It looks like its turning into a full resto!!!
 

Thought I would start a thread since it looks like its turning into a resto.

A little back story. I bought the boat 2 years ago as a repo. It is a 43 Blackthunder GT. It had nothing in it. I ended up putting it together with 454's and bravos. The below pics are what I started with.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...153946_8_0.jpg
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...153946_6_0.jpg
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...153946_4_0.jpg

What pics? :)

Keep the pictures coming.

I couldnt stand the sun pad so I opted to have that done right away.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...pse63e37a0.jpg

Here is the gauge panel I did last winter.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...pscc1a7f53.jpg

Over last winter I decided to loose the 454's and go with Dart 598's. Which meant a bunch of new parts. I ended up going with Ross custom piston, Oliver Rods, Callies magnum crank, Valako ported heads and Madara spec'd cam.

I was able to get the boat back together in the nick of time for Boyne Thunder. They made over 800 HP@ 5700 and in my opinion had more left. But on the last leg of the run disaster struck. Had a valve break in the starboard engine. Which prompted what you will see in the next group of pics. It looks like I am about to get my hands dirty.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6717e359.jpg
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psc0668be5.jpg

Heres where the boat stands today, well I am a little further along than this, but you get the point.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psacc5362f.jpg

Interior started by McLeod Designs. There was a LOT of rot so it looks like the will be rebuilding almost everything.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...pse248c9fb.jpg

Here is a video of the 598's running before the valve broke.

http://s1202.photobucket.com/albums/...pse9620cfa.mp4

Here is what the piston looks like after.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps047631a2.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7198f264.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psdaaf5138.jpg

Got an engine back on the stand.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps613dfe90.jpg

Wow, nice rebuild. Where did she come from? You must be just around the corner from me, I'm on Cass Lake. Keep up the good work. Thunders are a great boat !!!!!!!! :)

Thanks. It came from the Down River area (SE MI). I am just north of Elizebeth Lake.

This is going to be a good thread. Hope to see you guys again soon

Jason, let me know if you need an extra pair of hands ....... I'm literally just around the corner.............. Bill

is that a single carb 598, and what drives are you running, its a good looking boat.

WOW cool project keep the pics coming

Yes, it was a single carb on a 598CI. I am currently going thru the engines again to identify the valve issue I had. The new setup will be 598's with 420's and fuel injected. The reason for going with the 420's is they will bolt directly on my existing set up. At this point it is also a bit more cost effective rather than starting from scratch with new superchargers, chillers and intakes.

As far as drives I am looking at the x-powers or the SCX-4's. Waiting on this decision until we can get my buddies boat with the SCX-4’s dialed in.

Next time your down my way let me know we can get dinner or something.

Interior is done just need to go pick it up!

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...01164031-2.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/.../Frontview.jpg

Nice

Who did the interior?

McLeod Designs in Madison Heights, MI. They do great work. I am very pleased.

Jason

These are the motors we put in the boat in 2010. Boat was owned by Johnny Voils (sp) and sold to Gino Soave just before repo.A shop off of Southfield built the engines and they did not last 1/4 mile thats when Gino turned the boat back over to Johnny and then it went to the bank.

If its the same boat there should be some repair to the port side of the bow from where Johnny in 1 of his drunken moments hit a buoy at speed.

Yup, same boat. The repair is being repaired. Not to bash anyone, but the repair was very very poor.

Any specs on the motors and speed #'s?

I am pretty much going through every part of the boat. There were a lot of interensting repairs made over the years.

Any more info or pics would be great.

The engines I installed were built by Holbrook racing for Gino and had dyno sheets showing 850 HP.We also sold and install a set of upgraded Bravo Shop drives and HP gimbals.I do not have any info on speed (beer talk was 90) but do know that the years Johnny had the boat it did not see much use, it was from what I was told a Bravo eater. He ran the boat 1 year with the hole duct taped and I think his painter buddy did the "repair".

What did you have to give for the boat? If I remember correctly Johnny owed 30K and Gino payed for the rebuilds and drives then was to make the payments if everything worked out.I later heard that Holbrook fixed the blown engine and Gino sold off the hardware to recover the money he spent.

I won't make the purchase price public but I will say it was significantly way less than 30K.

Wow, very nice! Im going to look up mcLeod designs. Im at the point in my resto for interior!

Give Justin van Dijk a call 248-229-7553. He and his team are great people. They will not be the cheapest but they go the extra mile to make sure you are happy in the end. They were able to do the oem custom look I was looking for.

Jason

pleasure of big HP engines!!!!

It has been a while since I last updated this thread. She’s still a work in process, but at least now there is a light at the end of the tunnel. While the engines were out I decided to re-paint the bilge.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7c815f2c.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0a68c9d1.jpg

Here some more of it close to be finished.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8e5a3cb4.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...pseeea8d9f.jpg

LOVE the diamond plate!

As for the engines I will be keeping with the 598’s, utilizing all the existing internals except for the damaged pistons. I also went with different ring package this time. Another thing, I decided to forgo the B&M 420 supercharger idea and go with Blower Shop 14-71’s. I also updated to shaft rockers. Setting up the geometry on the shaft rockers was not just bolt on and go. The rocker stands needed multi axis machining for the fit I desired.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps56dd2e22.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psf95dbbc0.jpg

This last pic is me lugging the engines back and forth to the machine shop. Not the most desirable spot to be working (on the tail gate) but hey it worked!

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps176f6933.jpg

Beauty

Kind of out of order and not related to the engine build portion but I think they are cool. They are covers for the horns since I didn't like the plastic ones.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps36dd1f7f.jpg

Throughout this build we are custom building a lot of the parts. We've made various brackets for the ECM and electronics, along with custom fuel injector plates and fuel rails. These plates place the injectors at a 12.5 degree angle in the plate. Not sure if there will be any positive impact but it didn’t seem to make any sense to have the fuel spraying directly at each other. We are currently in the process of building custom water pickups and sea strainers. I will post pics in a couple weeks once some more of the components to build them are completed.


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps040b7525.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps43b1f73f.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2f56d0fc.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psccd2a2e6.jpg


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0883a9b0.jpg

The pic below shows kind of what stage the engines are in currently. There has been a little bit more progress than what is shown in the pic. The reason for the holdup was due to not knowing which drives I was going to go with and I have found in order to rig the engine making brackets and such you really need to know what components you are wiring and plumbing around. I ended up finding a pretty good deal on some used Arneson Bravo Conversions that are needing of a severe refurbishing. I ended up setting the bottom of the boxes 1 inch below the running surface of the boat at the drive centerline.


http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...ps56331d47.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psccbd9b6b.jpg

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/...psca6e7441.jpg

If those boxes don't work out for you I would be interested in them. Did you coat the diamond plate with anything to protect it? Nice work, I wish I had access to a cnc machine. Randy

did you get a chance to run the boat in 2013?

Thanks Randy. It’s very nice having a CNC and even better having an excellent programmer available to me, I kind of married in it to. LOL! My father in law teaches me as we go but you can't learn 30 years of experience in a few hours. I come up with all the designs since he’s not in the boating stuff. As far as the boxes go I am hoping they work out since I really have not thought of a plan B at this point. I haven't coated the diamond plate with anything yet, any suggestion on what to coat it with?