My buddy picked up a boat yesterday that supposedly has been sitting for 6 years. Previous owner said it ran before it sat for that long.

Appears the boat was well covered, its just super dirty. The boat was located in Camarillo so it was in pretty salty air. Anything that could rust, did.

The motor is a 454 Chevy Hardin Marine 325hp. I had the 405hp version of this motor in the southwind which had a forged crank, dimple rods, 990 heads, GM performance intake, etc. Anyone know what came inside the 325hp version?

So my question is - any advice before I go ripping into this thing?

Obviously the tanks need to be cleaned. They are aluminum tanks that are glassed in. Any suggestions how to do this without removing them?

Obviously it would be smart to change the oil too.

My main concern is turning it over without doing any damage. Should I use a oil pump primer? what about the cylinders? Pull the plugs...put something in there like wd40 or something so im not scaring up the cylinder walls?

...or should I just go for it?

Squirt some marvel mystery oil in the cylinders, change the oil and prime the system, turn the crank a few times and prime it again, put good plugs in and fire it up. 

As far as the tanks, suck all the bad gas out and peak in there with a light....if it looks nasty, dump a bunch of steel nuts and bolts in the tanks, add 2 or so gallons of fresh gas, then tow it down a washboard dirt road for 30 minutes.  Use a magnet on a flexy stick to get all the bolts out then suck out the gas again.  This is as clean as you'll get 'em without pulling them.

yep yep...

Also too, pour some Marvell in with the oil change, wont hurt a thing but can really help control some of the iron oxide that will break loose...

GT

This but instead of using gas to clean the tanks I would use diesel fuel, I do this with old gas tanks in customer cars. Seams to clean a little better than gas

^^^^^^^    ^^^^^^^

We've used diesel fuel to flush oil out of cooling systems with amazing results.

I'm a big fan of using diesel fuel as a cleaner than gasoline in tanks, etc.

Pops used to run into "snug" engines all the time in trenchers, tractors or backhoes that had been sitting unused. Did it on a couple trucks also. He would fill the cylinders with diesel fuel, put the plugs in overnight, then next day pull the plugs and rotate the engine over 90*, do the same thing again. Then pull the plugs and get it cranking over with the starter (no plugs) and get the stuff out. THEN change the oil, throw the plugs back in and fire it up.

We'd never heard of Marvel Mystery oil, but would have probably done the same thing. But Diesel usually worked fine. Once in awhile, you'd still have a sticky ring that would eventually free itself up.

There was one occassion he had one that just wouldn't budge with a 3/4" ratchet on the crank. It was a Ford Industrial 4 cyl gas engine that was in a towable generator. He was gonna put the engine in an old Parson's trencher he picked up. So he filled the crankcase and cylinders with diesel (almost 5 gallons worth). Left it sit for a while, trying to crank it over once a day or so. After about 2 weeks it popped loose. He kept working it around, drained everything, refilled it again, worked it around leaving it soak over another week or so. Drained everything out of it, pulled it from the generator pack and dropped it into the trencher. New oil, wired it up, fired on the first crank and was still running good when we sold it at auction after he died.

Pat cleans tanks the same way I did in Moo, LMOA! Except, I scored some canvas coin bags from the bank and threw a handfull of nuts and bolts in the bags then tied them shut.

Ray

Well it was my boat that started this thread, soooo.  Is the motor out of the boat? If so pull the pan.  Easy piece of mind. If not, after 6 years the oil in the oil pan of mine looked like jelly.  Very easy to clog the pump.  I'm so glad we didn't start my motor after seeing what the oil condition looked like. 

Pull the oil filter off put some oil in it and pull the coil wire off and turn the motor over also put a bag around the oil filter housing so oil doesnt get all over. If u don't have a coil and u have a HEI then pull the hot wire off the HEI u don't want the motor to start at all u have the pined the oil pump, also your carb might be full of stuff so clean it.

I thought that the oil was dirty so that why I said to leave the filter off while turning the motor over with out starting it. As far as the distributor goes u dont need to pull it out to crank it over just take the coil wire off so u can crank it over with out starting it. With new oil in it u can look at your pressure gauge while u crank it over to prime it also to see if it has good oil pressure. Now I think the carb is too small I run on a big block and a big boat. I have a 19 foot with a 455 and I run a 750dp. Good luck with your new toy and be safe.

drop the pan and make sure its clean, check inside valve covers.  if all that checks out slap some oil in it and prime it along with some of that marvel mystery oil stuff.  turn it over by hand (you'll feel if sometings stuck or wrong more than holding down a starter button) a couple times, continue to prime.   slap some plugs in it and let 'er rip. 

if you're gonna let an engine sit, at least fog it.  i fog my motors at end of season and then ill run the drill/prime on it every once in a while and crank it over by hand to keep things from sitting.  it takes like 10 minutes. 

Ok that sounds good then I thought just one carb.

Well got her purrin today! 12quarts of vr1 and sme fresh gas is all it took. Took about a minute of cranking off n on before I got oil pressure. As soon as I connected the coil it fired right up. Had my buddy's dad who built the motor 12 years ago over and got the supposedly new carbs tuned so it would idle. He said it still sounds a little lean.