Re:

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: Wayne E LaMothe <superglider@xxxxxxxx>
" 
" Use one or two of the marine 327's.
" 

yeah!  but ditch the yh carbs and intake!

one of the places i worked, a supv i knew [not my group] got a
twin-327 powerboat real cheap -- after the -second- engine fire...

being an engineer, he tracked it to the fore-and-aft horizontal carbs,
which when choked could dribble gas out the aft carb given the
engine's tilt.  as only one engine was damaged, he initially only
replaced one intake with a rambler 4bbl job and marine holley.  that
made the boat a little more powerful on that side...  i helped him
find a second 4bbl intake for the other.

belated thought: someone else i know has a standing order from
graymarine for any and all 287/327 heads he comes across.  i wonder if
they used raw-seawater cooling?

" On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 16:20:39 -0500 farna@xxxxxxx writes:
" > I thought the same thing. One of my "retirement projects" is to build 
" > a fair sized (22-28 feet) Sharpie style power cruiser. AMC powered, 
" > of course! This won't be a real fast boat, but I'd like to be able 
" > to pull a skier. I've got a 199 that needs rebuilding, though I have 
" > thought this might be the ideal application of a long stroke 
" > flat-head six... maybe even the turbo model I keep fantasizing 
" > about! Boats need lots of low end torque. 

i would've said the opposite.  props are square-law [or is it
cube-law?] devices, so their torque demands rise quite sharply with
rpm.  you need to have enough idle torque to handle shifting the
reverse gear, but otherwise i'd've said it's all top end.  one of the
chevy oem i6 marine cams had a 101* lobe separation, a classic
short-track sort of spec.  i've never seen even a race cam that tight,
though to be fair they all have more duration.

a large slow-turning prop is generally more efficient than a small
whizzer, but that can be handled with gearing inside the reverse gear.

btw torque converters are very much like propellers in some ways,
including torque demand, aka 'stall speed'.  that's why converter
shops can list one stall for a converter with any engine - the curve
is so steep, a big change in torque doesn't shift rpm much.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought