Need some opinions/advice. Been wanting to put together a 425/455 for my 65 442. Thought process is to remove the stock 400, crate it and not chance hurting it. The cost of building one has been somewhat prohibitive to this point.

I have found a fellow (acquaintance) with a 455 he will sell. He says it has a street dominator intake, BG carb, W30 cam, K heads, etc. Only caveat is that it is in his jet boat.

I know him and he said he would not sell it to me until I heard it run and was confident in the purchase.

My concern is any issues I might run into or changes I may need to make with it being in a Jet. Not really sure there would be any/many since the only difference I might think of would be the cam if it had one specifically for boat duty. However with the W30 cam I would think that point would be mute.

I think the price is very good and will likely buy it unless there are any significant concerns.

Your opinions/thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks..

 

The cam would be my concern. Doesn't seem like the W30 cam would work well in a boat, but if it is a W30 cam, which one?

 

Salt water use?

Run away from it. The water jackets are probably toast.

 

North Central Alabama would be all fresh water..


Not sure he would know which W30 cam. I am going to try to see exactly how much he knows about the build although it was a while back.

 

It seems to me that "boats" are run "wide open" or "stop".

 

I have a marine 455 in my turquoise 98. It was a fresh water boat even though, the water jacket had lots of sand in there. I pulled the soft plugs and flushed the water jackets with a pressure washer before machine work.

 

 

Some are. Plenty of smaller ski-boats that run part-throttle most of the time as they're fast enough to scare typical skiiers.

Yeah...and you'll need the water pump and accessory drive from the engine you're taking out.

All the warnings about corroded cooling systems, and sand/mud in the water jackets should be taken very seriously. DO NOT install the engine without pounding in new core plugs. If it's got a steel shim head gasket pair, consider those potentially damaged, too.

 

Thanks guys. As soon as he has it ready to crank (needs on exhaust manifold gasket replaced), I am going to check it out and hear it run. I will report back!