Repower assistance and recommendations

[jblack1036]

All, I'm looking to repower my 65 Trojan Sea Breeze. I'm just looking for suggestions and or recommendations since I'm going into this blind.

currently there is a good running AMC 327 "Grey Marine" Fireball that is mounted in reverse (IE: front of the block is facing the rear of the boat). However, I'm starting to develop problems and figure I'd be better off spending my money on a repower so I can take advantage of available parts rather than trying to hunt down old parts and pay prime dollar for them. Here's my problem, one log has a hole in it and also has a blockage that decreases the water flow through the head. The head that is supplied water from this log has developed a crack on the rear exhaust port. Luckily, I haven't gotten any water in the cylinders or in the oil as of yet but if I keep going with this, it will eventually cause major problems. So my thought is to just spend the money on a repower as that would be the best bang for the buck. However, I do plan to keep the old motor in the event that somewhere down the road I may run across the parts needed and will be able to put her back in.

Any thoughts or recommendation all of you may have I'd be very happy to hear them. I would like to try and re-use the current velvet drive if at all possible. But again, I'm running blind on this as I have no experience with a repower or what will match up. No real preference on brand other than it needs to be gas.

and thank you for the assistance.

[prowlersfish]

Are you looking at new or newer ( used running take out ? ) I would look at the small block Chevy 5.7 (350 CID ) Millions around and easy to find parts . You will need to mount it in facing normally .Unless your talking about a V-drive set up not a trans mounted to the front of the engine . Before someone brings it up yes the did run the trans off the front of the small blocks (CC and Owens flag ship) But that was in the 60s and you would be back in the obsolete parts game.

You can mount your velvet drive to the small block Chevy as long as you have the correct bell house and that is the most common set up . Is your velvet drive a 70 or a 71 or 72 ? If its a 70 I would think about up grading to a 71 or 72 .

One thing to remember is if you turn the engine around it changes the direction of the prop assuming you use the same rotation engine . no big deal you will need to rotate the trans pump and change the prop . or find a engine with the opposite rotation of what you have now .

[jblack1036]

Thank you for the response "Prowlerfish",

I'm looking to replace with a decent 350 or comparible if that is what can mount to my current velvet drive. As for 70,71 or 72, I don't know which it is. I do know that it is the original drive based on the paperwork I have. I'm don't have access to the boat at present because I am deployed to afghanistan so I can't tell you for sure what type it is. What I do know for sure is that the motor and drive are original to the 1965 paperwork and it is I believe a 1:5 with a reduction I think or something like that......Don't know if I can turn the drive around and run it off the back of the 350 block without hurting the pump because I know the rotation would be the oposit of how it rotates now or maybe just change the prop blades. As for the bell housing you spoke of, is that easy to come by or order. .

[The Dog House]

The pump rotation of the Velvet drives can be changed very easily. That won't be a problem. Bell housings can be purchased, sometimes inexpensively on Craigslist or new. Barr sells new bell housings (http://www.barrmarine.net/adaptor-bell-housings.html). Once you get back to the states if you could post a picture of your current setup it would help a lot.

[jblack1036]

The Dog house,

thank you for the information. I have pictures of it back at home, I may be able to get the spouse to email them to me and I can post them here. I've always been a fan of "if it aint broke, don't fix it" so I have not done anything with the current drive so that's definantly going to be unchartered territory for me...

[prowlersfish]

Its easy to rotate the pump to make it work in the oposet direection . But you still would need to change the prop . The pump is rotated so it will pump fluid when turned the oposte direction . The engine is what controls the direction and the pump turned to match the engine .