sbc boat engine,anybody ever use one....

i bought a 307 sbc boat motor for cheap, complete, pulled heads and found very little wear or sludge.......has deep oil pan, pistons look fine, turns easy.......have a set of 305 #460 58 cc heads, new .440 .460 lift cam, edelbrock aluminum intake etc., laying around.....and a car to put it in......question is not what power it will have.......BUT it had rust flakes and pieces in water jackets when i took freeze plugs out.....may be a pound or two when i cleaned up the mess....... i think i have got all the loose rust pieces out with blowgun, vaccum cleaner, rotating engine block on stand etc....will the fresh water cooling rust be a problem in a car installation.........any marine engine guys......thank you, charlie........

 

If I had to guess, the freeze plug thickness was a good indicator (i.e. not rusted through). Also wondered if it was a reverse rotation marine motor.

 

I would look out for any rust plugging your radiator or t-stat.

 

If it looks ok use it.Just make sure it s not a reverse rotation cam shaft.A motor is a motor it doesn't know if it is in a car or boat.Just Keep flushing the water jackets out .You also cant use that distributor .If you stick with stickshift you can reuse the flywheel.If not youll have to get a flywheel from a 307 and change studs ,Water neck is different ,But thats a no brainer .Its PROBABLY NOT A REVERSE ROTATION CAM ,But check it out any way

 

most marine chevys (reverse rotation) had gears insted of a chain to drive the cam. Pull the fuel pump to check. Also the pistons will backwards for standard rotation might be alittle noisy when cold.The marine flywheel probably wont work either unless you redrill it for a pressure plate. All that rust your pulling out of water jackets might be an indication of saltwater usage.

 

Your heads wont work. They have outside pumbing that isnt used in car engines. You can fix them by plating them off. Mikey

 

I'd be willing to bet that motor was salt water cooled. If it in fact was...I wouldn't invest in it. If it was fresh water cooled I don't think you'd have the issues you mentioned.

 

Do you guys even READ the poster's statements before responding? This guy has a new cam (automotive), a set of heads (automotive) and primarily is asking about potential rust flake issues. I don't see anything in his comments that suggest saltwater use. Since opinions are so easy to come by...........here's another one...put the engine together, install it in your car and have fun!

 

The simple and cheap way to cure the rust problem in the water jackets is to seal all ports where water would exit the block then add 2 gallons of vinegar and rotate the engine several times, it's easier if it's on a engine stand and the heads still on the block. Let it sit for a few hours then drain and flush with water then use phosphoric acid and do the rotation thing again, this will convert any remaining rust to a solid that won't flake off and cause cooling problems. This is cheap and fairly easy and it won't break the bank on an engine of unknown worth.

 

Just clean it out like oldschooloutlaw said and run it the motor does not care what it is in.

 

get some fiberglass window screen and cover the top nipple on your radiator,then slide the hose on.
Check the screen every now and then to get the rust flakes off.

 

Saltwater cooling? The guy is in Ohio...Lake Erie isn't particularly salty

 

I don't know about 307's but 350 marine motors are built tough to run hard all day.

 

If you have a girlfriend or wife "Borrow" one of her old panty hose and cut the foot off. Stuff it into you upper radiator connection with some left on the outside so you can use the clamp and hose to hold it in place. Run the engine as normal after you clean out all the rust you can. After a day or so check how much crap you have captured in the foot and check again weekly or monthly depending on how much crap it still coming out until it's clean. Then throw it away.

 

If it came out of a boat with a single engine, its definately not rev rotation. They are only used in some twin engine boats

 

these would look great on your 'boat motor"...

 

I have a mercury marine chevy in my deuce tudor....runs great. I would love to have those valve covers on mine !!

 

LOL,,,opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one and most of em stink. If it came out of a single engine boat, it is a standard rotation engine. Since it came off a lake,,no salt issues. I say put her in a run the hell out of her. My 350 marine engine ran hard

 

i put one of those boat engines in my hotrod once. everytime i passed Longjohn Silver's the thing would backfire and die. wouldn't start back until i poured vinegar in the carb.

 

My brother took a 350 boat motor and put a set of LT1 heads on it and a Comp 305 cam with one of our 125hp nitrous kits and ran in the 11's with a heavy 70 Chevelle. It turned out to be one of the best motors he ever had.

 

But only malt vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar will put it into reverse rotation, with positive ground.

Trust me on this .......

 

He's in Cincinnati, it most likely spent it's life cruising the Ohio River in a bad ass bass boat. Loved the valve covers, it would really mess with some minds!

 

Not many singles were RR motors and its been a really LONG time since any singles were RR motors so the chances of this guy's motor being RR are unlikely. (Most RR SBC's would have been 283's anyway - by the time 327's and 305/350s were being installed inboard transmissions were able to do the rotation change making everybody's life much simpler). Many RR inboards were driving the transmissions/boxes/propshafts with the front snouts rather than the flywheel end of the motor too.

 

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I guess..you missed the part where he claims he got a BOAT BOTOR real cheap............BOAT MOTOR........possibly used in salt water.

 

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I also didn't hear him claim he bought the boat locally or the motor locally, there was a very general question asked and I for one gave my opinion to what might be causing this rust issue in his motor. I'd assume from what he described to be more than tap water running through the motor.

 

those are cool. no matter what theyre on

 

Well after all the comments and info, some very helpful and some hilarious, I helped the old dude tear the motor down. After talking it over for the last 3 weeks, and he was still seeing flakes of rust come out of it, he's opted to buy a 307 block and bore it .30 over and use all his parts on it. I agreed with him that it might be best to scrap it as it wasn't worth taking the chance on any of those flakes getting stuck somewhere it shouldn't. As for the valve covers, my son is scouring the boat yards in Florida where he lives in search of a few pair. They are just too cool not to try and find some! He might be persuaded to part with the block if anyone is looking for one.

 

Good call.

My son bought a pair of 350's from a twin set-up 2 years ago.
I set to work trying to build one good one.
The extent of corrosion was unbelievable. There was nothing left internally.

Once corrosion starts like that, it doesn't stop.

Regarding reverse rotation, here's how to tell. Pull cam cover. The reverse rotator GM will use a gear-to-gear drive arrangement for the camshaft, while the forward rotator will use a chain drive.

If going the other way, marinizing a car engine, here's what I found FWIW. Starter and alternator must be coast guard versions for spark suppression (biggest fear is explosion of gasoline vapor that gets trapped in the bilge). Next, water pump is different, has brass internals. Carb is special, again, to prevent gas leakage. Cam set-up is similar to Chevy trucks. Freeze out plugs are brass. Mercruiser goes to significant lengths to hide its engine build specs so guys can't bypass them. Again, FWIW.

Also, its either mastercraft or correct craft, for recent inboard v8's, that runs a standard reverse direction. I forget which, since we ditched the skiboat.

 

About 10 years ago, I put an automotive 350 into a boat. The guy who did it for me was really familiar with the process, and the engine still runs great. The only difference was a special gasket set (with a lot of stainless parts; cost almost $200 for the gaskets alone), and more clearance on the pistons/ wrist pins. The average boat motor turns about 3000 RPM most of the time (while a car engine rarely gets above 2000 RPM). Since it's gonna be in a a hot rod, I'd say run it; the stainless gaskets aren't gonna hurt anything.

 

we just built a 327 that was to go back into a Chris Craft, but then due to some unfortunate events, we got stuck with the motor. We removed the cam and converted it to a "car" engine. It was in good shape to begin with so I'm not sure how rusty boat motors get. If yours has the cast iro oil pan, I'd change that out too. It weighs a ton... ok more like 35 lbs but still.