Marinette Boat Forum

I need to replace my raw water cooled, regular rotation (port), 1977 318 (low compression in one cylinder, among other issues). I'm currently leaning toward buying a remanufactured long block, bolting on the parts I have (including Mallory distributor), and adding an Edelbrock 1409 (to replace my tired Carter AFB). I understand that many (including Fastjeff on this board and others) often recommend going the reman route rather than trying to rebuild one myself (I have always worked on my own cars, but this would be a first rebuild). My main question is what reman suppliers are reputable but also inexpensive? I've seen a wide range of prices (from around $2,000 to more than $4,000), but it's a little hard to tell from online ratings/complaints what company is worth buying one from. I want it to work and to not have any major problems, but I also don't have $4k+ sitting around. I do have a good mechanic that will help me finish it out and drop it in the boat. Any advice you all have on a supplier would be much appreciated!

I'm also considering rebuilding a used 318 I have in the garage, which is currently set up for fresh water cooling and was supposedly overhauled before sitting outside under a tarp for a couple years. It turns when prying the flywheel, but I'm not sure of its condition and haven't dug into it too much yet (it didn't have sparkplugs or oil in it when I got it). The next step here would be to dig into it and have a shop advise me on whether it's a good enough block to rebuild. I would do as much of the work myself as I can, with advice from the mechanic, and get the machining work done at a shop.

Please let me know what you all think, especially if you can direct me to a quality reman supplier.

Thanks!

Tim

Lots of them out there but be sure to choose one that's sold nearby or shiping costs will be high. I got mine from Versuvious (sp?) and it was a good one.

Jeff

Had good luck with Jasper remans on a pair of 318's (but it was loooong time ago and I can't vouch for modern Jasper which may or may not be as good or worse or better)

I replaced my port 318 in 2018 and the starboard in 2019 with remans. from Marine Engines 4 less in Ocala Fl. Both engines run good and have zero leaks and great oil pressure at idle. This company does a spin test on every engine and checks pressures, both oil and compression after assembly. I believe they were reasonably priced around 2200 dollars or so with the reverse motor a couple hundred higher. Harry

I would take the freshwater-cooled engine you have and check it out. Put a borescope in the sparkplug holes and look for rust. If it looks OK I would build a stand for it and connect water for cooling, gas to the carb, and a battery. Start and run it for a while. If you're happy with it put it in the boat.
Nobody talks about it, but the real problem is not the engines. Pay the money and lots of choices out there. The problem is all the accessories. Hard to find and very expensive. It was cheaper for me to get brand new Chev 350's with brand new transmissions, than to find parts and rebuild the 318's and rebuild the transmissions. If you have all the pumps and exhaust manifolds and everything else you can get by rebuilding what you have.

Are you sure the port engine is regular rotation, my 82 port engine is counter rotation

Thanks all! Responses below. Still not sure which way to go, but I don't want to spend about the same money on my own rebuild (not sure how much machine work it will need and at what cost) as it would cost to just buy a reman longblock. Related to my response to Busia below, can someone tell me what to look for to determine whether the manifolds on my garage engines are good enough to use for a couple years? What am I looking for? Is it better to just drop $1,200 on new manifolds, risers, and elbows now?

Fastjeff: It seems that shipping is about $250-$300 for pretty much everywhere I've checked. Do you know of any remanufacturers local to MD? I've seen you mention Vesuvio before, but haven't been able to find a website for them. I've heard that these two places sell them, but only found one mention of Vesuvio on the 1-800 website: https://www.1800runsnew.com/re-manufactured-engines/; http://rebuiltmarineengines.com/index.html

Jralbert: I priced out a Jasper and it was $4k+ and requires a certified installer. I can't get their website to give me a price right now, but that's what it was a couple months ago when I priced it out. As far as I can tell, they are kind of the gold-standard.

Harryb: Marine Engines 4 Less was one I looked at. Price is $2,600 (including shipping) for a regular rotation long block. They do have a lot of good reviews on Google. Thanks for letting me know you had success with them!

Busia: Thanks for the advice. I put oil in it and filled the cylinders with marvel mystery oil (which it has held), took the transmission off and the flywheel turns (it wouldn't turn before, which my mechanic thought might be a locked transmission). If I drain the mystery oil, would I still be able to tell if there is rust in the cylinders? It would need some more work to get it to where I can test run it at the house, considering having the machine shop look at it first to let me know what they think. The exhaust manifolds are old, and I'm not sure how to really tell whether they are reusable (the manifolds on the takeout engine are toast and need to be replaced).

Liquid: pretty sure the port is regular rotation (counter-clockwise) from the research I've done. I have one of each in the garage that could potentially be rebuilt.

Any additional advise/comments from all are welcome!

Tim

In a standard twin engine straight inboard set up with 1:1 or 1:1.5 ratio velvet drive trans. The port engine is usually the standard, left hand rotation. The stb engine is the opposite, right hand rotaion. (viewed from the flywheel looking towards the front of the engine). It gets tricky when you have a 1:1.9 ratio trans, the output is opposite of the input on those, which puts the port engine as the opposite rotation. Confusing at first, but not bad if you know what to look for.
Also in reply to reman engines. I would strongly recommend staying away from Jasper, I have seen quite a few that were junk right from the factory. I know that you have to take reviews on the internet with a grain of salt, but do a few google searches or even youtube searches, the bad reviews almost outnumber the good ones.

..."Do you know of any remanufacturers local to MD? I've seen you mention Vesuvio before, but haven't been able to find a website for them.

Marine Engines (or Power) in New Jersey was the retailer for mine.

Jeff

I have been a professional mechanic for 35 years, started out in the car business and worked my way up to Kenworths and Peterbilts. For the past 10 years I have been employed in a shop that specialized in fire truck repair, just to give you some background. Thru my career I have worked in two different shops that were Jasper dealers, and replaced many engines. Unfortunately I would not recommend them. Nearly everyone we replaced suffered a catastrophic failure within the first month. Jasper always made good on the warranty as far as replacing them, but usually fought to pay us the labor. Not such a big deal on a car, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to do it more than once on a boat. One example comes to mind of one we did on 460 big block in a F350. Had 3 catastrophic failure in a row. Customer was so angry he towed it from our shop, took it to Ford and had a brand new one put in. Made our shop look terrible, made us mechanics really angry as well. At the risk of being liable, I say make your own choice, but... Now, 'm sure there are some good reman's out there ( I personally rebuild all my own engines) If I were in the market, I would talk to some friends that are in the old car hobby and find a good shop. May cost more, but a machine shop will likely use top shelf parts (no chinesse junk) like heavy duty racing parts if you request. Fixing the existing engine or the one in your garage would be a start. Personally since you have the one already in the garage, I would pull the heads and oil pan off and confirm it has in fact been rebuilt and with the heads off you can see more than a borescope ever could. Be sure to re-install the heads with the marine specific Fel-Pro head gaskets, as if you look deeper in the forum threads, you'll find guys that have used regular car head gaskets find that they blow in very short order (don't remember the FelPro part number). Good luck, hope this helps.