Outboards huh? I could make Hatteras history, but then would come the inevitable argument as to which outboard is best.

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.