Re: replacing 3.8 with ? on OMC stringer
And the plot thickens... The reasons for going to a 4.3 would be that my old 3.8 is a jinx. I've had it for about 8 years and it continues to have major breakdowns on a regular basis. I won't go into the long list, but it's had everything changed that can be changed or rebuilt at least twice in that time, and I've never had it in the water more than three times in any year. The cast iron block is getting thin in places, the crank has been turned twice, the distributor was worn out and the only place in the world I could find a replacement was on Ebay, etc, etc, etc. I really sick of the thought of putting any more money and sweat into an engine that I won't have any confidence in when I'm done. I recently had to change the upper gearcase in the 800 outdrive and now that works very well. It's now a matter of either replacing the engine or selling the boat with a bad engine in it and buying something smaller that I might actually get a chance to use more than twice a year. The tough part is that I really like the boat. It has a great ride and enough room for all my fishing junk. I fish salt water with it and I hate to give it up, but I've lost interest in rebuilding the 3.8. I don't think that the block I have is actually worth rebuilding at this point. It doesn't have any cracks, but I already have three helicoils in it to thread the headbolts in. My manifolds are fine, OMC at that, and everything else works. I installed a fresh water cooling system in it about four years ago, and that works very well too. Maybe if I could find a decent 3.8 car engine and start swapping parts that would be the way to go. Having had one original head rust through a while back makes me leery of picking up an old saltwater engine, and that's what I'm likely to find around here.
Don't know where this is headed, but I certainly appreciate everyone's input.
Thanks!
