Over the winter I rebuilt my old 454's that were the original donor engines out of my Panther. Last summer mid summer I was running gallons of water through one of my engines. After a couple of poker and fun runs I pulled out that engine and discovered it had a cracked block. I quickly threw in one of my spare Merc 420's I had laying around so I could make the run that weekend and finish out the summer.

The maiden voyage on the fresh power was a success. Spent an hour on Lake Michigan Saturday running below 4000 RPM's and never getting into the 4 barrels. (the discipline was real) I also incorporated some 3D printed parts that I designed up.

I also threw it up on stands with the fork truck and cleaned the unknown growth off of the bottom of the hull.

Thanks Mike! It takes 4 times as long to clean, prep, paint and detail then build them. All new AN hoses and fitting, anodized plugs, oil sandwich thermostats... the list goes on.

Hopefully, Todd would be proud I do have his red carburetor throttle plates on the engines now. He could never get his custom built carbs to run right. So I thought I would use them, just because.

very nice...looks good!!

Those might be foreshadowing to the new paint scheme...

new paint scheme...?

Next year or so total facelift. Engines paint complete .

The orange looks great! How did you get the growth off the bottom? I have had good luck with removing the staining with Power 1 in the past.

Acid (toilet bowl cleaner) and Scotch Brite.