New heads and distributor question

I'm not positive on this maybe someone else can back me up (or shoot me down). Most cars in '79 burned unleaded fuel. Your heads are the same as any '79 automotive head. I would guess they would be compatible with unleaded fuel. When I bought my '79 SN last summer it still had the original heads(as far as I know) with 1100hours and the previous owner hadn't used lead substitute, and he had put 800 of the 1100hours on.

Regardless, the heads are the same as automotive and there are several options out there for upgrades. When I rebuilt my engine over the winter I chose to keep the stock heads and port and polish them after I had my machine shop fit them with 1.94"/1.60" valves and hardened exhaust valve seats.

As for electronic ignition you can buy a module to drop right in your factory distributor from SkiDIM for ~$99. That will replace your points. If you truly want HEI you'll have to swap out the distributor, just make sure you use a marine unit. They have features that prevent arcing and keep your boat from going KA-BOOM! I went with a GM style HEI distributor converted to run on a Ford from http://www.performancedistributors.com It was a little pricey but well worth it. They custom tune and calibrate the advance curve to your needs and claim it's way better than stock. If you go this route make sure you get the gear for reverse rotation.

My 1975 Southwind w 351 PCM had hardened seats in the heads and they were original. I've been running unleaded with no problems. I also replaced the old distributor with an elctronic Perctronix(sp)from ebasicpower.com. Works great and easy install.

I run unleaded in mine, You can keep wasting money on additive if you want, Hell I'm not even sure you could still buy leaded gas in '79 didn't they switch cars to unleaded in '74?

Also why waste money on new heads. All you have to do is replace the valve seats and valves and even if you didn't with today's unleaded gas you won't have a problem.

the reason I was just going to change out the heads completely is because my friend has a set of ltd heads in almost mint condition that he was going to give me for a week free rental of my cabin. I figured if they would work and I could then run unleaded with no worries I might as well do it

First of all this forum is cool. I'm new to owning a boat. I picked up a 1979 Correct Craft with the Ford 302 that hadn't been run much but had been winterized properly having known the previous owner. I purchased the boat and enjoyed it for one summer. I then winterized it according to the manual. The next season I used it 3 times and then it started missing. Rebuilt the carburetor(4 barrel holley). That didn't seem to fix it. I checked the cylinder pressures and they were all around 90-100psi. I couldn't find anything that said what they should be at. Seems a little low, but not too bad. A friend of mine suggested looking at the timing chain. I pulled the cover and found it had about 3" of play which seems eccessive, so I replaced that. Now it barely runs and backfires so hard i blew one of the exhaust flappers off. Also, the tach has stopped working as well, which I'm mentioning with re: to the context of this post. I'm about to pull it apart again and see if i'm off a tooth, and was thinking of adding an electronic ignition while i'm working on it. I've looked at the different web sites you all have suggested and want to make sure that these apply to the 302 as well as the 351. It seems like such a simple setup but it's left me very frustrated and i want to make sure i spend the money and time in the right direction. I really like this boat and enjoyed it sooooooo much while it was running. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Yak3

I don't recall any rattle. If the distributor was compensating, is it possible the shaft may be tweaked and that would cause this?