"Blown" Ford 351

William....stop!!

I'm one inch from tossing this project into the bin. I opened this site today to say that I'm putting the boat on Craigslist for $1000 with the hopes of getting something for the engine. The bottom end is brand new. Or, just calling KDFC and having them just come pick it up. 

It is usually June before we get warm water in No Cal.   Sounds like a fun meet up.  I will try and make it.

William777 wrote: Yes! That would be great! Maybe I can hook my boat up to someone's boat and you can tow me around the lake!!

Very funny William   I’m sorry

Brian was thinking May, hopefully lake Sonoma will have water. The dock did get sketchy around July

I've put the boat on hold. I'm doing some construction inside my cabin and yard work atm. Also, I need to build up some mental bandwidth to handle pulling the trans out and rebuilding it. Appreciate everyone here.

Yes 10-4 mourningwood. A NorCal ccfan meet sounds awesome
Hope my two wheel trailer makes it to rip vista. I vote lake Sonoma ??
Too far for you ??

I see your NorCal. Sounds like we’re near Clearlake. I’m in Santa Rosa. Might run into you someday

Hey William, theres no water in lake Sonoma to go boating
So last year I had to ‘fake a lake’ couple times a month just to remember how cool my 67 sounds.
Mine goes blup glup blup glup
There are videos on screwtube of a couple CC running. Will Hold you over until fake a lake weekend

tryathlete wrote: Somebody please send William a rebuilt trans and end this sad story before another boating season goes to waste!

Well, I changed the pump back to the one that came with the 'new' transmission and now it's doing the cutest thing. When i shift into reverse, the dipstick pops out. I still have forward in all three shift positions. I tried to turn the input shaft while holding the output when I had if off of the engine and they are locked together. I reinstalled the transmission anyway because I thought maybe with the restoration of fluid pressure it might shift out of drive when I selected the other positions. So, dunno what I did but I did something to it when I installed it initially because it rotated freely before I installed it. That said, the engine is running great. I wanted this kind of boat because I love how they sound running in the water, that glug glug glug of the water mixed with the exhaust gas leaving the boat at idle. I get that sound kinda in the yard with the fake lake. I sat there for a while with the engine running and the fake lake and enjoyed that sound. Maybe this is the best I'll get out of this boat. I can see myself on Saturday afternoons sitting in the yard with the hose hooked up and the engine running. Or, I can rebuild this transmission and try again. 

Good point, however, I don't think any of the fitting/plugs were fooled with since it came out of the '81. 

Hoping the ;pump swap will sort this latest development out. I'm growing weary but the humor helps. I'll post after the swap. Thanks gents.

Hey, I remember that "81 on a diet".

Well William...........after giving it a little thought, I think that assuming you gave MourningWood a good haircut and he gave you a good transmission in return ,the sorta, maybe, almost logical thing to do would be to put his pump back on the transmission and try it out. .

Thank you Spotrep. It's only been 5 years that I've been trying to get this wonderful boat in the water permanently. I could have had a degree in nuclear discumbobulation by now. And Ha! KENO, yep, that looks like the same orientation that I have. And I could hold the input and rotate the flange with a small amount of tension.