The head gaskets look brand new. When I have pulled the tails after idling for a while on the water I have found small drops of water in the bottom of the manifolds. I have pressure tested the system a few times and still have some droplets. The cams are on a 108* LS.

Interesting.
 

That can be hard to track down. One of my hot rod O/B's was steaming the oil out of the cylinders from turning a water leak to steam. Decked the heads, the block and replaced several sets of head gaskets to no avail. It was an aluminum block w/steel sleeves and I finally figured out the block was machined wrong from the factory and when heated, allowed the sleeves to drop bellow the deck surface which exposed the fire ring on the head gasket and let water bleed past it.
That one was a head scratcher.

I hope you find yours.

I was talking about the socalled engian bilder T that was suggested:angry-smiley-038::poopoo::poopoo:

I don't recall me stating my engine builder or recommending a builder. I only referenced having Jim Valakos heads that Dart cast for him and he then assembled for me.

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Edit...
After going through your posts and finding out you are from the Maryland area, this must be the builder you have issues with. Something that has nothing to do with my restoration thread. Thanks for reading...
Or did you do a search for his name and then decide to trash him on my thread.
Thanks, I appreciate it!

Thanks, I know it is from the combination of my cam and my mufflers. The problem did not happen till I added the mufflers. I can take them off and the manifolds remain dry. I have no choice but to run the mufflers. (to many noise violations with dry tails:)) once I'm on plane and running they are dry. I've done some investigating after some hard runs.

Interesting....
 

so if it only happens w/mufflers on, they must be collecting water off plane while motors aren't building enough pressure to keep them dry??
Assuming this......, do the mufflers have drain holes on the bottom of them??? If so can you make them bigger??

I guess another possibility is that they are creating enough back pressure to prevent the motor from blowing out the water (from where ever it's coming from) off plane and or maybe aggravated by (lack of) lobe separation of your cam???

Always amazes me at the little crap that surfaces when you do something on your own that is so close to what others have done but w/a little personal spin to it.
I'm really anal about my projects and read/research everything I can ahead of time and try to duplicate a known equation the best I can. That way if it doesn't work I know it's something I screwed up.

I taught myself a very important lesson yrs ago w/a muscle car I had at the time. Was modifying the 440 Chrysler in it and and after nearly 2 yrs of reading and asking questions I called Bob Mazzolini to order all of the parts. Told him on the phone I knew I could save 10 - 15% by going through Jegs but I was willing to pay that for his racing knowledge and expertise on that motor. (X Super Stock racer) He even offered to try and match it but I wouldn't let him.
W/his guidance (and his review of my plans) I had that motor turning 7000 RPM in every gear (ran out of balls at 6700 in 4th) and was virtually bullet proof.
All through that build, he would p/u the phone when I called.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...motorcarbs.jpg
Did the same for my first hot rod O/B. Sent the block to Al Stoker for boring and paid 3 times what I could have had it done for locally but got yrs worth of priceless information (plus the respect) in exchange. Always amazes me at the guys that just pick up the phone and call Wizard builder X and expect him to give them info for free that he spent yrs and $$$$ learning.

One of the few smart things I've done in my life :helmet:

Way to long time since I have updated this thread. So this weekend I finally pulled and tore down my port engine. Looks like this one was a little rich.

Apparently I got to this engine just in time. The cam was starting to wipe out 3 lobes.

JimV did a little touch up to the chambers. This is pic of a brand new head vs the chamber port. Chambers are now 129cc's and that puts ~9.04:1

It's nice to take something apart and actually finding the problem right away. Boat would drift to the Starboard side and would need to be corrected every so often.

In case anyone needs the part #'s for marine machine rams.

New cams have been ordered and hopefully be here in a week or so.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]500862[/ATTACH]Well it's been over a month and finally time to revive this thread. The delivery man showed up with some goodies! Camshafts!
I have camshafts, Knock modules and sensors in hand. I sent out my solid roller Isky Red Zones to get rebuilt and they came back
looking almost as good as new. I'm going to spend this weekend hopefully putting the engines back together.

Rookie- epic thread. Nice to see all the mods and hard work you have done. One of the coolest panthers out there!!!

Very Cool. Keep at it.

Thanks guys!

Damn Jason thats a ton of work!!!! GREAT job bro keep us posted...BTW I will wave when you go flyin by me!!

