Repowering A 58TC

[Brian Degulis]

I was tracking them before they were posted here. These are close to me so easy to look at and no I don't want them. First they are the old style original V71 engine. They have the large stamped oval air box covers vrs the much smaller cast covers on the newer engines. I didn't run the serial #s but I'm guessing early 70s which is strange because the boat they supposedly came out of was mid 80s?

The heads appear to have been removed and re installed but there is no evidence of any rebuilding? There are several injectors on both sides of both engines that are frozen in the full fuel position. This isn't very unusual on an engine that's been sitting but normally it's takes just a little nudge to free them. These are really frozen I couldn't get them to move at all with quite a bit of force. So I suspect that water has to have been in the fuel system.

I pulled some air box covers and found that the bottom end was probably un touched. They don't have the X head kits they look to be original. There was evidence of water in at least 2 cylinders I didn't pull every cover. the rings are what you would expect from a high hour used engine I didn't find any stuck or broken. In general they appear to be dormant engines that have been recently painted but not really serviced lots of bad hoses etc. The gears look good they're MG 514 probably 2:1.

At a minimum They need injectors to run They might be OK they do turn. But there's no way you can drop them in a boat without first getting them going and checking them out on the floor. I bet your going to find a lot more wrong after they run. If these were current engines I would have bought them or they probably would have sold pretty quick the gears are worth the money alone.

Brian

[Sparky1]

Thanks for the info Brian as that certainly puts things into perspective. My starboard has some frozen injectors as well, so maybe they'll free up with a little help. Hopefully by the end of the day Tuesday, I'll know exactly what I have to work with.

That guy told me those engines came from Mack Boring in NJ having had the top ends rebuilt, but he didn't say anything about what they came out of. They were installed into a burned out 53 the owner planned to restore, but they were never bolted down. At least that was the story. I'm not sure how he ended up owning the boat with these engines, but that too was what he told me. He just stated that the PO was, "no longer with us"... whatever that means.

[Brian Degulis]

I don't know how much he really knows about them. He told me they came out of Hat he had there which was an 80s project boat. It was sitting there when I went to see the engines. I know of Mack Boring I used to deal with them when I was up north. To the best of my knowledge they never had much to do with DDs they focused more on other brands so that sounds fishy to me.

Injectors that are stuck from sitting is common. These are frozen solid I've never seen that before. We used to use DDs in the boats we build mostly 6 and 8 71s. I would buy in lots of 10 or so from truck junkyards then go thru them and see what we got. IMHO your chances of getting a good runner are much better if there is no recent major work of unknown origin.

I really do think your probably better off working with what you have if you can. If you can't your probably better off picking up a late model good running take out non marine engine. Places like Adelmans in Ohio have them. You can go there they will run it for you and I think they're getting around 3-4 K. Or deals like the $500 1271 on ebay. I've found some good engines like that for very little money. I'd much rather see something that's laying in a corner someplace un touched by anyone for years instead of something all painted and dolled up for sale.

Brian

[Sparky1]

Thanks again for your input Brian. You may well have saved me a few bucks as I was going to send Roger up there to check those out if things don't work out on my starboard. As they say, once bitten, twice shy.

[Brian Degulis]

Thanks again for your input Brian. You may well have saved me a few bucks as I was going to send Roger up there to check those out if things don't work out on my starboard. As they say, once bitten, twice shy.

Maybe you still should. I was only there for about an hour and I'm just telling you what I think of them. Roger may have a diffrent opinion? The guys at Gulf Star are very easy to get along with I don't think they would have any problem with a more in depth inspection. If you were willing to do the work I bet they'd let you run them?


Brian

[Sparky1]

Got a preliminary report from the mechanic today, so far so good. I was in a bit of a rush as I had just pulled up to my son's school as he was explaining the day's events, but he told me he had the sump in his shop and was cleaning it out. There were no signs of metal in the oil, and he is sending off a sample to be analyzed. He confirmed that this appeared to be an original, very low hour engine, and he is very optimistic that the bottom end will be fine. Tomorrow should tell the tale.

Let me change gears now for a minute. He is planning to use Detroit parts but has yet to get me an estimate for what this rebuild will cost. No doubt there are aftermarket kits out there that will be considerably less expensive (based on what I've seen) than the Detoit stuff, but he claims to have an excellent source with very good prices. Anybody want to offer their opinions of the aftermarket kits?

[Boatsb]

Last I heard from my friend at Florida Detroit the kits they sell are mostly made by one of the other suppliers. When he can not get Detroit branded he will get the federal parts for customers that cant wait.

If his costs are in line but a bit higher OK but if 2x think about it before you spend so much more.

[yachtsmanbill]

Well, like bubba would say "keep yer G M boat all G M." In my experience Federal has proven to be a good quality part unless its Hecho en China. ws

[Brian Degulis]

Many Years ago I had some horrible experiences with aftermarket kits. I would try to go DD if you can. A few years ago on a recomendation I did use the kits from this place http://www.powerlinecomponents.com/ with good results. It wasn't price that got me to try them it was availability at that time.

Brian

[Sparky1]

So Brian, was your bad experience one that was immediate in that things didn't fit or was it later down the road when the parts failed?