95' Nautique Project ... expanded

Friday, March 9, 2018
7:34 PM

So as it turns out, I'm not going to be doing a head swap on the ol' girl after all.   Let's clarify: I won't ONLY be doing a head swap.   The story as follows:

Started disassembly of the exhaust manifolds, then the plenum & throttle body and noticed first that the valve covers didn't match. One appeared to be from a GT40, the other however IDK, but not from the same platform for sure. Continuing with the electronics removal and fuel rails I quickly realized this was going to be a bit more involved than I had anticipated because the under side of everything was oily, dirty and gritty - I'm more of a pristinely clean engine sort of guy so all that would have to be cleaned thoroughly. Next was the dozen or so wires that had been haphazardly spliced and left long, with mismatched colors no less.   So some wiring now too.   The real eye opener came after I removed the intake and got the first head off: reddish, chunky, flaking junk restricting at least half of the flow on all the water passages and one was completely blocked. I quickly flipped the exhaust manifolds over and yes, those too. Pulled the other head and same story except 2 of the passages were completely blocked. The more I dug into the engine, the more depressing it became. I'm reminded of a line in the movie Armageddon - " It's a *** #### Greek Tragedy !"

Hmmm…. What to do.   So after a few days of mulling over the options, I've come to the decision that my winter project just got a whole lot bigger.   Now it includes a full engine rebuild, starting with an all new block - this one isn't worth salvaging. I had planned on eventually going through the entire boat, just not all at once and not this soon. But recent events, and now this seem to have forced my hand. Not really a restoration as such because first, I'm not going to go to extremes like new gel coat and all new, original vinyl. Also because I'm not going 100% original - sorry Pete, Tim.   But I have made a list of what I believe are the key points that have to be addressed while I'm rebuilding the engine.   Here's the list, perhaps not in exact order:

     • Remove engine, transmission and all accessories
     • Clean and repaint bilge - This needed to be done eventually perhaps, but after the recent work performed at that "top notch" MC dealership, I was left with a disgusting mess (pictures later)
     • Remove carpet from flooring areas - yet another casualty of the recent "dealership repairs" - and install new carpet on floor area
     • Sand blast and powder coat all accessories and bolt-on engine parts
     • Re-wire and refurbish the electrical and ECM
     • Replace all motor mounts - Hours spend with a mini sledge and what seemed like a gallon of PB while clamped in a bench vise failed to break the originals free from their rusty, frozen state.
     • Remove poorly installed Cutlass and reinstall correctly
     • Install newly built engine, install and align engine & prop shaft
     • Install new exhaust hose with Y pipe, eliminating that gigantic, ugly muffler
     • Bolt on all front accessories and starter, including new alternator
Somewhere in there I'd like to replace the rub rail as well, just don't know exactly where that one will work in.

First start-up should be sometime in June, if I'm lucky. And if I don't get swamped with business.
So, wish me luck!   I'll be updating this post from time to time with pictures of progress and more than likely with questions for the CC public to help with, so thanks in advance!   

PCM or Motorcraft filter most likely, unless someone chimes in with a reason to do otherwise. Oil, well I've read several thoughts on oil for your average seasoned engine. However, there are going to be break-in concerns with the new engine. Several articles, and some manufacturers I've read indicate that for the first 100 hours at a minimum I should be using either a high zinc content oil or a zinc additive to aid in proper break-in of the cam, lifters and the like.   Supposedly Rotella T4 is one of the only commercially available conventional oils that has a high enough zinc content. One way or another, I'll likely have at least another 2 months before I have to nail that one down. I figure at that time I'll have a whole lot of input from the site to draw from

You might want to consider a roller cam design, so you can skip the whole zddp issue.

sport1999 wrote: Guess I missed it, but what engine problems were you having? All your other work has been top notch. Post some pictures on the engine. Any indication. On why the spliced wires?

Didn't really have engine problems, as such - well, at least I didn't think I did. After the accident last fall and the MC dealership debacle I decided to pull the engine and go ahead with swapping out all the motor mounts that were rusted solid. That would make it much easier to do all the rework on the cutlass and prop shaft and give me a chance to clean up the bilge and give it a fresh coat of paint. I had been planning to swap out the heads and do some exhaust work anyway - though not this year. So while I had the engine out, why not go ahead with the swap to the GT40p heads.   I suppose that's where the story picks up on this thread. If you missed the whole discussion about the accident and subsequent dealings with that unnamed dealership repair shop, you can read up on it and see some of their handy work for yourself.

