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Why? Several years ago I built a bored, stroked small block for one of my boats. I'll spare you all the build details unless someone asks, but it's got a strong forged bottom end, dished forged blower pistons, competition ported AFR 195 heads, and a pretty big Comp marine cam in it... I set it up to run with a victor junior and holley 750 with a little under 9:1 static compression at first and was thinking to put a small intercooled blower on it later gain another hundred or so horsepower on 92 octane. I'm guessing 450is now or maybe a little better - it's a very strong running little set up. It's really a tiny bit more than most people would want in the 17 foot checkmate it's in and I think would be downright scary with a blower on it, so I just wound up leaving it NA :-D ...and since the kid finished college I don't use the boat much anyhow so am thniking about droppin a cheap used vortec engine in and selling it.
I have a C5 and I also kept my fathers very nice 1996 C4 when he passed away a few years ago. The transmission just went out in it, the engine in it is running fine, but I was thinking that if I'm going to have it all apart and set up a good transmission in it anyhow, why not consider putting the boat engine in it, maybe going with a little different cam and even a blower right out of the gate... I did some searches, but didn't find a lot of specific information about the details I might need to deal with such as:
fuel injection? (use a spare victor junior intake, drill it for injectors, modify it to mount throttle body, etc... on...?)
wiring harness and electronics? This is the biggest open question in my mind. If I do this, I'd really like to have most of the electronics work as intended... I'm assuming mounting sensor and the like is doable with a little creativity, but not sure about distributor (rather than optispark) interface and engine control issues. I could see this becoming a HUGE pain in the butt and want to avoid that. It's the LT1 stuff I'm not as familiar with...
Feel free to shoot me down on this if I need to be, I'm not interested in taking on a new 2 year time and money sink...
I do have lathe, mill, welders, etc, etc... at home and can weld stainless and aluminum, have general albeit novice / hobbyist fab and mechanical skills.
I like your goals and think they're fairly easily attainable.
Buy a Miniram intake for it or use a ported LT1 intake (modified for use on a standard SBC). Use a large cap HEI distributor, converted with the LT1/Opti wheel and sensor.
With ^that^, you can run a "standard SBC" in your LT1 car, using the LT1 computer and retain EFI, stock looks, drivability etc.
How fast did the Checkmate run out to? I had an '84 Hydrostream V-King for a long time. I miss that genre of boats. Everything around here is a 5-ton wake board turd.
I like your goals and think they're fairly easily attainable.
Buy a Miniram intake for it or use a ported LT1 intake (modified for use on a standard SBC). Use a large cap HEI distributor, converted with the LT1/Opti wheel and sensor.
With ^that^, you can run a "standard SBC" in your LT1 car, using the LT1 computer and retain EFI, stock looks, drivability etc.
How fast did the Checkmate run out to? I had an '84 Hydrostream V-King for a long time. I miss that genre of boats. Everything around here is a 5-ton wake board turd.
I hear you re wake boats. Have a lot of friends that run big power tunnel huls up and down the river here... The HATE the huge rollers from the WB crowd...
That's great information - Thanks! I'm very glad to hear that I can make the distributor and electronics work. I was thinking of using a carb victor junior I have drilling it for injectors and making a n aluminum plate elbow to mount the throttle body on. I've never run one like that but have read some nice things about them working on the lt1 engines. I already have everything on hand for that too... :-)
The little check with that mess shoe-horned into the engine compartment (not a small feat) was quite a bit heavier than your hydrostream, but a great ski boat with the heavy *** and low center of gravity. With the short "racing" drive,loaded light and propped for speed, it would run deep into the 80's touching 90 once in a while on cold days. (speed by GPS and average of up and down stream to account for any current - no water pressure lie-o-meters). That's with an alpha 1 ss drive which is 3 inches shorter than a standard alpha outdrive and a lower that looks a lot like a cle outboard lower. It's been a cool toy, but one I just haven't been using in recent years. It's kinda hard to walk by under the cover sitting on half flat trailer tires... :-(
That's cool about your short-drive Checkmate. You're right that they're heavier boats...but it sounded like you have the HP to make it go...and you do. Cool sounding rig!
No I/O marine engines are reverse rotation. Only direct drive inboards run backward, to offset the driver's weight (on the right side of the boat) with prop tq. Of those reverse rotation inboards, only earlier Fords (Pleasure Craft Marine) ran backward.
You don't need reverse rotating engine with an I/O; you can run the prop any way that you want with the gear case.
Thanks for the distributor pics - that looks very doable! I've got another project I'm working on right now, but may well tackle this in another month or so once it's done.
Originally Posted by johno504
I hope your marine block is not reverse rotation . that would cause a minor problem .
no reverse rotation... even more potentially worrisome for a marine to auto engine would be the potential for rust and crap from a raw water cooled marine engine creating problems in the automotive cooling system. The engine I would be using has been run with closed cooling (heat exchanger no raw water running through the engine).
01-09-2019, 04:23 PM
replace 1996 LT1 with standard small block??
Cool sounding rig!
