Anyway, we don't want a built-up hot rod engine, we don't want something original to the boat or even to the era, we'd love a 70's or 80's era 302 or 351 that's been properly cared for and ready for an easy retirement of shuttling around a guy in his 70's at medium cruising speed in his Shepard. I have been kind of authorized to spend around $7k initially, which should get me something decent and maybe a little return on selling the complete boat minus drivetrain. 

I should add that of course I'd take an engine on its own, but would be willing to take a whole boat and/or trailer, whatever. I can work with anything, but we just want a good running engine that doesn't need major work itself. 

Thanks in advance for any leads. I'm only able to drive within a couple hours of central NH. Here's the boat: 

\

331? Crown 135?

Putting a period correct engine into that beautiful boat will be the best investment.

Yes, a period correct is best. The original is even better. The value of a classic or antique plummets without ether. 

Nice boat.  Is that NH?

Stepper

In a somewhat meager attempt to keep your thread on track without all the "advice" about what to do to the boat, I thought I'd post the craigslist ad that's in the link below. Not much info in the ad. It could be just what Riley mentions in his post............maybe

Maybe you've already seen it and figure it's too cheap to have a good engine and transmission in the boat. Maybe you don't want a normal rotation engine

Maybe you haven't seen it 

Figuring that you're somewhere around Squam Lake, Google tells me that it's not far out of your 2 hour driving range.

I "gotta" think that there's somebody on this forum that's really pretty close who might volunteer to take a look at it for you.

I "gotta" think that he owns a Ski Supreme too

I wouldn't want to volunteer him, but you could send a PM to GottaSki and see if he could take a look at it for you.

PS Don't tell him how you got his name 

First, I spelled the name of the boat wrong, it's a Shepherd. Nothing weird there, just a misspelling on my part. 

Second, Pete, sorry, I'm not sure the model of the engine it has. It's an old (original to the boat, probably) inline six. It's similar to the old inline six in the Hyster forklift we had at the marina where I worked a while back. 

Third, there is no intention of selling this boat now or ever, nor do we care what its value is. For a few years now its value has been zero, because we haven't used it. My kids have never been out in it, and that's a shame. My father-in-law wants something reliable. He was tempted by a crate engine MerCruiser 4.3 but I guess that's not done so easily these days either. So here we are, looking for a nice older V8 not because they're correct but because they can be extremely reliable and they're in every ski boat and therefore "easy" to find. In theory. 

Thanks for the leads, I'll chase down those that I can, regionally, and we'll find one. 

Yes, we're on Squam Lake in NH. About 2 hours north of Boston. 

Oh and thanks for the comments on the boat, yeah I love it and we just want to see it back in the water under its own power again. 

This is interesting, I'll at least follow up to see if I can learn a little more, before I enlist others, thanks for the tip though you never know. There's an 88 I was looking at and the price came down already on the Craigslist ad. Could be a good engine but the boat is maybe too nice? I haven't had time to go look at it. 

Thank you for the idea, it's a bit far for me right now, but you never know. I'll have a lot of free time in June, if we are still looking... 

This is exactly what I'm hoping to find, but haven't yet. I figured there are a lot of eyes and ears here on this stuff. I can't really travel too far right now but shipping is maybe an option if the engine was known to be good. 

And yeah, thanks. It's in NH on Squam Lake. This boat isn't going out of the family any time soon, in fact it'll be mine next I suppose. 

That boat is beautiful, you have to get it back out on the water.   Years ago we used to ski behind a friends old wood boat, I think it was a 23' Century, looked similar to your boat but they had re powered it with a 390 Ford and that boat would get up and go when asked.  The wake was a little tall for skiing but we were young and it was available so we skied a lot behind it.  I think that wake was close to 3 foot tall on a 75' rope.  Great looking boat and fun on long boat rides.   Get yours back on the water.

The Chevy 307 mentioned was not around for long but they are great little engines.  It is a 283 Chevy Block but uses the 327 Crankshaft and strokes the 283 out to 307.  GM only used them for a couple years (1970-1972 maybe) but it had much better torque than a 283 due to that long stroke, similar to taking the GM 350 and installing the 400 crank to get a 383, the long stroke gives them a lot more torque.  I had one in a 1971 GM Blazer, great engine, good MPG but short on power compared to the 350.  If you are OK with 225 HP they are good engines.

Mark

Indeed Ken, that would be an easy one to put eyes on, as its only an adjacent town away.

