Srtaight six rebuild

"Wow what a great forum. I ca

"Wow what a great forum. I can learn a lot from you all. I need to have my 1977 Starcraft with a 165 mercruiser straight six, rebuilt. This has been a steady engine, just old and worn out with irregular compression in each cylinder. It loses about 20 lbs compression in each cylinder as I work foreword. If I load up my 21' aluminum starcraft with weight I have barley enough power to move the boat. Any and all advice from this very experienced group would be welcome. What should I be looking for in a rebuild shop? How about performance enhancing upgrades, i.e. boring, camshaft, carberator etc. I do need enough power to pull the kids on a tube or a wake board but my main concern is reliability. We spend a lot of time fishing the Sea of Cortez where few others go. I need reliability more than speed.

Thank you for any response

Ben Lyman"

"Ben,
In your case I think ne

"Ben,
In your case I think new would be best. You can find some very reasonable prices on the web for new engines. Problem with rebuilds is the parts used. There are many places that use automotive parts and this is not good. If it is a lower cost rebuild there is a good chance this is what is in the engine.
I think you will notice the power change just having a fresh engine that has compression.
Look how long the one you have lasted before wearing down.
I had a 79 starchief with the 350 and a friend had a model like you have. There was not a big difference in performance. It did seem like I spent more time at the fuel dock than he did."

Good advice. Can't find n

Good advice. Can't find new. will have to go the rebuild route. I currently add lead to this motors fuel. After a rebuild will I still need to add lead addative?
Thanks

Ben

Not if you have new hardened v

Not if you have new hardened valve seats and valves installed. Why can't you find new? They sell them on this site and there is a site that will know where to find one. It's amarket.com. They have most parts for any stern drive. Well worth a look.

"I just had my 165 completely

"I just had my 165 completely rebuilt and it ran me about $2,100. I couldn't buy new because I had two 165's with good parts on each. I just took the best of both and combined them. It's a bran new motor now. I also had a good mechanic. That makes a huge difference."