Starter Explodes

Tleed. Good to hear you were a neighbor. I lived on Idaho street in League City and officed near Hwy3 and main for a year.

I do not understand the "302" heads. Am I missing something here? Chrysler made a 302? News to me but I am always stumbling across things that are news to me. I suggested the 340 heads because I think the 360s had a lower compression. The 340s had around 10:1 as I recall and with the right pistons you may be able to drop that to around 9:1 (and use cheaper gas.)

Your boating objective determines your design criteria. Building an engine for a boat does require different thinking. I do not do very much towing and I just like to cruise the river (and not be left behind by the kid in daddy's shiney new boat) so I aimed for max torque in the 4000 to 5000RPM range (so I can spin a heavy pitched prop at that speed) - so far this has not worked yet out :(. **   Low end is only important to me in that I have to pass through it.

It seems to me that what you want to avoid is minimum horsepower capability at the speed you intend on driving. Torque, speed, and prop all have to be coordinated - it's still new to me but very much fun... if you are moving a lot of weight real fast you will be producing a lot of horsepower but to get there you have to produce torque.

Also noteworthy, I think, is that with a car there is a direct relationship between engine horsepower and speed. This is not true with a boat. The horsepower required to spin your prop increases at an exponential rate with an increase in RPMs. The result is it takes a lot of HP just to turn your prop a little faster. And to make things worse, the speed of the water pushed by your prop (providing thrust)increases at a much lower rate than does the HP required to push it. The bottom line is it costs a lot of money to go fast in a boat - especially if your boat is heavy and has a poor hull design (or is full of water-logged foam like mine).

Man, I'm rambling - I must be avoiding work right now.... later all.

** I think I need an adjustable pitch prop. Anybody got one?

(Note: If anyone noticed there seems to be a contridiction in my thinking above. I am still struggling with some the concepts.)

Don't be thwarted by him, Bigger valves will almost always be advantagous, and will not 'kill' torque, you will still have plenty. Just don't go Big valves with big-cam.

Just look at the ford winsdor to see how it goes flat above 4Krpm, due to small ports and small valves.

Neighbor has a '70 Century MkII with a 340 and its no slouch.

Sounds like you're on your way.

Jim In Houston (A little off the subject...)Ebay auction alert!351 ford(gt-40 heads)from an insurance claim...from a 99 Nautique...It's located in Houston.Thought you might want to watch that one.Plug in"pleasure craft marine engine " or "Nuatique" and you will find it!

(What idiot would post the same message in 2 places?)

Ring gear is a little chewed on, but I'm sure still functional. Not really sure how bad is too bad. So I guess I'll add that to the list of parts to accumulate for what is shaping up as a winter project.

I'm starting to wonder about replacing the engine. Now where can I find a good 360…?

Thomas

The ring gear of the flywheel may also be damaged. If so, you'd need to replace the flywheel. Engine may not need to come out for that, but the transmission, starter and bell housing have to come off... I believe you can use an automotive flywheel (the vibration damper connecting the flywheel to the transmission input shaft would likely be PCM/marine specific, though).

Live & learn, eh?

If you operate the engine at low power settings, e.g. at or below 60% power, I believe that a lean condition will not do any harm. Not so at high/WOT power settings.

I'm basing this on knowledge of piston aircraft engines - below about 65% power, you can run the engine at any mixture from slobbering rich, to so lean that the engine is about to stop, without harming the engine (due to temperature or pressure).

Good luck.

I posted first under boat maintenance and then realized this post is more appropriate here.

Name-calling is distracting, but I'm trying to work around it.

The carb is rebuilt and working fine. New fuel filter went in this week, too. There must be some reason why 3000 rpm is the max. I'm starting to wonder if the cam/valve train is/are worn out. Just not developing the hp & rpm I think it should have.

Funny thing about the starter, too. The odd clunk was with the first couple clicks of the key. I just figured the starter wasn't engaging exactly right. Or I figured it might've dropped a valve. When it did engage and start, it sounded fine. No dropped valve. Seems exceedingly strange because part of the starter gear was probably already gone by that time. So it really shouldn't have started at all. Once it started and ran good with no clicks or clunks, I figured it was fine.

The point of the trip was a test run to see if the impellers were pumping and the tranny would cool. Can't test if you don't run. The impellers worked great, but the newly-rebuilt tranny was still overheating. Still an issue there. Couldn't discover that at the dock because it takes time and load for the heat to develop. There is method and thought behind my madness. Just clutters up the post to spell it all out.

The starter had been rock-solid reliable. I haven't had this boat very long, and have only had it in the water about a month. Evidently it has lots of issues I'm working through very patiently.

Still wondering if the starter can interchange with a 318 Chrysler auto starter. That's the info I'm fishing for.

Thomas

DUMB ASS,

DOES YOUR BOAT LOOK LIKE A CAR?

HOW MANY POST ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE FOR THE SAME STUPIDITY?

IS THE CARB FIXED? OR IS THAT WHAT SCREWED UP THE STARTER??????????


IDIOT