Engine & interior is nearly out. Just pulled the fuel tank so carpet is next. Got down that far though and had even more surprises left me by the shop.





What a mess. And it's a good thing I didn't go out even once. That large punch could have made quite a mess really fast.

Starting the tear-down:







And then the removal:

Joe (in Kansas)

Take a look at these 2 pictures, One is a real GT-40 head with casting number F3ZE-AA and the other (yours) is an imposter.

Compare the combustion chambers, especially around the intake valves

I had to clean my glasses, blow up the image to 500% and find the magnifying glass to read your casting number but it looks like E5AE-CA

It looks to me like you got some kind of mongrel engine there, like maybe a standard 240 HP 351 which commonly had those heads and somebody put the GT-40 injection on it.

At least we know the GT-40 ECM worked OK with a lower powered engine

I would use the engine you have. nothing wrong with it.

KENO wrote: Joe (in Kansas) Take a look at these 2 pictures, One is a real GT-40 head with casting number F3ZE-AA and the other (yours) is an imposter........ It looks to me like you got some kind of mongrel engine there, like maybe a standard 240 HP 351 which commonly had those heads and somebody put the GT-40 injection on it. At least we know the GT-40 ECM worked OK with a lower powered engine

Yep, and yet another slap in the gut. Found that out when pulling the heads as well, though I hadn't mentioned it since I was planning to replace first the heads, then as it turned out, the entire thing.

Sounds like the general consensus is the block is good. Did I mention when we looked further down the water passages the cylinder wall tapered out, toward the piston? Couldn't get a mic down there at that point but it looked as if there was 1/8" or less of cylinder wall left in most places. I just don't feel good about using it for an increased HP option.
Besides, just swapping to GTp heads just isn't enough for me..... come on guys, you should know me better than that by now   
Think of me as the "Tim Taylor" of the boating world - boats instead of old hot rods    ( grunt grunt grunt ... MORE POWER !! )
Heck, my last boat was a 27' open bow runabout - small head compartment and all - and a 496HO wasn't enough. So I supercharged it & swapped the outdrive to a Bravo1 XR. 630HP and over 70mph. Not bad for a 6700 pound family boat

But in reality, I'm not going to go all out like that on the Nautique. I do however think that the boat was originally a 310hp boat, so if someone was dumb enough to toss in a std. 240 block, the least I'm going to do is bring it back up.
OK ... maybe just a bit more.     

Sounds like a cadidate for a new 408 Windsor for you. 351w will be too small!

The last few days I've been pulling the rest of the interior, removing the carpet from the sides and painting the bilge. Also been working to refurbish some of the engine bolt ons.





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Also did the water pump but I guess I didn't download that pic. Tonight I started on the transmission case. I'd like to go through it's internals as well, but unfortunately that'll have to wait

Since it doesn't appear the weather is going to cooperate with my carpet installation, I've fallen back to more paint/ rust stripping and painting. Put the final coat of paint on the transmission and started on the throttle body/ electrical assembly. They are forecasting 80 degree weather by Friday, so hopefully I can get it done by Monday.

Hi Joe

While your mounting cradle is out, do you think you could measure the centerline distances between the mounting holes in the front and the rear.?

A different thread has a question of whether the 1.23 to 1 and 1 to 1 B/W holes are spaced the same and this would help with info since the B/W info is available in manuals.

So the measurements would be

distance between front holes

distance between the rear holes

and distance between the front hole for the front mount and the rear hole for the rear mount

Thanks

gt40KS wrote:

M3Fan wrote: Awesome. Love the silver grab rail.

Yeah, I like it much better now as well.   It had black paint (sort of, what was left of the paint anyway) and what appeared to be rust forming in various places so I figured it was merely chrome plated steel that had been painted or at least an inferior grade of stainless. Ugly, and I never liked it anyway - don't care for painted trim on a boat - but could never get to the mounting bolts to take it off.
Since I had the fuel tank out of the boat to replace the carpet I could actually get to those bolts and decided to do something about it. Took it to the bench grinder with a stainless wire wheel and was amazed when the paint and rusty looking stuff came right off with no trace of actual rust. Don't know what it really was, but it wasn't from the grab bar which apparently is high quality 316 - Beautiful

looking good