Outboards huh? I could make Hatteras history, but then would come the inevitable argument as to which outboard is best. :D
First, thanks again for the input. As for doing this as cheaply as possible, I'm all for that. Yes, I probably am guilty of overthinking this, but I've never gone into something without being comfortable with a worse case scenario. Money is tight right now, and I don't have another $30K to put into this boat.
To recap, I did in fact have the heads rebuilt which was probably a waste of money since there were no problems found during the rebuild, but it wasn't that expensive in terms of insurance. They are aboard the boat and are fine.
As I recall, the estimated cost for a complete rebuild was $16K (not including head work) when the first mechanic came into the picture. Frankly, I made the mistake of becoming friends with this guy while waiting for months for him to start. He never got far enough along to know what we really needed, and I would have been much better off had he never started. I don't want to get into a bashing deal, so I'm going to stop right here.
I did contact this Diesel Don fellow as others including Sonny Middleton had recommended him. When I asked for an estimate, he quoted $4K per hole PLUS expenses. He started backpedaling when I told him I could buy a new longblock with warranty for $18K and had already had the heads done, but that sort of set the tone. I may be dumb, but I ain't stoopid, and trust sort of went out the window.
YottsmanWillie needs a little winter project and a trip to God's country, so maybe... ??:) Actually he's asked me to send a bunch of pictures of the engine so he could get an idea of what he's looking at. I plan to do that this week-end, and I'll post them here for all to see.