change of plans....

I am currently in the midsts of re-newing a 1980 ski nauti, and the old owner is an ol ol friend, somewhat of a second dad, the plan was he was going to help me put a new (temporary) 351w ported and polished motor in it while I intended to rebuild the originol motor for classic value, and he recently had a stroke on Friday, and has been in and out of the hospitol, and needless to say will not be helping me in the near future... god bless
So having said this, myself, having minimal experience with motowork, will be performing the swap, ( with a friend ) and wonder if this will be a tremendous undertaking,and what i should be looking for. Along with the motor, a new flywheel that is balanced with the motor will be installed, the old owner ( Gene ) was precautios about this, as to be sure that the tranny would except it. Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.

I am in Washington state, and its another 351w motor, but now you have me thinking , it may not line up with the originol stringer bolt holes, only one way to find out I guess, just to do it..... and if it does not align, do I need to get out the TNT. jk, but do I need to redrill new stringer holes and what... fill the old holes, because I intend to put the old motor back in, for classic value, I want the originol motor in after I do a rebuild on it. Well some definate food for thought, hopefully I will be tooling aroung in the Nauti soon, and from what the old owner tells me the new motor is 500 plus hp, which I find hard to believe, but possible, he claims me its a high compression motor, which worries me, high octane gasoline, and knocking could be inevitable, but we will see wont we.... SkiNauti

I think the drive (Warner 71C) is recommended to about 260hp. Regardless of your warner model, your probably execeeding what it can handle. Be cautious on throwing the throttle down.