Engine Replacement Advice!

Okay so its time to bite the bullet and replace the blown motor in my CC Martinique.

What I need: Remanufactured (note: not rebuilt)454 Reverse rotation long block.

I have been looking long and hard at using Rhino as they are fairly reputable and offer a nice two year unlimited hour warranty.

Price=3400 delivered.

I have to ship (or drive myself) the boat from WI to CA, and also pay for the cost of labor to install the new motor and re-install the Perfect Pass.

Its a big financial burden for me and is over half of what the boat is worth after all is said and done.

If there is ANYONE who knows of a good price on this motor, or wants to work some kind of deal in the Northern CA or Northern NV area on a hardwood floor install we could trade for parts, labor, or both.

Any other advice is appreciated.

I would agree that a local rebuilder would be cheapest, although this time of year you maybe on the waiting list behind the racers.

The perfect pass reinstallation is trivial, nothing I would pay more than a couple bucks for the only thing effected is the actuator which is held on by a couple of hose clamps an some zip ties.

I say rent a picker, pull it yourself drop it off at a machine shop have them machine and assemble up to a long block, you put that back in the boat and then bring it up to the camp grounds at green lake on thursday of the reunion and provide the beer and cook the food while a few volunteers put back on all the accessories including perfect pass, align, fire up, break in the cam, and tune your new 454. Only drawback is you will still be breaking her in and should probably not participate in any of the pissing matches um I mean carefully controlled performance tuning runs that may occur at the reunion.

Seriously a lot of the labor involved in doing this job is low skilled, I would think you can save a grand pulling and installing the motor yourself but I would farm out the actually prerun inspection and first time firing up/tuning if your not familiar with it.

do some research on these high volume engine rebuilders, we got a local company the swaps out engines for $900.00 to 1200.00 and guys rave about the price, the problem i have is they last about 3 years in a boat.
In order to rebuild an engine that cheap you have to scimp somewhere and it is usually in the parts, Labor is a fixed cost, so thats when you start seeing Chinese pistons etc....
You have the right to interview the rebuild shop and ask the right questions such as what parts do you use, what is your warranty? when there is a problem watch how fast you get return phone calls, it happens all the time.
If i dont rebuild it myself i send it to a local 2 man shop thats been in business for 20 plus years..... he gets it right the first time because its to hard for a 2 man shop to absorb warranty costs.
Boat engines are different than automotive engines and question them to see what the reation is, if they say they are the same.... find another rebuilder

How bad and where is it cracked?