Any Engine Builders Here??
 

hello all, im the new guy.
im trying to gather all the information possible about marine engine building.
is this a good place for this or is there a more technical forum i could join?

Lots of internet experts here including my self:evilb: ,but seriously there are reputable guys on here who are knowledgable and we all try to help and relay our experiences,Smitty

As Smitty said, lots of guys here know their stuff. Be more specific in what you need to know. You will get answers here for sure

Vinny

thx guys.
i guess since the specs are so drastically different when building a boat engine as opposed to something for a car im just looking for any and all kinds of input from people who have experience...

i suppose a good starting point would be this.... what kind of clearance are people running with a 4.5" forged piston in a naturally aspirated engine? i about fell out of my chair when someone told me that you can pretty much double what you run on land.
something else i was told is that you cant really expect good results using an aluminum block in a high torque marine setting. it would tear it off the mounts i believe was the term used. has anyone had any luck here? what about a billet block?

I have a friend running a pair of all aluminum Donovan blocks in his 38' Top Gun Cig. They were rebuilt by Dave Wesseldyk and run great/without problems. Wesseldyk is the same guy I had rebuild/fix my engines. Anyway, not really sure if my friend's Donovan blocks are cast or billet though.

thx for sharing

could you find out some details? displacement? are they blown?

I bought many interesting books and were given many as well from my Dad. He has been working on marine engines since 1948 when he was 12. My dad is truly a brilliant man that always appreciates the reasons and history behind all practical technical things.
I bought a book apx 5 years ago that I left on the shelf, and bought books on turbo's , exhaust and the like.
I developed an enourmous inventory of parts, tools, and volumes of books on almost every concievable subject.
I have been around and working on things all of my life.
I ,like many others, have learned the hard way.
Although a young 33 I have been around this type of stuff all of that time. I didn't go to college , Almost went to Aircraft mech school , but the economy was bad and there was few good jobs to be had and many airlines were in big trouble. Ended up in a metal fabrication shop that was probably the biggest one on Long Island. I still today marvel at the things we could do there. Every kind of metalworking and welding and machining that is Imaginable. I did alot of repairs on thier equiptment Ended up that the owner ran it bankrupt, and I found myself at a Huge printing company where I was fixing very expensive printing presses, forklifts continuing to learn about a variety of subjects that I had to do a crash course on figuring them out. I was running around between A plant in NJ and NY and had tremendous responsibilities.
I got on the FDNY almost 9 years ago. Unbelievable how much information is out there and the job requires constant training and studying to understand our complex world, and deal with all kinds of emergencies, safely. Just recently they are making the academy almost twice as long to try to teach the new generation understanding and knowledge that they really need to know to do this job professionally. Enough about me. This book I bought five years ago , was one of the most informative books I have ever read, and should have been read first.
It is Carroll Smith's Nut's Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook. Everyone serious about technical things especially marine engines and the like that take alot of punishment.
It is full of basic fact's and really should be read and meditated and fully digested. Although this man is no longer with us, he truly gave us a real gift and condenced library's of info into one book. The knowledge in this book can be applied to every area of engineering with by means of defensive design. He teaches us about metal properties, a full understanging of what Murphy knew instead of blaming failure on his law.
In the opening statement he state's That if we knew all there is to know about stress , strain, vibration, load paths, corrosion and fatigue , structural failures would still occur because of quality control, poor inspection proceedures, human greed, carelessness and stupidity. I figured I didn't need a book on hardware !
I recommend this book very highly. The knowledge is priceless. Knowing how things work is a great thing, understanding why they work is where it's at. It's a crash course in physics.
Big Block Billy

thx BBB,
sounds like a good read. i am hoping to find someone that will cut down the trial and error's that are inevitable in learning something new.
thx for the headsup

There is a ton of reading in this section of the site. Just keep going back and reading old threads. Probably 90% of your questions will have been answered and you find knowledge about a lot of stuff that you never thought of.