Scarab Panther always a work in progress
 

So I had been gathering up pics of my Panther and the different transformations the old beast has been going through over the years. I have been meaning to post this in the Scarab section for a while, but had never got around to doing it.

For starters like a lot of others I am not a professional. Working on boats is not my job.....sometimes it feels like a second job that I don't get paid for. I consider it my apprenticeship. :)

I will try to post pics in chronological order to the repairs/restoration/upgrades.

I purchased my Panther in October 2002. I didn't know what I was getting into. I had cash in hand and wanted and '80's Scarab Panther since I was a kid. I didn't know what a Florida saltwater boat was....... :eek:

Here is the shape when I bought it.

The Panther ran flawless for the first 4 year just gas and oil. Full throttle everywhere. Those Merc 420's were great engines and it would run 71 +or- depending on conditions.

The first upgrade I decided was to paint the whole boat white. Then I would have a blank canvas for later if I wanted to add graphics. I thought since the boat was named White Knuckle why not paint everything all white. Drives, tabs and the Drew Marine Sidewinders (steering stabilizers). I also changed the font on the name.

The red lines were sanded out and then painted with DuPont single stage Chroma-One.

I then moved on to interior upgrades. The pleated '80s red and black was not to comfortable and was a little outdated. So I tried to keep the pattern of the red and black but use white and keep it simple.

I pulled out the gray carpeting, sanded the floor and put a coat of Pettit Epoxy topcoat white down. Cut a little runner out of red marine carpet and snapped it to the floor.

Summer of 2006 the Port engine dropped a valve seat (cracked between the valves) and took out a piston.

Time to build fresh power. Added new pistons 9.7:1, solid roller cams, Isky lifters, Valako (JimV) ported Merlin heads.

Put in the back of the truck and headed to the dyno.
590HP Now pushing the old TRS Panther to 78mph.

More to come

Looking good Jason! Are the huffers on it yet?

Come on man, I know you have more pictures then that! Let's see them!!

Patience Grasshopper....patience
Oops....I forgot all about this thread.

After the new power I sold the Drew marine sidewinders and started piecing together a full hydraulic steering system. I will say that the Panther was a death trap without the sidewinders and hydraulic steering was now the #1 priority. It chine walked, bow steered, and was plain scary. I put it up for nearly a summer until I completed the steering system for safety reasons.

After adding hydraulic steering I actually lost speed. I believe this was because now more of the hull was always in contact with the water. What a pleasure the boat is to drive now. I feel now that I can be at speed and walk away from the helm to clean the dash, grab a drink or mess with the stereo. If I was ever to do ANY upgrade to another boat the first thing would be add Full Hydraulic steering. This would be before any power upgrades, paint, vinyl or props and I have done them all!

Now that I have new power and things were running good I could now do some of the little things like add new oil coolers, rebuild the crappy Merc seawater/fuel pumps and fix my plexiglass hatch.

Painted the copper coolers shiny silver.

Ordered new bearing and seals for the sea pump. See thread for DIY.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/d...fuel-pump.html

Hatch was cracked and screwed together with a little sheet of plywood on the bottom side. I ordered a sheet of 3/8" polycarb off of ebay. Clamped it on a sawhorse, heated it with a torch and slowly cooled it with a mist of water. See thread for DIY.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...ass-hatch.html

At the end of 2010 the Port transmission was starting to slip. So the plan over the winter was to just pull the tranny and have it rebuilt.

Seeing that one engine and tranny was out I decided why not pull the other to clean the bilge and repaint...... Oh what a nightmare this idea would turn out to become. (BTW the bilge looked this bad when I bought the boat) One thing lead to another and after all was said and done I had removed my drives, stripped them, filled all corrosion pits and painted them, pulled out all of my wiring dash to bilge (it needed it, refer to the earlier post on F'n saltwater boats!) and re-rigged the boat.

Wiring before and after under dash. And new pump mounts that will attach to the backseat bulkhead.

I know it looks like a mess.

During all of this JimV (Valako Race Heads) was working with Dart Heads to cast some aluminum Pro1 heads to match his hand porting. He asked me if I would like to trial a couple pairs. Seeing the boat was running great with minimum problems I decided why not. So I needed to refresh the look of the power with a new top end. Off with the iron Merlin heads and on with the new Dart aluminum heads.

