I would personally consider your time and effort analytically when deciding on the route your going to go with your repairs/rebuilds. For example one could weld and have heads skimmed to get you a component that will be possible to assemble but just like the exhaust you’ll possibly be flirting with disaster when the weak links start to appear...

You have a point here, saving some money now can ruin the engine later. I guess I have to take the chance, just replacing about everything is too expensive. I don’t have deep pockets and every dollar I put into the boat is basically lost as it’s almost impossible to sell a go-fast in this country.
And if I think what’s about to come, drives, cabling, dashboard, paint, upholstery, tanks, trailer. Plus the small things like senders, water hoses, bilge pumps, alternators, fuel pumps, my shopping list is becoming longer and longer.
So yes, hate to say it but I will have to cut some corners to get my boat into the water.

It’s a Crane #139731 - 226/234 @.50" with .587/.610, 112

not the biggest cam, but I don’t want to go for more anyway as I’m afraid of reversion.

The Edelbrock heads should be good for up to 600hp and with this cam and the exhaust manifold that’s probably what I’ve got.



called Vinny and he is indeed a very nice guy who answered all my questions patiently. Great customer service and I’m not even a real customer.
So it’s confirmed that the port engine and the spare block are indeed Shafiroff 582s. Bore is 4.600 and stroke 4.375, with a compression ratio of 10.5:1. Both are from 2015.

The seized starboard engine is something else, has a 4.500 bore and no Dart Big M block like the Shafiroffs.
I took it apart, managed to remove the free pistons and without the crankshaft I had access to the seized piston from both sides. With a lot of hammering, WD40 and engine oil I finally managed to get the it out.
Doesn’t even look so bad from inside, left side piston have signs of overheating which is no surprise after all the mud I found in the cooling system, left side was completely blocked by it.

I will rebuild this engine later, shouldn’t be too difficult for a machine shop to fix it.

But first I disassembled the 582 spare short block and took it to the machine shop. It spent 5 years on an island and surface rust on the surfaces left some pitting. The cylinder walls showed marks where the the pistons sat all those years without moving.
It needs some skimming and honing.

This will take a while. I’m also waiting for a big order on spare parts coming from the US.

So it’s time for a break and I will have a long overdue eye surgery. Hope I can get back to work in a month or so.

2015 Shafiroff 582 spare block zero hours


Couldn’t help to add some red paint. 3 main cap bolts were already missing when I bought the boat.



Pistons in front and heads are from the seized starboard engine

Wow, bolts were missing. Never heard that one before

Had some parts blasted and powder coated and they came out nice

I also wonder why somebody would steal them, what for? As if there were other Dart big blocks around here.

Hi guys, just read your post about performance boats in Asia - we're based in Phuket Thailand and can help out with most things you need! Right now in our yard we have a Top Gun 38, a Nor Tech 4300 Mono hull and a Nor Tech 5000 Cat!

Anything you need just give us a shout matt (at) drake marine . com

Progress is painfully slow, Malaysia is going through a series of lockdown and each time I canīt go to my workshop for a month because itīs just across a state border.

I got my engine block back from the machine shop and I was not happy with the result. They scratched the surface where the oil pan sits, will see if I have leaking later. They didntīt machine the deck enough to remove all imperfections and one cylinder wall even has a notable pitting, honing wasnīt that great either. I didnīt return it because I didnīt think they could do a better job.

Cylinder heads turned out ok, given the damage they had. However they had to skim a lot and I would need thicker head gaskets, at least 0.060 compressed thickness. Compression ratio is already 10.5 and I donīt want to go higher. Problem is, thicker gaskets are all MLS (Multi Layer Steel) which need a perfect surface. As I donīt have that I had to go with the good old composition type and the maximum I found was 0.051. Talked to a guy from Summit who was quite knowledgable and he explained that skimming off the cylinder head counts for less for its conical shape. So it should be just fine, hopefully.