Hello all,

I am really stoked to have found this site.

I have recently bought a spectra 18. I got it without a motor. This is my first boat and being I had a motor sitting in the garage out of a truck I thought put the motor in it and ROCK N ROLL!!!

Well after cruising through the forum for a while I find this isn't a good idea. My purpose for this boat is to cruise around with the family and some tubing. So I am looking for some pointers on building a good reliable motor without breaking the bank. At least until i get my feet wet.

At the current time I have the motor tore down ready to go to the machine shop Tuesday.

Thank you for your time
Randy

Welcome!, And BTW, pics are a pre-requisite.

That being said, nothing wrong with dropping the motor in and running it, assuming it ran good before. Then do your hot rodding next winter. We're into season now, dude, drop it in and see what happens! That's kinda the way these boats started anyway, using street engines and they ran just fine.

Ray

Now you gotta throw it back together!

Thanks Ray
That eases things a bit.


I have looked up the casting numbers on the heads they are said to be "peanut" heads. Which I am told don't flow very well.
The budget is pretty tight and another of my concerns are that I don't want to be unsafe about it.

Is it really needed to have a marine alternator/ carb / fuel pump in an open engine bay?

are hyper pistons ok in a cruiser setting?

Here she is

nice boat, i saw that boat on craigs list a few weeks ago and i wanted to buy the seats, looks good. here is mine


The Beav

A budget build on a BBC is really tough.  I'm in the process of going through the 454 from my Hondo.  What I found when I opened it up was a bone stock (std bore/std crank) engine that was just worn out.  Luckily I had a good set of 049 head to start with and a near new Comp Cam that I retained.  Other than that I'm gonna be at about $3000 with new parts and machine work (I'll do the assembly).

Parts =  forged pistons                   Machine work  =  clean everything
            rings                                                         bore & hone with deck plate
            oil pump                                                    machine crank 10/10
            bearings                                                    recon rods with new bolts
            rod bolts                                                    chamfer crank
            head bolts                                                  balance everything
            timing kit                                                   surface heads and grind valves
            valve springs
            retainers & keepers
            lifters
            rocker studs
            roller rockers
            gaskets
           

Pretty much the thruth! lol. Loaned my boat to OC2, I think it's gonna cost me $500 for parts to get it back, lol. Those poor guys had nothing but trouble with a boat I thought was running fine, lol! (You guys will hear the story eventually)

'tis all good though, they found a bunch of what Jeremy calls "gremlins" that woulda haunted me instead anyway. Thanks to Jeremy, Nordie, and Terry for doing it all! You guys are TITS!

As far as an engine rebuild, can be done much cheaper if rods, pistons, cam, crank, etc can be saved and reused. You don't need to go forged pistons (Though Crewcheif, Brad and I all feel that we should, but we're hot rodders.)

You can buy rebuild kits all day long for under $400, and I say do that, have the engine hot tanked since you have it apart, have the heads checked, hone and deck the block, polish the crank, put it back together and go. You can hot rod it later. And can get it done for about a grand total since it's a BBC. It's nearly June dude, let's just get it in the water!

Ray

Thanks Ray
That eases things a bit.


I have looked up the casting numbers on the heads they are said to be "peanut" heads. Which I am told don't flow very well.
The budget is pretty tight and another of my concerns are that I don't want to be unsafe about it.

Is it really needed to have a marine alternator/ carb / fuel pump in an open engine bay?

are hyper pistons ok in a cruiser setting?

Here she is

Your "peanut" heads are fine  use em............ they make lots of torque

Alt/carb/Fuel pump... Covered engine bay , need to be marine!!

If open engine bay, automotive is just fine......

As Ryan said earlier, Hypers are fine. run good gas and get your timing right and forget about it..