Imploded Scarab 29 - Lake Conroe Texas
 

Hello all,

Well I got 3 Lake Conroe runs out of my newly purchased 96 Scarab 29 with reportedly refreshed 350 Mags. Had my sons out for a run on Saturday, about 15 hours on refresh, brought it up to about 4k for a couple of minutes. Never hit over 55, went to turn around for another run, (still getting used to these k-planes), and before I even came out of the turn the starboard engine went puff and down.

Towed in. Found out today #3 piston is in shambles, made a mess of the rest of the motor. Shop I brought it to won't do the work, a technicians nightmare due to space constraints.

I am assuming repower here. If anyone can recommend a shop in the region who is capable and able to tear these out, (I am assuming the port is probably a dog too), It would be much appreciated.

I don't have forklift access anymore and getting too old to contort into the engine bay.

(I know I deserved this, did not have it surveyed, trusted the seller, and I wanted that Larry Smith hull but damn)

There should be s ton of room. Try a pair of 502's😎
I had the same thing happen. Rebuilt 454's and $12k in receipts. Engines were so bad and needed to much machine work I purchased brand new engines. That hurt😂 the pocket book.

I was in nearly the same boat last year with basically two options- pay out the wazoo and hope to salvage some of your summer or lay back, ease your way through the rebuilds and be ready for the following summer.

I chose the slow path.

having it surveyed would have had little bearing on a engine failure like this, sounds like detonated itself to deal or dropped a valve, if the latter and they did a compression ck..maybe but if we could tell when a engine was going to let go...we would be rich ! could have been as simple as timing way off...ran into balancers slipped in the rubber and setting the timing on the mark, thinking good and be 40 deg off, had that happen to a friends jasper 350 a while back....nothing left, pulling and doing a engine for those is not that bad...like said before with big blocks...no fun at all...good luck and sorry for your luck...Rob

^^^^^ totally agree with everything and will add about a survey person can not determine when your engine is going to go down. Comp test and leak down might had shown possible low numbers and or possible problems or possible NOT as it could have shown great numbers like a brand new engine and report very solid.

Also most survey persons do not perform a full mechanical inspection nor a very indepth mechanical inspection anyways. The best thing was to get the engine builder - build sheet and all paid receipts from whomever including if any warranty on his work and parts. Then the next step is to tear down the engines and see what kind of build it was compared to what was paid for along with comparing his build sheet. Sometimes they do not add up depending on the engine builder. Some good out there and some I would not let them build me a sandwich even a Baloney one at that. Just saying

Thanks for the feedback! Man it looks tight in there, I didn't think 2 big blocks would fit.. hmmm I wasn't thinking about that option....

Im guessing new power here is the right way to go from what the shop is telling me on the starboard. Of course now the drive question comes into play... the price of flying by the seat of your pants across the water!!! Looks like kayak and beer for a while!!!!

Mercury remans the best way? I see a bunch of tier II suppliers of reman mercruiser motors.....

Thanks again guys.. hope everyone has a great 4th!

What's that shop up near Texoma that became famous during the Card Shark story? :drink:

I know him but will add he has beat me out of a lot of repowers even new engine & drive installs for new hulls. Why because at one time he had a big name . is this who did the repowers for the OP posting here ?

Derebery Performance Marine. Although I do detect a little sarcasm. :angry-smiley-038:

I detected a little sarcasm there too. Had to go look it up. :poopoo: I was sailing then.