I taped off the back of the boat, sanded and painted the K-Plane mounts. Installed gaffrig mufflers, mounted a $25 harbor freight 250PSI tire air compressor to actuate the muffler cylinders with a NOS valve to dump pressure. (between the hydraulic pumps in the previous post).

Mounted the drives and put it all back together. End of winter 2010 and mid summer 2011 project.

Next to come winter 2011.....Fill in the hook and straighten the bottom of the old girl :)
Need to get the pics in order.

Very nice job.

Nice work! Hopefully I will see the same results when I start going through mine.

always a work in progress. a friend got sick of working on his boat and spent 22k on a brand new (in 2006) 20 bayliner. 5 years later he got sick of working on it and sold it for 12k. at least with old stuff you expect it...

Very true. I couldn't imagine how much actual time I have into this boat if I added it up. I look at it as an apprenticeship that I am paying for with my time. I had never done any extensive work on a boat in my life until I bought this boat. Now I feel I can conquer most anything dealing with a boat and I will feel comfortable managing a newer and larger ride in the future.

If a lot of members look closely they will see their stuff that I bought from them in the swap shop. I have a ton of swap shop parts on the Panther.

Very cool man. Now you just need to bolt the blowers on, and do a sweet blower hatch. Love the old scarabs

Thanks,
Gathering info for cam selection from JimV and others. So if anyone wants to put there $0.02 in it is open for discussion. Still need to find out my exact compression #'s. Also need to find out exactly how far the pistons are in the hole. Might do a little more chamber porting on the heads. I called JE/SRP and talked to one of their piston engineers. They said if I needed to I would be able to fly cut some of the dome off the pistons I have to knock down the compression. (I was surprised they said this) I do not have hollow domes and they gave me the weight/cc. And minimum wall/dome thickness they recommend for NA and Blower applications.

I am trying to get the blower hatch done in the next few weeks. I bought scoops and 3/4" Baltec Balsa core material. Ordering the 1708 bi-axial glass and resin this week.

The blowers look great sitting on the shelf and I am a little apprehensive about putting them on. The current engines are running like a fine Swiss time piece and I don't want to get into them and add headaches. All I have done this year is add Ignitions and gas. (LOTS of gasoline)

Very impressive project. Big fan of the Panthers and really like the way yours is coming out and the direction you chose.
Well done.

I'll post my cam card later jay, but 236/[email protected] .630 lift 114lsa.

If you can get the compression down a bit, nothing wrong with a little more compression, little less boost. My heads have been milled a TON. Chambers are now 105cc. With my flattops, valve relief, and headgasket I used, I'm almost 9:1. Dynoed on pump gas, and been running pump gas this summer with 5.5lbs of boost. No issues. I have another friend running 9.5:1, 3.5lbs of boost on a 580ci on pump gas making 850hp for years. He bumps the boost to 6psi with a race gas mix and well over 900hp

The extra compression will work well with the smaller blowers your running. A little work on my heads, and going from the 250 blower single carb, to the 420 blower twin carb, so far I've gained 5mph on top, and that with 1.5lbs less boost. (was running 7lbs with the 250's)

I actually came out around 8.8:1 static on mine. 468CI, GM crank, manley rods with arp 2000 bolts, Pistons are JE Flattops with -3cc relief. Speed Pro plasma moly file fit rings (woulda liked total seal gapless, but...) Dart 308CC rect port aluminum heads, isky springs, morel lifters, crane roller rockers, 420 blowers with 850 holley's. In the boat, idle at 750 in gear all day. I only pulled to 6200 on the dyno, not sure where it would have peaked, but didnt really care to push it. I dont plan to exceed 6000 in the boat, so its just a number. I may have done a little better with slightly less duration, but for a budget build i was impressed with those numbers out of a 468ci. There is also a hideous port mismatch on the intake side, that i just didnt have the time to address. But it works.

Id guess Jason, that your JimV heads flow better than mine. If you can knock that compression down a bit by milling the pistons, or a little chamber work, and run a thicker headgasket (the quench factor isnt that crucial with the blower), I think you'll be making some real nice power.
You'll love the blowers. Just dial in the AFR in the boat, keep water temp cold, use good gas, and enjoy the blower whine at wot! .

