i boat this boat from a guy and he changed out standard marine engine and put a standard chevy 350 engine in it. he reversed some water cooling lines and got some rubber pieces in the engine...he opened it back up and got all the gunk out and he says all that is needed to be done to get it back running is the following:
Things needing to be completed on engine: Adjust valves (roller rockers) Install distributor and set timing plugs and wires (have high performance wires but need to buy new plugs) thermostat valve covers alternator and belt
how difficult is stuff like this or am i gettin took because he put a car engine in a boat?
Well, I worked on a chevy 305 for about ten years, the engine is bone simple. Your going to have to love working on engines. Valves are easy as is the distributor, I suggest an HEI unit.
You didn't say if it was a later model with fuel injection or a carb. The carb will give you fits in a boat.
I'm not 100% that a car engine belongs in a boat. Usually they are dry sump to prevent oil starvation in rough conditions.
It really depends on what type of boat it is and what it was used for. As far as being a car engine in a boat. there are a lot of those around, but they should never be used in saltwater. Marine engines have brass/bronze inserts cast into things like manifold cooling passages to prevent saltwater corrosion.
If the engine sit in an enclosure or below the floor sealed with the bilge area, then you NEED to make sure that the alternator, starter, distributor, and air cleaner are all spark arresting, Coast Guard approved. One spark or carburetor backfire without the proper equipment and a bilge area full of gas fumes becomes a bomb. This is not only for safety, but you can get fines for not having these items on your boat if it ever gets inspected. Here on the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard does do random inspections.
All that being said, adjusting the lifters and the rest are not too difficult. One thing you do need to know is if the lifters are hydraulic or solid. A lot of the older boats used solid lifters, and setting them is much different than hydraulics. Usually a hydraulic lifter can be detected by pushing down on the pushrod to see if the plunger inside the lifter moves. The plunger is where the pushrod sits in the lifter. If the plunger does compress down, and then come back up when you let go of the pushrod, then the lifters are hydraulic. Really the best thing to do would be to find out what camshaft the previous owner installed, and see if he has the spec card that came with the camshaft. If the cam card says the lash setting is zero, then it's hydraulic, and if it gives a lash setting like 0.020 then the camshaft is mechanical and uses solid lifters.
Please find this stuff out first and post back. The procedure for setting the lifters really depends on the cam info. After that, I, or someone else, can explain the steps for setting lifters and getting the distributor in the right way.
The only thing "marine" about most car engines used in boats is the cooling system/water pump and the fuel system because you do not want a leak in the engine bay on a boat. There is nothing exotic about motor otherwise unless it is a engine that will run in salt water and then some changes are made in cooling system and pump. (some use sealed systems with heat exchanger in salt water) Generally you do not want a aluminum headed engine because of galvanic reaction with even fresh water. Alluminum heads on a aluminum block is not as bad as aluminum heads on a cast iron block here.
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