BAD BAD day - HELP

Putting it back together with new gaskets and seeing if it runs is a reasonable thing to do.. worst case your out a couple hundred and some time. Tearing it all apart then deciding on replacing heads and gaskets is a reasonable thing to do.. there is no worst case if the engine is toast you dont put any more time and money into it, if it isnt you make an informed decision about how much time and money you want in it.

Reworking heads that have nothing visably wrong with them and then putting it all back together and hoping for the best is what I referred to as the current plan and has no upside - you take on all the risk of not doing the full job and spend at least have the money of doing the full job.

Your machine shop may be awesome but in general paying a local outfit to rework heads costs a lot- usually more than expected - and doesnt give necessarily the greatest results. If it is a very common head - like the small block ford, or small block chevy there are many many other alternatives that will cost the same or less and provide as good or a much better result. Which is part of the reason why your rebuilt heads would be worth nothing to anyone else after you.. unknown quality work done with unknown quality parts for someone else (meaning no warranty to the new owner) on the least desireable stock castings...

Transmissions dont knock, damper plates can be noisy when they bottom out from sketchily running engines...

I see the allure of slapping it together and going skiing.. not everyone has a shop with the abilty to remove and rebuild an engine easily, I do and yet I have ran the rough out of a couple pretty bad knocks myself over the years and got some good skiing out of them before they exploded, but i certainly didnt throw money at anything else on the engine in the interim.

The engine isn't going to grenade at startup. I know it could happen, but my guess is that he can put it together, run it, get the oil changed, run some more, see if water in oil is cured, see what he hears for clunking, and not be any worse off than he is now. I could be wrong obviously, but I'd take the chance and I'm not good enough to do the rebuild myself.

Not trying to put words in his mouth, but I think the OP is trying to get his boat running at minimum cost, see what he has, and take it from there.

Newguy: Is the knock much more noticeable in reverse?

These other guys are the experts, but if it rattles in reverse I'd say dampener plate.

Damper plate is surely high up on the suspect list. Do you recall your in gear idle RPMs?

Bell housing needs to come off to fully remove the damper plate. You could remove just the transmission and do a visual on one side of the damper only.

i'm seeing 4 options here...

1) rebuild heads, new gaskets, see how it runs.
2) new gaskets, see how it runs
3) new P heads, new gaskets, see how it runs
4) tear down engine -> inspect everything -> repair/replace -> have confidence it will run good.

now, which option will have the best results with lowest cost and least time invested?? looks like 2 and 4 have the POTENTIAL for lowest cost. option 2 is definitely the time and INITIAL cost winner. 1 and 3 are very similar in cost...1 is maybe takes slightly longer...for me, I would eliminate option 1 and if you want "new" heads, go with option 3. considering it's winter and time is not such a factor...and i like to do this stuff...and you might end up doing it anyway...I would go with option 4 as overall best.

#2 & turn up the stereo, that's just another drum beat honey.

Must be kibitzing season!

jbear wrote: lots of boats must be put away & the boredom is setting in..

Sorry to bore you John

Thanks Guys. Im more than likely going to go for option 2. New head gaskets in intake gaskets and exhaust gaskets and get it started. It seems thats the best plan. I will do a couple oil changes and see if I can identify any knocking issues.

Im not scared of putting money into the boat.... Im just trying not to spend money wear I really dont have to.

Andrew, if I had to guess I think John was just poking fun at us northern folks with our boats all winterized and stored for the winter while you (Houston) and John (Florida) can still splash your boats. If we can't run the boats, we go back and forth about gaskets and heads and intakes to while away the time till spring.

Good luck with the re-assembly, let us know what you find.

jbear wrote: Would never on purpose make fun of any of my friends here on C/CFan.

oh you should try it...maybe not Andrew cause he has a real problem and he's doing the right thing by asking a lot of questions and, at least it appears, listening...but as for the rest of us? We're a vitual shooting gallery of ridicule targets!

I didn't mean to snap john. I apologize buddy.

I'm just really nervous about this whole thing and I'm obviously out of my comfort zone. I made some well many key mistakes with this project as you all know...

Ok so I can get my hands on an engine stand and I think I have the space for a complete rebuild but couldn't even tell you where to start if I went that route. This is only being brought up becuase I have thought about how pissed I would be and how much sh't my wife would give me if I re assemble and it's a bigger problem.

The only thing is a complete tear down would take me a good while to complete as I am really busy these days. Yall think a complete novice could do something like that?

I feel like my back is against the wall and this thing is going to keep causing me issues if I don't tear it down and rebuild, get some one to do that , or buy a motor already assembled from thunderbolt or something.

What I'm looking for is advice on costs and feasibility.

Hi,
No advice on the motor part. But with the wife seems better for me when I tell her it is majorly screwed up. Then act a little down hearted for a day or two. Who knows once offered to throw in some part money. Heck right now my gorilla brother stripped the carb bowls. Now the intake, manifolds, and heads are almost off. Been sitting on a cam, intake, and heads for over a year. Sometimes its better for them to enjoy the time on the water and not worry about the rest.
Mike

[QUOTE=jbear] [QUOTE=newguy1986] [QUOTE=jbear]

Would never on purpose make fun of any of my friends here on C/CFan.


I guess I know where I stand with you posting pictures of my white legs-----   

I'm with several others here. If money/wife happiness/family time on the water is the priority, just put a set of gaskets in and bolt it back together. Give it a go as Roger would say. Minimal cost and your time are the only loss.

First step is finding the water intrusion. Starting it up and running it to find out where that issue is isn't going to hurt it the engine any more than it already is if indeed there is a knock in the rotating assembly someplace.
I'm still guessing the knock is the damper. They do rattle at idle RPM and your description of the knock was all at idle speeds. You're admittedly a rookie at this so you immediately start thinking the worst case scenario, aka...rebuild, or replace the engine like you also seem set on doing as an option.
How about this for an example (keep in mind purely an example), even a fresh rebuilld or a new long block can potentially become scrap iron if you were to bolt on the same leaking exhaust manifolds that have started this whole witch hunt in the first place.   
Throw it back together and find out why you're getting water in the oil and fix that. Then we worry about the knock.