Thanks Twin O/B, I appreciate that.

Thanks for the cam specs. That is a tough looking engine with the Black Blower! Just plugging the specs into my desktop dyno that cam seems to make nice power N/A also. Decent cruise, maintain some fuel consumption before getting into full boost.(oxymoron)

I forgot that you were running 308's. My heads flow [email protected]" With the increased flow in heads I might lose some boost. Which might not be a bad thing. Jim has a thing about flow/restrictions and heat with a blower setup. But I think you already know that.

This is the cam we are looking at. It is on a 112 though. Input...

great work! did that on my stinger 260 !

Jims cam would probably work well too. Little more lift, little less duration, and the 112lsa is still blower friendly. I am by no means a cam guy. But I know you want the wider lobe separation, (112-115 LSA), anything less and your blowing boost out the exhaust valve and wasting power.

The blower will usually move the rpm band up a couple hundo. For example, if say N/A the engine peaks at 5500, bolting the roots blower on might make it peak at 5800-6000 or so.

What you say regarding boost is true. Cam choice, cylinder head flow, exhaust flow, all play a part. You can take a basic 454/330HP engine, slap a 177 blower on it, and make 5lbs of boost and not drive the blower very hard. Then you take your engine for example, good flowing heads, high lift long duration cam, and take that same 177 and bolt it on, and maybe only make 2psi of boost. Boost psi is just a restriction. Same goes for Cubic inch. A 540CI will normally require a larger blower than a 454. However, if your 454 is modified well, and breathes (makes same HP) as that 540 N/A, well then you also need a larger blower. Most guys will say, well, you got a little 454/468, no need for a large blower. The blower itself has no idea what size engine its on . A 250 blower can be just fine for a 540CI with lamo heads and a weak flat tappet cam. But a stout 540 with nice pieces is gonna do much better with a 10-71, etc. a 454 making 800hp, or a 598 making 800hp, should, in theory, be moving the same amount of air. This is why I suggested the 420, or a 871 for what you have. However, with your extra compression, thats gonna help you with the smaller blower. Now, if you had say 8:1, and wanted to run 8lbs, with your heads, cam, etc, You'd probably have to spin the blower close to 2:1 ratio. 12,000RPM blower speed on those B&M's just ends up #1 creating tons of heat, #2 the blower lives a short life.
:evilb:
I was turning my 250 1.86:1. My 420's are turning .93:1 now. The rotors are turning so much slower, my charge is probably much cooler now, and the blowers should last a long time.

Heres a couple good build articles.

http://www.superchevy.com/technical/...r/viewall.html

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...r/viewall.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...e/viewall.html

Fun idea......when your ready to dyno, I'll come up, and bring my blower/carb/pulley/belt setup.We can see what effect the larger blower twin carb setup does vs the smaller blower single carb setup. It be a really cool test, and easy, since my blower will bolt right on your intake. Four bolts and a fuel line and we're all good! nobody does fun stuff like that anymore!

I'm in, that would be great. I have single dominator plates, dual quad plates, 4 4150 carbs and 2 dominator carbs. Looking for front offset dominator plates now. #93153 Just in case you have seen any. I plan on obtaining some data. I still need to get my lazy ass down to DMPE and get these checked out.

You guys should head up to HotBoat in a couple of weeks. A lot of BS'ing and cool boats.

http://www.holley.com/data/Catalogs/Weiand/118.pdf

Next will be sanding, filling in hook, sanding/sharpening all edges, fixing repairs and spraying gel coat. I will state that laying on your back sanding and filling is not fun. I put this experience right up there with bailing hay the old fashion way on a 102*F day.

The bottom of my hull was a mess. Chipped and missing gel, globs of filler that was never sanded from previous owners to cover damage.

Just a few pics to start with.
1st pic is showing hook after I had sanded as much of the high spots of original gel down.

2nd pic is the bottom of the V looking towards the drives/water pickups.

3rd pic is sanding the sides of the chine and damage before filler

Heres a chart to figure out what CFM you'll require. I figured your 468, turning 6000RPM, 6lbs of boost, you'd need 1137CFM. With 30% larger carb, your at 1478CFM.

