Injectors need maintenance, when you get one plugged up, weak coil etc, bad things happen (original failure). Thats why I bought a 10,000$ ASNU injector flow bench for doing my customers injectors , guys send them in mail order too, I see some terrible things, usually after a failure. I registered on other site to see the thread on the new motor, Smitty

So I had near about forgot about this post.

Here us the latest, engine has been with the local machine shop for about 4 months now, cause they're slower than molasses, but do good work. What ended up being the course of action was basically a rebuild because the cam and crank bearing were in poor shape. Crank got polished and new cam is being put it, the last thing I will ever buy from Raylar. No damage to the pistons or cylinder walls. Oiling system has been a hurdle, they had to call a big block oil pump guru in Illinois for advice on the correct oil pump to feed the overkill oiling system, basically turned into a pump that might be found on a 600-700 CID monster truck engine...... Now they said I could has blocked off the piston cooling jets, but I like the idea of extra cooling.

So in the end, Raylar sold me an out of tolerance piece of crap that I should have had built locally from the start. This learning adventure has cost me an additional 3000, 500 alone in an oil pump. Should be back in the boat soon. All that said, my local builder is saying now I should easily see 1000hrs or better out of this block, hopefully by then I'm on to a bigger boat.

I did chop it open, nothing significant, couple very small aluminum flakes, never tested the oil, we assume it was bearing material.

Yes I run a mechanical but it's under the hatch, moving that with the reinstall to a newly installed gunnel hatch.

Yes alarms, but I was already watching it.

So, the bearing clearances were high and motor had piston oilers which required more volume than your pump could put out? Are you going to dyno it so you can see everythings good under controlled conditions?

Basically. The thing is I installed the pump recommended by Raylar, it wasn't even close to being enough.

Not putting on a dyno, I'm broke, cheaper for me to put it in the boat and run it. I have O2 sensors and fuel pressure guage now so I have enough to evaluate if its running good.

Its odd, there are dozens, if not hundreds of this set-up out there running. I'm one of them. I have almost 200 hours on mine. I personally know several guys that have the 540 shortblock and a dozen on OSO with 525's and 600's with no problems.

Same oiling system? What oil pump did they use?

Possible issue was oil drain back into the pan issue - not fast enough or held too much oil in the top end. There was a few 496 s in marine trim that had that problem.

Also what intake manifold gaskets were used here ??