Thinking outside the box, TWO good looking 460's at your budget, 

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/boa/d/quincy-1988-four-winns-liberator-261/7301136899.html" rel="nofollow - https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/boa/d/quincy-1988-four-winns-liberator-261/7301136899.html

could sell trailer and outdrives and everything, get tranny and bellhousing and have money left over

sell engine or keep as spare

I emailed the guy but haven't heard back. If he responds in a way that would make me want to check it out, I'll reach out to you if you don't mind. But let's make sure we aren't wasting time first. Thank you!

Thank you, that's a very generous offer. Let me see what comes up locally and we'll go from there. 

https://vermont.craigslist.org/boa/d/saint-johnsbury-1998-malibu-sportster/7301662093.html

edited to add: On second thought, that might be too cheap, and could just be a scam. Oh well I won't let that go too far. 

Art, thanks for the reply. I am still looking for an engine, maybe we should talk on the phone. I will send you a private message with my number, give me a call when it's convenient for you - if I don't answer I'll call you back. I'm a teacher so I'm in class a lot during the day, but then have lots of random hours of free periods too. 

Thanks, I look forward to talking with you. 

Thanks, but I think I've got an engine from Art Cozier here, we're still working on some details but it seems likely to work out. 

A DD Shepard? What happened to it? Yes, they loved to build V drives. 

Thanks, it is a nice boat. I looked in the brochures from  http://www.shepherdboats.com/brochures.asp" rel="nofollow - http://www.shepherdboats.com/brochures.asp  and the boat we have sure looks like a '53-'54 but I guess that's somewhat irrelevant at this point. 

Good to hear you had a 350 in one that used to have an inline 6, so it worked haha. We might end up with a Ford 302 in there, if all goes well.

One of the challenges will be making the exhaust work, where the old 6 has a single, small straight copper pipe. Aside from joining the two sides of a 302 exhaust, I'd imagine it should be larger all the way out through the transom. I'm likely to be directly involved in the fitting of this engine. I'm lucky to already be talking with someone like Art, he's been great to talk to already. 

Like getting matter out of a black hole 

One of the challenges will be making the exhaust work, where the old 6 has a single, small straight copper pipe. Aside from joining the two sides of a 302 exhaust, I'd imagine it should be larger all the way out through the transom. I'm likely to be directly involved in the fitting of this engine. I'm lucky to already be talking with someone like Art, he's been great to talk to already. 

[/QUOTE]

If you would rather not cut another hole in the transom, you might consider upsizing the existing hole to accomodate a 3-!/2" exhaust outlet (or even 3" if the run isn't very long)  Centek sells all sorts of fiberglass fittings and tubing for exhaust applications, You could get a Y fitting in whatever size you choose and tie the two exhausts into one.  If there is room in the bilge for it, you could even incorporate a muffler if you so desire.  I don't think Centek will sell directly to the consumer anymore, but I think that either SkiDim.com or NautiqueParts.com should be able to order anything that you might need. 

Thanks, I do think we'll be making the existing transom exhaust hole larger. The boat will go into the shop for some more detailed measuring when we get to that point. I could probably determine the feasibility of a muffler at that time. My ears ring plenty already and I'm only 40 so I'd love to get the decibels down just a bit. 

Thanks again, Art, you've been a huge help so far. 

Art Cozier has been nothing short of a hero in this quest to get a new engine in this boat. He's been in constant communication in his effort to get us this engine, and as is inevitable, it's been complicated. But he is always thinking 3 or 4 steps ahead and between the two of us, we just might make this work. I have a close friend at the marina where I used to work, so we've got all the resources we could want. 

Last week, the engine Art has been working on all summer arrived at our location up here in New Hampshire, in one piece and looking great, unsurprisingly. I can't wait to get this thing fitted up into the wooden boat and get my father-in-law out on the water, along with his grandkids (my kids!) as I expect this boat will become my problem, er, "mine" ... before all that many years pass. 

So we're not up and running yet, but I can't thank Art enough for all the work he's done to get us to this point, which is having a running engine in the same building as the boat that I haven't driven since before my wife and I got married 13 years ago, which we could have taken away from our wedding if not for the issues it has suffered. The structural issues were resolved but the engine has been its weakness. I can't wait to get this thing going again, and thanks to Art, it looks like it might actually happen. 

Stay tuned folks. And thank you, Art. 

Oh, as a side note - Art hasn't moved one penny from the price he quoted me back in May, despite countless hours of his own labor and everything else he's done up to this point. I'd love to give him and his wife a nice night out at a local restaurant or something. And even though I know he'll probably see this, does anyone know the area well enough to give me some ideas? 

Thanks, Art. I hope to get down to Florida in March, actually. In the meantime I've got an engine to install!