67 Wildcat - 426 Chrysler

Amazing restoration. Loved the videos.

Waldo.

Joe I am glad I didn't take on that project, I am sure it would have been cut up and dissolved by now. It's good to see something so different restored by such a group of correct craft fans.

Now. About those turbos...........

fanofccfan wrote: But it sure sure ain't like a swim platform.

Joe is working out what he'll use to reinforce the transom for the platform, same for the backing plates he'll need on the gunwales for the tower.

Joe, did you run 93 octane, and if so seemed ok for the C/R?

I drove this at Badin and made feel the same way I did after my first big old caddy cruise but sounded way better!

I would agree. This thing took rough water much much better than I expected for being a big flat bottom. Rolls a little more then expected but doesn't slide as much as some of the smaller boats without tracking fins. Gets out of the water with relatively little bow rise and runs at a nice angle to the water.

Played through a sound system, those videos will help me get through winter!

Great boat and engine. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Joe,
Great work. I Love the boat and engine!

JoeinNY wrote: tryathlete wrote: Joe Why would there be ANY water at all in the crankcase unless it’s sneaking in from Where it ain’t supposed to be? Assuming you meant what I corrected above there was a bunch of water in this crankcase from its last time out with questionable exhaust manifold installation... I gave it a quick drain in cold weather through a long hose and put in new oil but certainly there was still going to be a lot of water left on the inside of engine at that point ... it was a frothy mess... the hope would be a couple of cycles of changing the oil and running it in between now with good exhaust manifolds will show clean unwatered down oil sooner than later.

Oh you work fast. I thought the watery oil was from way back in time! Oh I’m sure now you’re going to get the rest out in a few changes! Wow that engine has a nice whine to it. Can’t wait to hear it at 4800. Looked pretty windy out there!

Holy s&%t that sounds good! What an idle rumble. Glad to see you got it splashed before ice in.

Sweet boat Joe !!!

Time is running out to get in a test drive... but I did tow this boat home originally in an ice storm so a little snow shouldn't discourage anything.



Lonely at the boat launch...



We were initially thwarted by a chunk of ice in one of the intake lines, but survived...

Idle at launch

The boat seemed reliable enough to head out onto the cold empty lake - hoping not to need paddles to get us home - once out there it was apparent that getting the timing straight made the boat a lot stronger both out of the hole and on the top end...

Tims turn to drive

The best we could so was a bit over 45mph at 4200ish rpm with a 14x14 federal... not bad - but the prop is a bit close to the hull and there is no reason to think this boat shouldnt be able to see closer to 4800 so maybe a acme 540 next time out...

45.8 I think

By this time I was getting a little worried that there might be a lot of water in the crankcase and that it would be no fun to paddle in so we cruised back to the dock enjoying the sweet sounds of the BBC...

Cruising back


Oil looks better than the last time, but the jury is still out for now as it only got the one cold drain and refill - hopefully it keeps in the right direction.

Oh the sweet sound of power!

From another thread..

At the moment that story is to be continued.   We started to break it in over the winter but the boat was leaking badly from an exhaust hose. It was later found to have water in the oil.   We attempted to address that problem when we got to NC by replacing a couple exhaust manifold gaskets and it looked pretty promising that had solved the problem. However the timing and the ignition conversion seemed to be a bit wonky and we were lacking the parts/tools to get it dialed in so tim and Zach picked a compromise spot with the distributor I was half planning to leave it on the trailer at gregs but figured it was a good boat to hold my gear and cooler and there were plenty of tow boats to bring it back. Generally it ran pretty good all weekend - Gary had pulled up the floor and replaced the rotten hose with some copper pipe and the boat sounds magical and is big and comfy. It handles waves better than I expected and the flip up windshield is good protection in a rain storm or colder ride and allows all kinds of air in when the sun comes out. Its even a fairly respectable trick ski boat. 

However, it doesn't appear to be charging - has a early style cooling system that was burning off paint all weekend, and died on Sara while waiting for the trailer to be brought to the ramp at the end of the last day out and wouldn't restart. 

I didn't see any water in the oil on Sunday morning so I figured we were in the clear there and hoped that a quick switch to a points distributor and finding out the true location of top dead center would have it ready for fall cruising and let us know how she could really run out. 

But that didn't happen... while I was using a piston stop to find top dead center (it was 30plus degrees off of the old mark) I found a bunch of water in cylinder 8, and evidence that there had been some small amount running through 3.   The water in 8 I might well have sucked in rotating the engine back and forth.   I am still optimistic that its related to exhaust manifolds as the compression test is more than excellent on all the cylinders at this point. Water in the cylinders should either be a result of something that effects compression or be due to leaky manifolds. 

I have it sitting there drained and lubed - I will have to pressure test, clean up, paint up, and swap in the entire later model cooling system that was original to the 426 that came in the boat. Will do the same with the ignition and charging systems and give her another go - racing against winter though and jegs sent my Chrysler green paint order to someone else and now has to get more from the factory...