Well..... Boat floats......

Got to Elsinore right at 8am. Dunked it checked for leaks and all was good.

Tied it to the dock and parked the truck.

Idled around for a while getting familiar with the jet and the way it drives.

Went for a lap around the lake and cruised at about 3k rpm. My dad wasn't there with his boat yet.

I did two laps and everything was perfect. Temp was about 140, perfect oil pressure. Boat is extremely loud but all was good. Came around the east side and went to get into it and ripped the gas pedal out. I didn't use long enough screws.

This thing was responsive as hell. And fast. My dad's was there so headed back to LA Laguna to meet up with him.

Throw some paint on it... It'll fix it right up!


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I was pulling in when you were tide up to him he can be a dick he's herrassed me a couple of time for going to fast never cited tho sucks bout the motor I know where you can get a all aluminum LS bear block


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Dam that sucks!!! Sorry man!!!

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Then we headed back out to the cove. Cruising down the lake as we turned at the South end, he hammered his boat and said he was doing 60. Which is about all that boat does with that prop and not a real long stretch. I laid into mine and just walked away from. I was spinning the BC impeller 5800-6000.

But the boat was or seemed like it was porpoising. So I let out (keep in mind at this point I'm holding the gas pedal in place with my left foot while driving with my right)

So we get to the cove and pull some screw's out of seats and get the gas pedal screwed back down.

I let it sit for about 30 minutes. Pulled a couple spark plugs and they looked perfect.

My uncle was with me and wanted to go for a ride. So my uncle and I climbed into the boat and head out. Let it idle and warm up. Around 130-140. And get to the end of the no wake zone. Water was Glass and I hammered it.

Boat launched harder than anything I've ever driven. Was swinging about 5800-6000 rpm. Oil pressure was right at 80. And the porpoising was gone. I think it was my foot not being able to hold the pedal still that was causing it.

Probably running about 70-75mph if I had to guess. And engine dies... Just cuts off. Go to crank and it's locked up tighter than a drum.

Then I see it, steam/smoke coming from the side of the block. Walk over to it and there about a 3 inch hole through the block.

Threw a rod. I then proceeded to get intoxicated.

Pulled the engine from the boat this morning. I hate air tools with a hangover BTW.

I'll never know for sure. But my best guess is the rod bearing spun and this caused the rod to let go. Engine was so loud you didn't hear anything.

I've "blown" up my fair share of engines before but never have I grenaded something so bad. Nor have I seen it in Person.

Regardless. A part failed idk what it was but it managed to take out both numbers 3 and 4. Both pistons are cracked. The rest look okay and all the bearings (besides 3 and 4) look fine.

What did I learn ? Don't build a race engine with stock internals.
I also learned that the ls engine is very capable inside a jet boat. Right out of the box I was swinging the BC to 6k or so... That's with a JC bowl and no diverter. And a more or less stock pump.

Yes I will fix this, chances are i will be down this year... But when it goes back together, it will be studded, 100% forged, and this will never happen again.

Now im going back to bed and getting rid of this hangover lol

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd lean more towards something was assembled wrong... Stock LS lower ends are actually very stout for what they are. Tons of people are putting 10+lbs of boost on 100k stock lower ends with zero problems.

Either way it definitely sucks. Sorry man.


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Cleaning the boats out last night and found my Go Pro. With everything that happened and my inebriated state i completely forgot i had about 30 minutes worth of footage of the boat running before it let go. I cut it down to about 2 minutes because most of it was boring. Heres the link if youre curious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDpTYMLaHiw&feature=youtu.be

That's awesome!!! Oh and all that sludge is from one thing!!! Someone ran pennzoil in that motor!!!


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When I was at my dads shop, we saw it all the time , motors that had a mile of sludge in them !! And we would show the customer , and there always like what caused that??? First thing out of my dads mouth you used pennzoil for oil huh. Yes was the anwser!! Got it changed at a quick lube place and that is all they use.


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Glad to see you will be back out on the water soon


Sent from my garage drinking a cold PBR

Are those 706 heads? My motor has a stripped intake manifold bolt hole that someone really screwed up trying to fix...

Yes they were. And I would love to hook you up with them, but that was one of the conditions of it being free. He wanted the heads

I didn't see any mention of it, did you bother with a MAP sensor? I can't really think of any reason it would be needed on a boat for timing. But... my boat did have vacuum advance hooked up when I got it. Ease of starting?

Well, the piston rings that were supposed to be here Friday didnt show up until Saturday. And for some frickin reason my mail didn't get there til about 430 Saturday afternoon.

Dad and i got all the rings filed, and the rest of the motor built Saturday night. Broke it in, in the driveway at about 10:30 at night (sorry neighbors).

Woke up about 530 Sunday morning. Changed the oil, hooked up my Oil temp gauge, fixed the fuel line for the carb. And hit elsinore at about 10am.

The 5.3 is down on power in comparison to the 6.0. But it still pushes my little boat pretty nicely. Doesnt plane as quickly. But i think thats carb related. I didnt touch the carb from how i had it on the 6.0 and it was extremely fat. Wouldnt fire up nicely when it was warm. (took awhile to crank). I need to downjet the primaries a couple sizes, and i need to put the stock Primary Accelerator Pump discharge nozzle in. (.028 to the .031 i have in it)

I tried not to beat on it to much but it seems to run well. The water was a little bit rough, and the boat came out of the water a couple of times. (thank god for a rev limiter. Hits it pretty damn quick) But it seemed to pull past 5k somewhere in the 53-5500 range. I think it might do a little more once i get the timing and carb dialed in.

But regardless its back on the water. Survived most of the day, til the battery got to low and we decided it was time to get it home. (havent installed the alternator yet)

I also need to figure out my water injection. I tee'd the valve line (valve is by my seat) off of the left side dump. But no matter the RPM or even on the water hose i had no water coming out. I think there isnt enough restriction to push the water into the valve line.

Question, Can i only run one dump? (the engine/oil temp was nice and low) and just run the second dump the the valve for the injection? Or would that cause one side of the motor to get hotter than the other?

I need to say thank you to Darrel (h20nut21bahner), Wes (carrera202 i think), Greg (icecreamman), Jake, Chris (philofab), Dennis (capogniracing), GT Jets, Sean (sevans01), Hans (89 Carribean) and anyone else i forgot to mention. Without this site, and the people here. This would not be done and would never of happened.

And most of all a HUGE thank you to my Father. Hes not on the site but without him this would of never of been finished this quickly. I blew my budget on the last motor, and he stepped in and really helped me out both financially, physically and more importantly emotionally on this. I was 100% down and bummed about the engine letting go the first time. If it wasnt for his good spirits. There is no way in hell i would have even finished the boat.



Ill have video later this week.