Re: engine kit
Don and Kagee, thanks for the concern. I do understand what has to happen here. The plan right now is to send the block in for a cleaning, mag, and minimal bore. I am going to have the shop put the cam bearings in, since those are a kind of a pain. They are going to charge $20 + the cost of the bearings. Too cheap for me to mess with. They are going to check the rods and see if they can recondition them, if not, then I`ll have to get new ones. As for the crank, the cost to turn it is nowhere near the price of a new one, so I will be having it machined.
In response to 78Century, I would not even think of putting a used engine in my boat uless I knew exactly where it was coming from and its history, like a friends boat or something along those lines. GM 4.3l parts are not that expensive in comparison to other engine families. With the machine work and the parts, I will be in under $800. That figure does not reflect my time equity to rebuild it of course. No way would I spend $400 for a used unknown condition engine. My TIME and money are too valuable to me to take a $400 chance that I will have to remove it again, and this time rebuild it. What do you do, just keep throwing money and engines into something? When the first engine craps out in 20 hours and your on your second engine, well you just paid for the rebuilt one and you only had to do all the work once. No I`m not putting it in a S-10, but its time non the less. On a slightly different thought pattern here, If it were a woods buggy that I used for hunting or something maybe, since I can just WALK away from it. But if you have ever been dead in the water at night with barge traffic you would understand the value of a new engine in a boat.
Oh yea, one other thing. Blueprinting and balancing ARE important. A boat engine is in a way a race engine. Think about what it has to do. Your boat motor is constantly running at WOT or at least high RPM`s And most people do this all at once meaning pushing the throttle all the way when leaving dock or no wake zones. Do you drive your car like that, probably not. The point is a well balanced engine will always perform better and last longer. What does it cost above and beyond the initial rebuild?? Not much except time and attention to detail.
