keithcatalina
New member
Hello all,
New to the group here and a new Chris Craft owner as of last fall. (1980 Catalina 28 with a gm 305k RH motor) To give some background to my issue, last fall when I winterized my engine I did not do it properly (was unaware of all the drain plugs in the block and risers.) This subsequently caused my block, the heads and one of the exhaust manifolds to crack over the long winter here in Buffalo.
So I have a couple (auto) mechanics that work for me. I sourced a used chevy small block with heads out of an '86 camaro. not realizing the existing engine was set up as RH we installed this engine using most of the original components from the old engine. Once we realized the goof we pulled the engine and installed the gear to gear cam set up to reverse the rotation. Get everything back together and while we got the engine to run decently there appeared to be two valves that were sticking, and despite adjusting them we couldn't get them to seat properly.
After adjusting the valves we had a hard time starting the engine and realized it hydrolocked. I replaced the intake manifold since we used the old one thinking it may be cracked internally but to no avail.
Is there any reason the RH rotation would cause this if we didn't do it correctly? Is there more to changing the rotation other than swapping the chain setup to the gear to gear setup and reversing the firing order? We didn't mess with any of the pumps or starter etc.
My last guess is that somehow both heads are internally cracked that we couldn't see when we had them off to replace the head gaskets. (or maybe the new head gaskets failed? seems unlikely...)
when it hydrolocks, we pull the plugs and we get clean water pouring out for what that may mean?
Any insight would be appreciated! We only have a few months of great boating here and my wife and I are at a loss for what to do.
Thanks!
Keith
New to the group here and a new Chris Craft owner as of last fall. (1980 Catalina 28 with a gm 305k RH motor) To give some background to my issue, last fall when I winterized my engine I did not do it properly (was unaware of all the drain plugs in the block and risers.) This subsequently caused my block, the heads and one of the exhaust manifolds to crack over the long winter here in Buffalo.
So I have a couple (auto) mechanics that work for me. I sourced a used chevy small block with heads out of an '86 camaro. not realizing the existing engine was set up as RH we installed this engine using most of the original components from the old engine. Once we realized the goof we pulled the engine and installed the gear to gear cam set up to reverse the rotation. Get everything back together and while we got the engine to run decently there appeared to be two valves that were sticking, and despite adjusting them we couldn't get them to seat properly.
After adjusting the valves we had a hard time starting the engine and realized it hydrolocked. I replaced the intake manifold since we used the old one thinking it may be cracked internally but to no avail.
Is there any reason the RH rotation would cause this if we didn't do it correctly? Is there more to changing the rotation other than swapping the chain setup to the gear to gear setup and reversing the firing order? We didn't mess with any of the pumps or starter etc.
My last guess is that somehow both heads are internally cracked that we couldn't see when we had them off to replace the head gaskets. (or maybe the new head gaskets failed? seems unlikely...)
when it hydrolocks, we pull the plugs and we get clean water pouring out for what that may mean?
Any insight would be appreciated! We only have a few months of great boating here and my wife and I are at a loss for what to do.
Thanks!
Keith