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1996 350 XL

utilityman

New member
"After successfully rebuilding

"After successfully rebuilding the top end, and running fine for two weeks, one of the engines filled both heads and the crankcase with seawater. The mechanic I brought it to recomends replacing the engine with a new core. I.e. a new block and heads and use my existing v-drive, manifolds, carb, dist, etc.(at a cost of $4,500) rather than try to figure out what blew out. The existing engine is a High Torque engine. Should I request a specific type of block? He tells me that whatever he gets will match because it's new and a marine engine.
Let me know what you think.
TIA
Ron"
 
"I'd Think that your Mecha

"I'd Think that your Mechanic would want to know WHY it filled with Water,....
Before he drops in a Brand New Motor......

And,....
Without doing some Looking,... WHY does he Think this motor is BAD,..??...

It Sounds like you Need a Different Mechanic......"
 
"Your mechanic is nearly right

"Your mechanic is nearly right. Unless they are nearly new, and proven to be worthy, I would not reuse your manifolds. It is possible they caused your second failure and why take that chance again?

Unless you are planning on replacing both engines, you will need to use a comparable engine to the original. You don't want to be driving in circles at WOT.

Good luck
Rick"
 
"The mechanic gave me the choi

"The mechanic gave me the choice of looking for the problem and spending $2,500 or more to fix it, but because the engine has over 800 hours on it and has been full of seawater since the weekend, he believes we would be better off in the long run to put that money into a new block and get a 1 year gaurantee. Given the bad mechanical and grinding sounds that came out of the engine when I last tried to start it, I kinda agreed with him. It sounded like something broke in the block. I've worked on a lot of chevy 350's in cars and never heard these sounds before. We also talked about changing to fuel injection, fresh water cooling and putting in an engine with more horsepower. For many reasons of cost/value and operating/maintenance issues. We decided not to make any of these changes unless we were replacing both engines.

I've had some problems finding good mechanics in our area that work on inboards. This guy came highly recomended and has been working on inboards in our area for over 25 years in this salt water environment. He's seen a lot of engines and thinks mine can be fixed, just not worth it. Others I have talked to suggested replacing both engines because of teh hours in salt water, but I'm not ready to go there yet.

Also, I just refurbished the heads in January because the risers had leaked. So the manifolds and risers are brand new, but he did say he would test them before reinstalling them.

It sounds like he knows what he's doing, but I want to make sure I know enough about what he's doing to make sure I don't have problems that I could have avoided by asking the right questions before he does the work. Let me know if there are any other questions I should ask.

Thanks for your advise!!"
 
"That explains quite abit,....

"That explains quite abit,.....
But,....
I still Question installing a Brand New motor,...
Without 1st finding out Where the water Came From..........
Once that question is Answered,.....
Then I would Agree that a Long Block is a Great Option to get you back to Boating......"
 
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