Rookie, Thanks for posting this thread. I have a buddy with a 77 Scarab 30' that asked me for some help so I jumped on here and found this and another thread that has given me a ton of info to help my buddy. Your boat looks excellent & sounds like it runs strong also. I look forward to reading more. Btw do you spin your props out or in? My buddy blew a drive so he replaced the pair but wasn't paying attention to what direction his props were spinning & I wouldn't want him to get any nasty surprises when he splashes it. Randy

Update:
New hydraulic roller cams are in (running solid lifters on them still), heads chamber ported, lowered compression, new pushrods and bottom strakes are glassed in and gelcoated. Have not ran top speed numbers but put 30 miles on Lake MI today and the bow just floats. Kind of reminds me of the old raceboat in '03.

I have some video of before the strakes and I will try to get some after video for comparison tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of the strakes complete.

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If I get some ambition I might put the blowers on some time this summer.

Very nice. Before and after video would be killer.

Going to have to put the video on hold for a bit. Need to find a RH lower or a set of gears:)

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I bought a cruiser in the last few weeks and really haven't had time to work on the Panther.
I finally got the other drive on and ran it all weekend. I am now really liking all of the bottom work
and the additional strake length. The boat just feels like it floats. The angle of attack is great.
I had a friend get a video today. I haven't seen it yet, but I will post it as soon as I get it.

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Here is a pic of the new to me Mothership.
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Here is the original video about 10yrs ago. Running about 65-70mph. Damn that looks slow
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...h_DSCF0075.jpg

Here is the after. A little bit different conditions but you can see that the boat carries the bow better.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...h_IMG_0335.jpg

Sounds nice!

Very nice Jason! I'm in the process of restoring my 87 Panther and was wondering if I can pick your brain on any issues that arises? Thanks

No problem, just shoot me a PM when you have any questions.

so you extended the strakes on your panther?? have you had a chance to run it wide open throttle yet?

U did a great job on it that was my first boat a 1987 30ft panther got it brand new it had 330hp 454s bravo drives did 72mph

Kid - that sounds pretty good for 330hp 454's. I picked up a 86 panther last august and just hoping to get thru this year befor I pull the motors.

Rookie - I started following your build when I signed up on here last year. Your boat has come a long way from your day 1. I'm hoping to do the same. I have some misc. bs I need to attend to just to get a good year out of it. Have you done anything with your dash cluster? I want to change mine up but not sure what way I want to go yet !? I hope you get yours back together for this upcoming season.

I have not done anything with the dash as of yet. Maybe next project. The boat has been back together since mid last summer. I have not touched the boat all winter. I changed the oil on the boat last weekend and fired it. It's all ready to go.
If you have any questions just hit me up.

Seeing that it's been mostly a trouble free summer I decided to rebuild the trailer. I'm going from triple 3500lb axles to tandem 6000lb axles. I started a thread in the trucks and transportation section.

My 6000lb torsion axles, new rims and tires arrived Monday. Big difference from my 3500lb. Can't wait for the weather to break so I can tear off the original setup and get these on. These are 6000lb Torflex straight from Dexter. Breaks and drums should be here by Friday.

I'll add pics of the makeover as I make progress.
I still can't get over the sheer mass of these 6000lb axles. I have everything minus fenders, the dexter brakes and bearings arrived 2 days ahead of schedule.
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So the fun begins. My brother and I started disassembly of the trailer. [ATTACH=CONFIG]527888[/ATTACH]
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Rolling triple assembly removed.
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It is pretty much wasted. I'm glad it only goes a couple miles to the launch.

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Back to work.
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Before I arrived home tonight, the UPS man must have made a visit.

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Tonight's after work progress.
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Tonight I painted fenders, trailer should be finished tomorrow. The bunks are being made within the next couple of weeks.
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What a difference. The trailer pulls amazingly well. With the removal of 1 axle I gained a little tongue weight, but I think it helped out. All swaying and bounce has been eliminated. All I need to do now is wire up all 4 brakes.

Measuring up some diamond plate.
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Taking back to the shop to get a bath after a day of boating.
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Rookie, where did you mount your radio antenna or do you have a handheld ?

Right behind my nav lights, it's about 6-8"[ATTACH=CONFIG]528641[/ATTACH]