51Chevy5Window
Cadet
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2018
- Messages
- 7
Hi all,
My story seems to be quite familiar to this site... I’m just a man that bought a boat to find that it was full of problems. Sound familiar? My hope is that I can give a good overview of my mistakes and get some good advice while on my journey. I bought a 1989 chaparral in July of 2018. I knew it had problems but wasn’t notified that it had a cracked block. Was told it had a fuel problem. The price was right for the condition of all the interior seats. Got it home after blowing a tire and having to pay $500 for a tire guy to come out and help. Thought my insurance would cover my new purchase. Wrong since boats don’t have to be insured, I wasn’t grandfathered into my existing policies. Bring new tires when you pick up a boat. At worst you don’t use them they become good spare tires.
I got home and hooked up the muffs. After a few attempts to start she finally turned over. Ran as if it wasn’t getting any fuel. Giving it throttle seemed to help. I decided to check the mechanical pump, but first let’s look at that dipstick again... pure grey milkshake. Dun dun dun... ominous music playing in the background. What did I just buy. I started pulling things off the motor taring into it. To find out the previous owner had JB welded the block right under the intake manifold. For the longest time I thought it was oil just stuck but no it’s JB weld. I could see using that for a water jacket, but using it on the inside of the block seems rude to not tell the next owner. I have reached my picture limit, so I’ll send the picture of the block. Now I have purchased an automotive block to replace the engine. It was from a 1995 Blazer. Original owner wanted $200. I tried a compression test and couldn't get a single reading on my pressure gauge. I told him I didn’t want it. He said how about $40 so I took the engine. Both heads are garbage. The ethanol gas and it sitting out caused all the exhaust seats to be so thin. ($300 to add guides from the machine shop). Scraped those heads and found a pair of older 1992 pre Vortec heads that were in good shape. The machinist is checking them out and doing a valve job.
Now the block. I found out it has been bored to 0.06 in 2007. With my little amount of experience the walls of the cylinder seem to be okay no major signs of scratching. I’m going to take it to the machinist and ask his opinion. This is where I currently am in the rebuild. More details to come.
Now you are asking why is the title about two boats. Well I bought a second boat 1990 bayliner 21’. It is in such amazing condition for the interior. I bought this knowing it had a cracked block as well. It seemed to be only cracked at the water jacket. So I JB welded the block after cleaning and preping the crack. It held wonderfully the day I took it to the lake. 4 hours of boating around (it was an extremely fun day). Bad news though... milkshake oil. Now I’m two boats in with two bad motors. Do you Think it means double trouble or that I might as well be doing two if I’m going to do one. I also picked up another 4.3 L 1996 running but had cylinder with low compression (hope it was just a bad head gasket caused from an overheat)
Encourgment would be helpful, but advice is always the best. One additional thought my first block with the 0.06 bore seems to have brass core plugs the two on the back of the engine might be steel. Is there an easy way to tell.
My story seems to be quite familiar to this site... I’m just a man that bought a boat to find that it was full of problems. Sound familiar? My hope is that I can give a good overview of my mistakes and get some good advice while on my journey. I bought a 1989 chaparral in July of 2018. I knew it had problems but wasn’t notified that it had a cracked block. Was told it had a fuel problem. The price was right for the condition of all the interior seats. Got it home after blowing a tire and having to pay $500 for a tire guy to come out and help. Thought my insurance would cover my new purchase. Wrong since boats don’t have to be insured, I wasn’t grandfathered into my existing policies. Bring new tires when you pick up a boat. At worst you don’t use them they become good spare tires.
I got home and hooked up the muffs. After a few attempts to start she finally turned over. Ran as if it wasn’t getting any fuel. Giving it throttle seemed to help. I decided to check the mechanical pump, but first let’s look at that dipstick again... pure grey milkshake. Dun dun dun... ominous music playing in the background. What did I just buy. I started pulling things off the motor taring into it. To find out the previous owner had JB welded the block right under the intake manifold. For the longest time I thought it was oil just stuck but no it’s JB weld. I could see using that for a water jacket, but using it on the inside of the block seems rude to not tell the next owner. I have reached my picture limit, so I’ll send the picture of the block. Now I have purchased an automotive block to replace the engine. It was from a 1995 Blazer. Original owner wanted $200. I tried a compression test and couldn't get a single reading on my pressure gauge. I told him I didn’t want it. He said how about $40 so I took the engine. Both heads are garbage. The ethanol gas and it sitting out caused all the exhaust seats to be so thin. ($300 to add guides from the machine shop). Scraped those heads and found a pair of older 1992 pre Vortec heads that were in good shape. The machinist is checking them out and doing a valve job.
Now the block. I found out it has been bored to 0.06 in 2007. With my little amount of experience the walls of the cylinder seem to be okay no major signs of scratching. I’m going to take it to the machinist and ask his opinion. This is where I currently am in the rebuild. More details to come.
Now you are asking why is the title about two boats. Well I bought a second boat 1990 bayliner 21’. It is in such amazing condition for the interior. I bought this knowing it had a cracked block as well. It seemed to be only cracked at the water jacket. So I JB welded the block after cleaning and preping the crack. It held wonderfully the day I took it to the lake. 4 hours of boating around (it was an extremely fun day). Bad news though... milkshake oil. Now I’m two boats in with two bad motors. Do you Think it means double trouble or that I might as well be doing two if I’m going to do one. I also picked up another 4.3 L 1996 running but had cylinder with low compression (hope it was just a bad head gasket caused from an overheat)
Encourgment would be helpful, but advice is always the best. One additional thought my first block with the 0.06 bore seems to have brass core plugs the two on the back of the engine might be steel. Is there an easy way to tell.
) It's just the heads and intake that make the difference, and that difference is about 20hp... Cheap improvement for 20 ponies.