My sister has this boat, her husband isn't really that into it. He rebuilt a chevy 350 and dropped it in and that's about it. The motor still needs a distributor and a carb. I figured the carb will be marine specific, but what about the distributor? What else on this motor should be marine specific as opposed to standard automotive fair?

 

if it is for salt water use they use copper or brass freeze plugs, carb uses a spark/ flash arrester instead of an air filter, and most of the distributors are sealed to prevent the possibility of a spark igniting combustible fumes in the motor box.


other than that. boats are a hole in the water that you constantly sink money into for little or no return.

 

Cool, thanks. At least I wont be paying for parts, just installing them while still getting the use of the boat.

 

The two best days of a boat owners life are the day he buys the boat and the day he sells the boat.

 

Carb, dizzy, starter, alternator, almost all electrical stuff is marine specific. It has to be, so it doesn't ignite any gas vapors that may accumulate in the bilge.

From what I've seen, the dizzy doesn't usually have vacuum advance, and the advance curve is different. Doesn't mean you can't use an automotive distributor, but it's better to stick with original.

 

The cam is also a different grind .l Building a marine engine is a bit different than building an automotive engine .Much to consider ...

 

I heard one boat mechanic put it this way.........."Running your 350 Chevy @ 4,000 rpm to push your boat at 30mph over long distances of water, is like driving your truck, loaded with gear up a 6% grade at 80mph all day long."..............MANY things are different in marine versions of automotive engines.
IMO automotive engines are poorly suited for marine duty, and boats are better served by large outboard motors and inboard diesels.

 

Yup!
A personal boat is a hard life for an engine, thats why you see so many of them getting replaced. Also they get abused lots, people skip maintenance, and then they sit for months at a time. Even if you take really good care of them, like you said, they get worked harder than in a car or truck.

I rented a 35 ft steel houseboat once, 4 cyl isuzu, burned about 1 gal per hour, but only went about 12 miles per hour.

 

Well hopefully my brother built that motor to marine specs or when it dies I doubt he will be building it again.

 

what you need has been covered but if this 350 is not built to be a boat engine, it aint gonna last. It needs stainless shim head gaskets unless it has fresh water cooling, it needs ductile iron rings and forged rods and pistons...it will be running over-fueled all of its boating life so simple HD tech is the best tech....

 

That's a good point, I will have to ask if he used such parts in the rebuild. He should be back from TDY in the next two weeks.

 

I agree with you. The time in between is like burning money & calling it fun.

 

Yeah, just get a bigger engine.

Duesenberg W-24 Marine Engine | Old Machine Press

I saw the engine and the boat project last weekend.