Re: dreaded 470 queston.....
This is all funny because every one of these boats that someone posts about that has a 470 are all near or older than 20 years old. Mine is an 87 with 600+ hours on it and still runs strong.
They are ALL 20+ years old. 600 hours sounds like alot, but it is common for a marine engine to run 2000 hours and 3000+ is not unheard of. The secret is maintenance and keeping water out of places that it shouldn't be, like the oil and combustion chambers.
I'm not saying that this is the best motor to have but it's definately not the dog it's made out to be. The power to weight ratio is very good
Agreed, there is much to like about these engines, they made the same power as the L6, and weighed less. So does a 4.3L(want to save more weight, aluminum manifolds are available)
and if properly maintained you won't have problems.
A bit optimistic for ANY engine, not just the 3.7
In my experience there have been a lot of products throught the years that got a bad rap due to poor maintenance or stupid consumers.
OR bad engineering coupled with bad service. anybody remember the GM 350 diesels. With the exception af a couple of design flaws they were great(sound familiar), capable of returning 20-25MPG in a full size car
W/O overdrive, but if you got 60k without a head gasket failure your service manager was probably urging you to get a lottery ticket. Like the 3.7 we have been discussing, we now know the flaws and what is needed. If you are willing to commit to staying ahead of "wear and tear" then you can prolong thier life.
It will also be nice to run all weekend on a tank of gas vs filling up every four hours at 5.00 a gallon. The 470 is very efficient on fuel if nothing else.
It's not really any more efficient than any other marine engine of similar power. plus or minus a few percent, in a boat it takes
Xhorsepower to move
Ypounds at
Qmiles per hour. In a car simple things like freeing up the intake and exhaust, or using efficient heads can make substantial differences in economy, in the real world boats just don't react as well do to the constant load and overall driveline efficiency(or lack thereof).
Main thing is to not let it overheat!!
And replace the funky cam seal thing,
BEFORE it leaks, it can cost you a complete engine instead of a $20 part.
The replacement parts are not cheap compared to others but neither are parts for classic cars...guess it depends on what you want.
That is the real problem, the price and availability of parts.
