or 8 quart.
The intakes are cast iron but different for marine.
The water pump impeller is also a little different as well as the camshaft.

Maybe he is thinking of the exhaust/heat exchanger manifolds. Now they are really heavy.:laughing:
 
#8 ·
OH, this tin pan looked stock, shiney black, but so it's not marine...great...

and that intake, a iron one off car will not be same?? what is differant??

WP impeller is differant?? we went through all that complicated top housing plumbing with the check balls in the top tee fitting overheating finally cured....it never actually was permitted to overheat, but was evident watching the gauge, proven with my probes to be correct, so we shut it down...

and yes, I thought I was bust a gut getting those exhause manifolds over the side/transom,, must be easy 100 lbs each....

:WTF :devil: :spanked: :crazy:
 
#9 ·
I'm sure they sold a lot of tin panned engines, but I'm only familiar with the sea water ones and the good onesare cast aluminum pan . Since there is no crossmember worries, they were a rectangle shape from front to back.

The sea water intakes were bronze lined cast, with no emission provisions.

Not sure about the impeller specifics, but some didn't use a separate raw water pump, so the suction would have to be better than an auto.

BTW, did you use the recommended 140° tstat when it was trying to overheat?
 
#10 ·
The "midwest" boats that I'm most familiar with all had sheetmetal oil pans, with windage trays. There were more than a few that had closed cooling, with a heat exchanger that didn't allow seawater (fresh or salt) to get to the engine. Better idea, IMHO. No problems with corrosion, and you can use any parts you want to. I worked a part-time gig at a boat dealer, doing his heavy I/O and inboard engines- all MerCruiser, and they used plain old GM stuff. Parts came in GM bags/boxes with MerC labels over the GM part number. I don't have much experience with salt, but I'd think that either you get the best stainless stuff you can, or be ready to flush everything everytime, and still have problems with stuff gettting eaten up..
 
#11 ·
tstats we tried 140-160 and none....but the oheating is solved, well WAS...the two little spring loaded check valves in the brass tee fitting on top of the upper housing....GOD what a complicated MESS that is....nitemare...

looks like something the EPA dreamed up for the '70's....

We been all through the mickey mouse impeller in the lower unit, and that little 1/2 inch pipe don't look none to big to me....but anyway, I found out it's a marine engine belt driven water pump on there, so no sweat there...

the copper/bronze lining for the intake?? was that done on the heads too??

or the block, if not, this engine was not, but had tin pan....so maybe it's not considered a SWater engine....great...

Poor Eric, he sure as hell had enough problems with this setup, been a regular cluster **** since the very start....but when it's done....

yeh man....with a stainless prop, it's going to FLY.....

:D :cheers:
 
#12 ·
Bummer about the motor,But I can tell ya that it's pretty common to find a mixmatch engine in a boat.We own a Marina in the Ozarks and have seen some pretty weird things come through.It's a wonder that more people have not been hurt or killed by the stuff that gets put together by Bubba.Although most auto stuff will work on a marine engine there is usually a good reason for the changes.(fumes and sealed units,ect.)The shop rate seems pretty high to most, and maybe that's why bubba is on the loose.But most marinas are good for safe advice on things.(Some wont give you time of day though!) A boat is a very expensive hole in the water.
 
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