From what I've learned, it is very hard to overcarb a roots setup. Its not like a N/A setup, where the engine can become lazy. The Roots compressors dont like any restriction on top of them when they need to draw some air. The single dominator works well I'd say up to about 700HP. And I think you're gonna be well above that level. Have you thought about converting to a SSM setup???? Now that would be wicked!!!

Right now I am running twin 850 marine carbs on mine. No boost reference. I have 8.5PV's in the primarys. On a highly modified 468, I'd really lean towards a twin 750 or larger setup. I think you'll find the engines will idle better, have better distribution, and make more power. With a agressive cam and the blower, the engines like to be fat at idle (why you hear blower surge). With my single dominator, I had to back the idle mix screws so far out, they almost fell out the carb, just to get it not to stall when around the dock. I coulda changed air bleeds and did some mods, but never did. With the 850's, I can shift in and out of gear all day and not puke a motor. One thing against me though is the large ssm props, they bite hard when put in gear, so you might be ok.



The size of carb(s) or CFM required for a given application can be calculated by the following formula A: {(CID x RPM) ÷ 3456} x {Boost ÷ 14.7) + 1} = CFM required. The amount of CFM required will determine carburetor size and quantity. If you try to use a carb with less CFM than required, performance and economy may be greatly reduced. Bigger is not always better when selecting carbs that are 30% over what is required, you may encounter problems in fuel distribution.

How about my friend Brians Scarab redo?? I think you'll like this one Rookie. Was a 1979 Hull. Totally redone. Stringers, new deck molded for it, new transom, etc. Had 700HP 540's, with TRS. Did 92mph. Then, totally redone, and SSM IV drives and boxes installed. Still need to dial it in, but I think once its all done it should run upper 90's with the same motors.

Mild, that's a great looking old Scarab! Before I bought my Panther I was looking at a totally redone 1976 Scarab with twin small blocks. Great looking boat but I am glad I ended up with the resin bucket that I did. SSM drives would be nice I know I'll end up with different drives in the future once the blowers are added. I probably will need to replace transom eventually....it is a 80's Wellcraft. I will visit drives then.

Thanks for the links and the carb information. I have a few carb setups to try.

Changing from stock twin all in one shifters to Zero Efforts.
I bought new 4 new 33c cables. Had a friend machine new cable end J-Hooks for the Zero Efforts. When I bought the shifter I didn't realize that the J-Hooks did not come with them.

Last weekend I finished up adding a little Garming GPS, drive and trim indicators. I ran out of dash room so I bent up some Acrylic and mounted them under the fairing. I will redo this over the winter and I will probably end up removing the compass.

Awesome job, keep diggin'!

Love it man!

My compass went this summer when I needed a place to mount my custom heads up indicators! I like them but already working on small LCD that will display the indicators instead!

You got to love all the little projects we can do to these boats to improve fit, form and function!!

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i4...b/6a88170b.jpg

Out enjoying some fruits of my Labor..........Day!
Running back to Grand Haven with JimV (Valako) on little Lake Michigan.
GoPro is the next purchase. Camera phones just don't cut it.

Click on Video
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3..._VIDEO0010.jpg

mild thunder, how did that scarab run w/ the inner strakes all the way to the transom ?

rookie were did you end your inners ? hows it runnin ?

thanks

Good catch on the inners!

I haven't added them yet. After removing the hook, filling in the bottom and sharpening the strakes I just put it in the water. I wanted to see the comparison with only doing one thing at a time. I then got lazy.

The bottom changed the attitude of the boat. It is much smoother in rough water with less trim. Actually the boat feels softer now and the bow kinda floats. Before the end of the season I will add the 6' strakes I already have and also have another set of strakes made to go to the end of the transom.

I actually haven't ran it out this year with my fastest props. I did 78.7mph @ 5800 with 4 people and under 1/2 tank of fuel. 6250RPM is where they peak.
After the bottom work with my cruising everyday props I went from 46mph to 51mph @ ~3600RPM (right before secondaries open) and 75.1mph @ 5200.

All I have been doing this summer is putting a lot of Gas in the boat. This winter the first thing I am going to do is pull the engines and put new cams in. The cams I have in now I believe I am just blowing gas out the exhaust!