Chris Craft 327's

[boataddict]

I'm new to the forum, great place you have here. A real plethora of information. While we're on the topic of inforamtion,Anyone know of a source of information on Chris Craft 327's motors or 327's in general.<br />I have a 31' Constellation with twin 327's, trying to find out more info on upgrading my powerplants to increase their horsepower from 230 to upwards of 300.<br />Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[sos]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Welcome to the board. I know that they only produced the 327 for 8 years and that the blocks are the same as the 350. I'm not sure about what changes to the heads, cam etc that you'd have to make to get more power.<br />Someone around here may know,good luck.

 

[magster65]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Welcome to iboats.<br />As always, it depends how much money you want to spend. To retain your exhaust and all other engine accesories I'd use a 4" bore block with a 400 crankshaft (383). Your heads are fine as long as they have the 1.92 intakes. The marine spec. cam is fine up to 4000 rpm. Stay conservative if you change it. Spend an hour cleaning up the ports in the heads. That combination I've seen before and it makes fantastic torque and is around the 300 hp mark. What year is your Connie?

 

[achris]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Mercuiser used the 327 from 1963 to 1969. Initally they put out 225hp but in their last incarnation put out 250hp. They have a different head, different cam and different block. <br /><br />Chris..........

 

[elpaso]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Is this a - Q - engine - is the <br />transmission hooked to front of engine ?

 

[boataddict]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Thanks for the welcome and the info guys.<br />Hey magster65, doesn't that 383 conversion require a 30 over bore and new pistons? BTW my Connie is a 1970. I'm trying to find the valve specs for the heads that are on them.<br />Elpaso they are 327Q's but they are flywheel forward engines, with the Paragon direct drives.

 

[nms1991]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

If you repower the boat try looking at PCM's seamaxx series the have 300 hp versions with carbs. They are the vortec based engines with the L-31 heads that flow better than the old camel back heads that everyone wants for high performance cars and trucks.

 

[magster65]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Hey <br />With a 383 engine project for a boat plan on boring and new pistons for sure. If you do a search on 'chevy 383' kits you'll find lots of information. There's no shortcuts for a project like that. Plan on everything new and freshly machined. If it were me I'd rebuild those 327's. It'd end up costing a lot less after 'all the smoke clears'. Your boat with fresh engines, a clean bottom, good prop and not too much 'stuff' in it should cruise around 18-19 mph @ 3000 rpm / 20-25 gph and lope along nicely at it's 'displacement speed' of about 8-9 mph / 4-5 gph. My brother had the exact same boat with twin 305/4v so I know these specs. are going to be really close to accurate. Being the vintage that it is, another reason to keep the 327's is that your Connie is a 'classic' already... including the engines. It'd be nice to keep it intact (IMHO).<br />Hope this helps.

 

[boataddict]

Re: Chris Craft 327's

Thanks Magster, I appreciate your comments and assistance. I will probably keep her as original as possible. The only problem with making horesepower upgrades is that it has to been done twice, ouch!<br />Anyways thanks again.<br />Jeff