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  1. Lou C

    Missing drive oil bottle ???

    Wasn’t it Jay Leno who said most people in my business have one car and a number of wives; I have the opposite and it turned out to be cheaper!
  2. Lou C

    1987 Rochester quadrajet

    Yep that sounds about right. Is yours original to the boat?
  3. Lou C

    Are we in trouble?

    BTW as far as I know there are no more “new” base 4.3s, all you can find now are reman engines.
  4. Lou C

    Are we in trouble?

    I’m not sure I’d want to be doing business with a dealer that’s not competent enough to do a simple winterization. What else wasn’t done? Rebuilds are hit & miss. Who does it what guarantee etc? I’d pass. BTW get a boat with an outboard and avoid all that winterization hassle!
  5. Lou C

    Volvo Penta 740B raw water cooling

    Sounds good, I have wanted to do this for a long time, based on my usage you get barnacles for sure in the lower unit, in fact I wound up having to remove that plastic screen OMC put in there (actually was the same as what was used on the OMC V6 outboards) because it was getting constantly...
  6. Lou C

    got a question about a future V6 to V8 repower...

    Scott if I had a machine shop that could help with this, for sure I would, although I think I'd be swapping my Cobras out sooner rather than later lol. Michigan Motorz sells them but they are like 7 grand.
  7. Lou C

    Volvo Penta 740B raw water cooling

    OK got a question for you Scott, what would be a good (safe) procedure for using the Barnacle Buster? I have this as an idea let me know what you think... I have one of those winterizing tanks I never used for winterizing (only would have if I had closed cooling) I turned it into a flush tank...
  8. Lou C

    Volvo Penta 740B raw water cooling

    Here’s my answer: I have the original power steering cooler on my 1988 OMC Cobra that has been run & moored in salt water for about 20 years (6 month season) it hasn’t leaked yet. But I do have a spare just in case. It only gets flushed at the end of the season.
  9. Lou C

    Volvo Penta Steering Stiff

    If not the cable is the drive belt tight and is the system free of leaks? It is common for the actuator to leak on these. Look where the piston rod comes out of the hydraulic actuator…
  10. Lou C

    Trailer Brakes or Not

    Or if you have drum brakes that are way out of adjustment….
  11. Lou C

    1990 Mercruiser & BBC 454: Cautions or Concerns

    With raw water cooling my experience (20 years in salt water) is that the cyl heads suffer more from the effects of salt than the block. At least here it is rare to see a block rust through. However when I removed the cyl heads on my old engine in 2017 due to blown head gaskets (caused by an...
  12. Lou C

    Mercruiser 4.3 removing oil from bores?

    A good troubleshootin’ tool is a Harbor Freight (here in Long Island we call them Horror Freight lol) IR temp gun. Use it to find high resistance circuits and terminals, sticky brake calipers, exhaust elbows that are clogging up, etc. Another good tool is a multimeter with an amp clamp this can...
  13. Lou C

    1990 Mercruiser & BBC 454: Cautions or Concerns

    Remember there are used boats (5-10 years) and used up boats (15+ years). If you buy a used up boat all bets are off. I did, not really realizing this fact of boat ownership and wound up doing a partial restoration (stringers, deck, had hull painted replaced much of the interior) and top engine...
  14. Lou C

    got a question about a future V6 to V8 repower...

    Yes it can the original Cobras were used behind 5.7 4bbl V8s. They are as strong as an Alpha as far as I know. OMC went to the Baby King Cobra for the 460 Ford which puts out a good deal more torque than the Chevy small block. These drives had the regular Cobra upper gear housing with the...
  15. Lou C

    1990 Mercruiser & BBC 454: Cautions or Concerns

    The thing I'd be most concerned with is the condition of the hull, deck, stringers and transom, those repairs are a lot more involved/difficult than engine repairs, at least in my opinion. Once you understand carbs they are easy to rebuild. As a young-un I recall being told that GM's Quadrajet...
  16. Lou C

    transom leak

    Your transom basically looked like new, as if it was done a couple years ago! I am also running a Cobra (original) and picked up a spare from ebay, about $950 for a nice one. Also have a spare transom mount complete with the trim rams etc. I'll keep them going as long as I can then figure out...
  17. Lou C

    Need help with transom repair...

    You have what looks like the easiest to replace transom ever, replacing all of it now makes the most sense, good exterior plywood coated in epoxy will last for years and not cost that much because it is not a large area.
  18. Lou C

    1990 Mercruiser & BBC 454: Cautions or Concerns

    If anything you want a 454 paired up with a Bravo, vs an Alpha and, for older boats you will have an easier time maintaining a carbed boat than EFI. Why, because on older boats EFI parts often become NLA whereas carb parts are widely available as are new carbs if the old one is too far gone to...
  19. Lou C

    got a question about a future V6 to V8 repower...

    See that is part of it, the only 4.3s you can find now are remanufactured not new. You can still get V8s brand new. If I could find one locally I might do that; vs buying a reman a distance away and then having to pay for shipping it back if there’s a problem. Might start researching engine...
  20. Lou C

    got a question about a future V6 to V8 repower...

    Thanks yes I think ultimately it should work with my OMC because they used a taller drive ratio than Mercruiser used with the same engine. While I have 2 good 4.3 ratio Cobras 🐍 I could see converting it over to a Volvo SX or even the SEI conversion. My thought process behind all this is that...
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