From Ringer
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OK, I've got a few. Through the 70's, a lot of the older vee hulls had 455 Olds motors in them. A, because they had tons of low end torque and B, because thy were in every Oldsmobile produced from when ever they started through the mid 70's. Kona, Tahiti, Hondo, Beismeyer, Cole, Jetster, Arenacraft, Ranger, all those were awesome family jet and V-drive boats in their day. Todays engines of choice are mainly BBC and BBF. A few Chrysler powered boats are around, some FE's, a bunch of SBC and a few SBF mills are found. Cads are non existent. You are only limited by your pocketbook. Headers are available custom made from Lemon, Rewarder and Bassett. The off the shelf ones will be the best for economy. The Olds motors had an oiling issue, I think #3 is their thrust and if not clearanced properly, they will cook as the oil can't escape fast enough. Joe Mondello is your source for Olds performance.
Y'know, the main issue to understand here is that in a boat, the engine never has coast time. It is always under load. From the minute you get underway to the minute you shut down, it is always working. The battles are getting your motor up to temp, when the world is your radiator and you have no thermostat, the engine will not get warm. This will cause you to have white accumulations of partially condensed water vapor mixed in with blowby collecting on the insides of your valve covers and under your manifold. A lot of people think it's a blown gasket, but usually it isn't. Water pressure is another issue, if you have a jet. The bowl pressure is comonly in the hundreds of PSI. Most jets have a bowl bung for raw water cooling and you tee off for supply. If you don't have a regulator, you will blow the intake manifold gaskets out of the engine and fill your crank with water. Happens a lot. good new is, it's just water. drain it, replace your gaskets, limit your water pressure and, if you didn't lean on it too long, it's probably fine. Oil temp is the other problem. It gets hot after running hard for any amount of time. It sound oxymoronic, that you can't get the engine warm enough to boil the water out of the oil on one hand and the next thing you know, your oil is too hot, right? Well, there are differing issues here. One is chronic, the other is acute.
Chronically, you need the oil temp at least 160-200. In order to do that, your water needs to be at least 180. You do it by limiting the water in and the water out, or by running a thermostat, or two. If you run over the transome headers, you need to have a way of diverting excess water to the headers to keep them cool, but if the water gets there too soon and you are running any appreciable lift and duration, you get reversion. This will dilute your cylinder pressure and, once again...water down your oil. This takes time and patience to get it right. Once you have a stable engine temp program established, you go stand on it. Generally, people don't go wide open for too long, but some of our friends do, as well as I. That is the Acute issue. Now, your oil will get very hot very quick. There is no wind blowing around the pan to pull heat away, so you need to either have an oil cooler or run a dry sump with a large can for heat dissipation. Your oil won't get hot and cook all of the condensed water in this fashion, as it all happens too quickly. All you end up with is a cooked engine, a shelved project, a pissed off wife and a craigslist add.
That's all I have this minute.
Cheers- Matt
Y'know, the main issue to understand here is that in a boat, the engine never has coast time. It is always under load. From the minute you get underway to the minute you shut down, it is always working. The battles are getting your motor up to temp, when the world is your radiator and you have no thermostat, the engine will not get warm. This will cause you to have white accumulations of partially condensed water vapor mixed in with blowby collecting on the insides of your valve covers and under your manifold. A lot of people think it's a blown gasket, but usually it isn't. Water pressure is another issue, if you have a jet. The bowl pressure is comonly in the hundreds of PSI. Most jets have a bowl bung for raw water cooling and you tee off for supply. If you don't have a regulator, you will blow the intake manifold gaskets out of the engine and fill your crank with water. Happens a lot. good new is, it's just water. drain it, replace your gaskets, limit your water pressure and, if you didn't lean on it too long, it's probably fine. Oil temp is the other problem. It gets hot after running hard for any amount of time. It sound oxymoronic, that you can't get the engine warm enough to boil the water out of the oil on one hand and the next thing you know, your oil is too hot, right? Well, there are differing issues here. One is chronic, the other is acute.
Chronically, you need the oil temp at least 160-200. In order to do that, your water needs to be at least 180. You do it by limiting the water in and the water out, or by running a thermostat, or two. If you run over the transome headers, you need to have a way of diverting excess water to the headers to keep them cool, but if the water gets there too soon and you are running any appreciable lift and duration, you get reversion. This will dilute your cylinder pressure and, once again...water down your oil. This takes time and patience to get it right. Once you have a stable engine temp program established, you go stand on it. Generally, people don't go wide open for too long, but some of our friends do, as well as I. That is the Acute issue. Now, your oil will get very hot very quick. There is no wind blowing around the pan to pull heat away, so you need to either have an oil cooler or run a dry sump with a large can for heat dissipation. Your oil won't get hot and cook all of the condensed water in this fashion, as it all happens too quickly. All you end up with is a cooked engine, a shelved project, a pissed off wife and a craigslist add.
That's all I have this minute.
Cheers- Matt
More Boat p*rn. Making the Rail kits on this Crusader Vee Hull. We fabbed upthe rails out of 3/8" 2X2" Angle with 1/4" Backers. Milled in some lightening holes and are just getting ready to fab up plates. Here's some pics...
We had a Nitrous Explosion in Bakersfield. Blew the top off the Victor Ram. Just now doing the weld repairs.
And, had to do a weld repair to the intake runner for the 565. We were pulling the coils out of the aluminum from the spring pressure. Installed Gard Inserts. They hold. These are Curtis Boggs prepped heads. Can't just throw 'em away!!
Onward, we have more to do!
We had a Nitrous Explosion in Bakersfield. Blew the top off the Victor Ram. Just now doing the weld repairs.
And, had to do a weld repair to the intake runner for the 565. We were pulling the coils out of the aluminum from the spring pressure. Installed Gard Inserts. They hold. These are Curtis Boggs prepped heads. Can't just throw 'em away!!
Onward, we have more to do!
Just in the way. They are Alaskan White Cedar. Beautiful wood. The only other boat I have seen Alaskan White on was a William Gardner designed 42' High speed called the Claymore. We repowered her with twin 3408 T/A Cats, had to do huge mods to the stringers there too. That wood smells so good, I think I'm going to keep the remnants and grind off a few mils whenever I need to get the smell of 90 weight out of my head!!
I hear that. I've been turning wrenches for almost 20 years now but I took a 5 year hiatus when I had the opportunity to work for some custom wood shops. Mostly, I was just burned out on greedy idiot customers and unethical employers in the automotive world. We dealt in a lot of pine, cherry and knotty alder. My wife LOVED the way I smelled when I got home from work back then. My typical gear oil, Brake-Kleen and exhaust -- not so much. Come to find out, greedy idiot customers and unethical employers aren't just confined to the automotive world :lol: . When the bubble burst I ended up going back to the tool box. I actually enjoyed the woodworking quite a bit and was able to make a name for myself in the industry. I've been told by friends that are still in the field that my name still comes up frequently and I've been approached by a couple owners to work as a consultant. Enough bragging. Not sure how reminiscing about smelling sawdust turned into explaining my resume. Excuse the tangent and show us more boat stuff.
OK, I vacuumed the sawdust, put my Big Boy pants back on and went after it. Building motor plates. Got the Angular and Parallels just about nuts on, so it was time to set it. A major shop clean is in order, cuz cuttting aluminum plate with a skill saw is messy, to say the least. Here's where we stop today....
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