Do you have any pictures of the motors you raced on the water?
Mort
Jackie
Were you boat drag racing or on a race course?
The motors sound pretty impressive.
A friend of mine had a glass ski boat powered by a 427 Ford. My wife could ski but all I did was swallow lake water. When he chose to open that thing up it would beat the crap out of you. I can only imagine what your ride was like.
Mort
I have some friends Dick and Bob that used to dominate in the Jersey speed skiff class. They had a 283 stock motor (blueprinted and perfect in every way but stone stock) that back then cost about $10,000. and a half a refrigerator box full of props that he said he spent $15,000. on. They used to try all kinds of stuff to get speed, A polished and waxed hull was several MPH slower than taking a sanding board with 60 grit and making long scratches the length of the boat. They had FHP clock them on radar going under a bridge over a lake.
I saw the Jersey Speed Skiffs race at Red Bank NJ back in early ‘70’s. About the only thing that could beat you up more was a Cracker Box.
For those that don’t know what they are, here is a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wldlanAnwps
Jackie that video you posted was after they got out of skiff racing. The cage on the boats in the video was the reason they quite. They were both sure that in a survivable crash that the cage would kill you.
Engine still on the dyno and testing will continue late this week or early next week. So far, it looks like we have a repeatable 4-5 h.p. increase over last season. Next testing will be four different NHRA accepted fuels: two from Sunoco and two from V.P. Last session, the V.P. C11 was the best but we've changed cam timing and a few other things since then. -Al
Al, I might be wrong on this, but in recent times there have been articles concerning octane of fuels. It seems that too high of an octane number for a given application is really not desirable, and can actually cost power. In short, you should not run 110 octane fuel if an engine combination only requires 98.
Since the class you run is one where improvements are measured in very small gains, have you found that having just enough octane rating to prevent detonation can actually make more power?
Or, maybe not. Just curious.
I talked to David Nickens about the idea I have about taking the 540 out of my Malibu and installing a new LT-5.
https://sdparts.com/i-24120714-chev...MInZa4-uiO6AIVA9vACh0EWgt9EAQYASABEgJCEvD_BwE
He said that the aftermarket has caught up and the parts are now available to do the whole project. With the cost of the engine at $18,000, the entire project would probably cost a little more than $30,000.
By big issue is what to do with my 540. This is a great street engine. I would like to find a buyer who could hear and see the engine still in the car, so they would know what they were getting. We could seal the deal and when Nickens got the 540 out, they could take delivery.
This will be a big project. I’m about 50/50 on whether I will do it.
Jackie, what's your thoughts on fitting the dry sump oil tank and lines? Does the ECU controller come with the wiring harness? Does the ECU have a basic tune up installed from the factory? Is it a 'self learn' style of ECU?