Nextelbuddy
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- May 4, 2020
- Messages
- 156
Very excited to be close to getting my the new engine finished and into the boat.
Brief recap is that my 1996 Sea Ray 210 blew the mercruiser 350 5.7 on cylinders two and four. (Lovely holes in the block trashed everything)
Coincidentally those are the same two cylinders that were crossed at the distributor cap from the previous owner that I found when doing maintenance and swap the distributor spark plug wires back to the proper locations but unfortunately I guess at that point it was too late and the damage had been done engine go boom.
Fond a 1997 k1500 in South Carolina went and pulled the vortec engine out of that brought it home, stored in my garage for a few months and when I was getting ready at a friend's house I dropped it off the cherry picker onto the concrete pad bending the snout on the crank.
Dropped the engine off at the engine builder check the tolerances confirm that the cranks now was out of round and out of spec but even if it wasn't bent there was some hidden surprises that the previous owner of that engine didn't tell me and that was that they froze the block by running water in the winter time and there were four cracks in the water jackets on that engine that were hidden by rust and debris.
So ended up just salvaging the vortex heads off of that engine and sourcing a third 350 5.7 short block
So with all that out of the way, lots of money spent sourcing parts... This is what we have now...my humpty Dumpty 350 5.7
Bare Block and heads were hot tanked 6 times at request of engine builder..(I guess he likes his blocks and heads squeaky clean), Block was honed and decked
Excited that the gentleman building the engine is one of the lead mechanic/engineers for a panos race team
Don't pay any attention to the picture with the serpentine crank pulley it has the incorrect one he just used it as a placeholder until I gave him the proper V belt mercruiser crank pulley today.
Engine upgrades
- Vortec block and heads
- new brass freeze plugs
- COMP Cams Xtreme Marine 08-416-8 Camshaft
- comp cam springs with new stock retainers and locks
- new roller lifters
- all 8 pistons had oil relief holes machined near oil ring seat area (builder says it's a common oil/heat failure point on these engines in regards to proper oiling)
- new piston ring set cut and filed to engine builder specs
- new oil pump
- new rod bearings and main bearings
- polished crank shaft
- balanced rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons)
- summit racing dual plane intake manifold
- Edelbrock 1409 marine carb
- Quicksilver distributor cap/rotor/plug wires
- AC MR43LTS spark plugs
- felpro marine head gaskets
- felpro oil pan gasket and rear main seal
- Felpro valve cover gaskets
- mercruiser thermostat
- Carter electric fuel pump conversion with oil switch and starter safety system
- Edelbrock bronze distributor gear for vortec roller cam
- new mercruiser engine coupler
- all new mercruiser nuts and bolts for engine mounts, bellhousing and transom plate
- new exhaust manifold gaskets and riser gaskets
Out drive upgrades
- water impeller kit
- input shaft seal carrier assembly
- shift shaft carrier assembly
- pressure tested outdrive 12psi for 20 min no pressure loss (mercruiser tech states 10psi for 10 min is acceptable)
Boat upgrade
- new airmar b19 thru Hull transducer and lowrance 3800 depth sounder system
- reinstalled new mercruiser alarm system for low oil pressure/over heat/drive oil (previous owner cut alarm out
)
I hope this boat runs well when it's done.





Brief recap is that my 1996 Sea Ray 210 blew the mercruiser 350 5.7 on cylinders two and four. (Lovely holes in the block trashed everything)
Coincidentally those are the same two cylinders that were crossed at the distributor cap from the previous owner that I found when doing maintenance and swap the distributor spark plug wires back to the proper locations but unfortunately I guess at that point it was too late and the damage had been done engine go boom.
Fond a 1997 k1500 in South Carolina went and pulled the vortec engine out of that brought it home, stored in my garage for a few months and when I was getting ready at a friend's house I dropped it off the cherry picker onto the concrete pad bending the snout on the crank.
Dropped the engine off at the engine builder check the tolerances confirm that the cranks now was out of round and out of spec but even if it wasn't bent there was some hidden surprises that the previous owner of that engine didn't tell me and that was that they froze the block by running water in the winter time and there were four cracks in the water jackets on that engine that were hidden by rust and debris.
So ended up just salvaging the vortex heads off of that engine and sourcing a third 350 5.7 short block
So with all that out of the way, lots of money spent sourcing parts... This is what we have now...my humpty Dumpty 350 5.7

Bare Block and heads were hot tanked 6 times at request of engine builder..(I guess he likes his blocks and heads squeaky clean), Block was honed and decked
Excited that the gentleman building the engine is one of the lead mechanic/engineers for a panos race team
Don't pay any attention to the picture with the serpentine crank pulley it has the incorrect one he just used it as a placeholder until I gave him the proper V belt mercruiser crank pulley today.
Engine upgrades
- Vortec block and heads
- new brass freeze plugs
- COMP Cams Xtreme Marine 08-416-8 Camshaft
- comp cam springs with new stock retainers and locks
- new roller lifters
- all 8 pistons had oil relief holes machined near oil ring seat area (builder says it's a common oil/heat failure point on these engines in regards to proper oiling)
- new piston ring set cut and filed to engine builder specs
- new oil pump
- new rod bearings and main bearings
- polished crank shaft
- balanced rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons)
- summit racing dual plane intake manifold
- Edelbrock 1409 marine carb
- Quicksilver distributor cap/rotor/plug wires
- AC MR43LTS spark plugs
- felpro marine head gaskets
- felpro oil pan gasket and rear main seal
- Felpro valve cover gaskets
- mercruiser thermostat
- Carter electric fuel pump conversion with oil switch and starter safety system
- Edelbrock bronze distributor gear for vortec roller cam
- new mercruiser engine coupler
- all new mercruiser nuts and bolts for engine mounts, bellhousing and transom plate
- new exhaust manifold gaskets and riser gaskets
Out drive upgrades
- water impeller kit
- input shaft seal carrier assembly
- shift shaft carrier assembly
- pressure tested outdrive 12psi for 20 min no pressure loss (mercruiser tech states 10psi for 10 min is acceptable)
Boat upgrade
- new airmar b19 thru Hull transducer and lowrance 3800 depth sounder system
- reinstalled new mercruiser alarm system for low oil pressure/over heat/drive oil (previous owner cut alarm out

I hope this boat runs well when it's done.




