The oil pressure sender is in a tough spot too.... had to take the "snail" off that side to replace it. 

Any other ideas?  I can get to the manual fuel pump pretty easy.  Do any of those big set screw type bolts have a fairly direct line into the pan where I could use the sucking gizmo?

Update:  Got a new sensor/sender from Napa, special order.  Got the exact same sensor that was in there.  A VDO.  There is a VDO gauge in the boat dash.  Used the brass stuff to extend it out and then down to give a better location for the sensor.

Hook it up, RTV, logs back on, new wire to fuse block.... G'damn gauge just sits there dead.  No zero out when the key is turned on... no nuthin'.  Hmmm...  I recheck all the wires and ignition juice and all the rest.  They are all good and there is power to the gauge.  I pull the gauge and take it back to the engine area and hook it up directly to the sender and the + - to the battery.  Nothing.  I ground the sender wire and it pegs at 80+ psi.

Hmmm...  So I pull the VDO gauge from my VW Bus and hook it to the sender.  It does nothing.  Dead.  I pull the sender from my bus, which looks exactly like the sender from Napa by the way.... install the bus sender (without pulling the log!) in a tight but doable situation.  I hook up the boat gauge and it reads about 40 at idle... but sorta goes backwards at RPM... So I hook up the gauge from the bus with the sender from the bus and get about 38 or so at cold idle and then it goes up with RPM increases to maybe 55-60. 

So, with the bus sender and gauge, it appears that the pressure stuff is working well.  No idea why the new sender did not work with either gauge.  It is supposed to be a universal sender for VDO gauges in the 0 - 80 psi range.  Odd.  And a time waster for sure. 

Any ideas?  I suppose it is a slim chance the new sender has some sort of problem?  I looked on the actual VDO site and after a ton of sifting it appears that sender would work with either gauge.

Quick one, I hope.

My oil pressure sender it seems is just a hair long and ends up touching the "log" or whatever the exhaust deals are... problem being when the exhaust manifolds are tightened down it ends up grounding the sender wire on the log due to the wire shaft and nut pressing hard on the log.  Even with the rubber boot, it wore through.  The shaft itself cannot be shortened any more.  The sender is toast and now does not work even when I have ungrounded and will need to be replaced.

So, is there a known shorty sender available, or... would it be a problem if I used an aftermarket brass 90 degree elbow, like for plumbing and used that to orient the sender away from the manifold?  It would be a through and through part, without constriction etc.  If that would work another plus would be that the sender could be replaced if needed without taking off the manifold.  So instead of the sender pointing right at the manifold, it would point to the rear with some access.

Since I have to pull the manifold at this point anyway, what should I use to when I put it back on to seal it... RTV or something else?

Thanks!!

Gen IV 454 engine... nothing fancy...

Good luck. I hope your crate motor is a marine crate motor not a car / truck crate motor. They are different.

Yep, marine crate

Ok... update.  It seems the problem may not be that bad.  What do you guys think?

Boat:  89 commander, 454 and from what I can figure it is a Mark IV engine, # T02210XK.  Berkley Jet.  Was supposedly a fresh motor with maybe one season on it.  I believe it was the original motor that was rebuilt.  Third trip out in this boat for us, usually a day or so with about 8 hours of runtime over a couple days.

So, day one all is good.  Do some choppy skiing, make a couple runs up and down the Parker Strip... Next day, same kinda thing, made a couple stops and got going again.  Everything sounds fine and the boat is running well at about 35 mph.  Then a really deep and heavy boom goes off down in the engine along with a good amount of oil smoke.  Engine was turned off immediately, not that it would matter with the giant CLUNK that basically stopped the engine.  More smoke coming out of the valve covers.  A good amount of oil has now shown up in the bilge area.  Turned the key on to see what the water temp was right away... 145 degrees.  Did not see/notice the oil pressure before the incident.  No heat issues or oil pressure issues on our previous outings and I watch that stuff pretty close since I have owned old VW's for a long time.

I guess rod, but don't really know that much about these things.  We get towed back to the ramp and someone else says, "rod".  He calls his mechanic friend who comes out to look at it and says, "rod.. probably punched the oil pan."

It would sorta turn over when I checked it again today... noisy and clunky and then it moved no more. 

So... a few questions for ya'll:

Any good and cheap crate motors around?  Do you have a favorite outfit that you have bought one from?

Just how hard is it to get the engine etc out of the boat?  It looks like a regular engine cherry picker will be too short to pluck the deceased.  Do I build a crane or what?

Maybe it is not a thrown rod.  Any other ideas?  Too early to tell?

Do you know of any good shops that can work on something like this, or install a crate motor for me? (SoCal area, out by San Bernardino would be good)

What is your bestest and cheapest way to get this thing back on the water?

Thanks for any replies!