I picked this up the other day to get me on the water until I find a hull I really want. Quarter stringers, Beede gauges, Jacuzzi WJ with a B impeller, 67 Chevelle 396 with a Performer RPM manifold, Holley 850 double pumper (may be on the small side), HEI ignition, and some weird headers / water injection. The project has already snowballed.

After checking the tach had a broken signal wire. Fixed that it works correctly now.

The oil pressure gauge uses 240-33 ohm scale and the engine had a factory? GM sender that put out 0-90. Ordered the correct sender, should be here tomorrow.

The engine coolant gauge had a broken +12 IGN supply to turn it on, fixed that and it works correctly now.

Removed the crappy radio and tossed in the trash.

Replaced the Champion plugs with NGKs, installed a 750 vac secondary carb I had laying around, and fired it up. It now ran on all 8 cylinder (one is a little cold), but had a horrible vibration. Started checking and found out that 454 use external balance and 396 use internal balance. Since the engine is way older than the boat I assume someone swapped it in. Pulled the bellhousing and found a B&M flexplate with weights on it. Had to pull the engine last night to get it off.

Today I ordered paint, and Edelbrock 750 carb, new flexplate, small liquid filled coolant pressure gauge (for on the intake manifold), and some nicer hardware. Since I have the engine out I'll clean it up a bit and maybe polish the mounts.

More fun. I started pulling the engine down to clean and paint. Front plate is cracked so I will have to fix that. Hardware is a joke. Dizzy is rough, has a little shaft play plus the rotor is damaged.

I ordered a new dizzy and new plug wires.

I may have a lot of this stuff powdercoated as the guy I used to use in Havasu "Juan's Polishing" is long gone. It seems like all the polishers and chrome shops have closed unless I go to Mexico. Anyone have any suggestions?

Actually, I'm in Elsinore often. Danzio is there, my friend Johnny lives near there, among other things. Not sure I could get the parts there and back soon enough to get this #shitbox back on the water, but the info would be nice for when I find a Daytona, CP, or Texas Tunnel hull to build.

Some of the parts are here!

All back together other than the water lines to the headers. Going to make some hard line for it. Still gotta paint or clean the intake and sand the tops of the valve covers.

The plastic fuel filter and the paper air filter are not a good idea. (fire) A K&N would be a good choice.

I have a new air filter coming. It's just not here yet. The boat has a spin on fuel filter setup that has been bypassed. Going to use that and eliminate the little filters. Just have not done it yet.

Some swear by the Edlebrock carbs, I prefer a Holley type on a boat. (tuning)

I'm aware of how everyone feels about Edlebrock carbs, but my only experience with Holleys is pulling them off. I have run Edlebrock / Carter AFBs for years and know them ok. It's not EFI but it works on something like this that I don't want to put a lot of effort into.

The Jacuzzi WJ has a plastic wear ring, and running it out of the water quickly wears them out, then you'll have a 'loose' pump. I wont even run my Berks out-of-the-water for this reason.

Yea. I don't run the engine out of the water for more than 20 seconds or so. I've been doing that on boats I own for years without issue. Berkeleys own website says it takes quite a while to get the wear ring hot enough to damage it. I had the boat backed down the AVI ramp to set idle and air/fuel so it has had water the whole time.

Just my $.02

Are you going to have a valve by the drivers seat for the headers?
The WJ 'B' impeller pulls similar to a Berk 'A'
Boat looks good btw

Dan'l

I am waiting on some stainless tubing and and compression fittings to re do the exhaust water system. It gets way too much water right now and is not building enough water pressure in the motor. Planning on using lever valve with a Morse cable to control some of the flow.

I hear what you are saying. I just don't see the issue. Cam break in takes 20 minutes +, and the hose doesn't really do anything unless it's spraying in the intake. 20 seconds of run time shouldn't get anything hot enough to expand and interfere.

The next boat is going to have some sort of quick disconnect for ease of tuning and repair. This one has 4 point mounts but you can't get the drive line off with the engine in the boat.

So, it looks like the carb or lack of a PCV system may have killed the rings on #4. Pressure test shows intake and exhaust valve is good, pressure is escaping to the crank case.

I'm probably going to run it a little bit this weekend just cause I want to be out on the water. Then I need to decide how I want to fix it... just rebuild the 396 bottom end rear quick or find a 454 block and build a 427 with this crank and rods. There is only about $400 difference between one way and other and I may be able to make up some of that selling the 396 block to a Chevelle or Camaro guy.

On the good side my buddy Brian is giving me a Dooley scoop for this thing so I can get rid of the round style air cleaner.

Got the old motor out and picked up a new engine to put in. Got tired of dealing with flakey people on Craigslist that wanted way to much for BBC parts. Ordered up a ton of parts to put this in from JBP, CP, eBay, Amazon, and a few other places.

Gotta figure out how to get the oil stain out of the carpet or just trim it back to the start of the stringers.

Goal is to have it done in under a month so I can enjoy myself on the river. Weeeeeee


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