377 Upgrades and Repairs
 

Happy New Year everyone! Thought I would share the upgrades and repairs happening on my 377.
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2023 recap:
Bought the boat in June, Dave at Wesco found a bad cam in the port side engine. Original cam was a HR 236/236 @ .050 .578 lift on a 112 LSA, replacement cam is a HR 242/254 @.050 .575 lift on a 113 LSA. Dave put the engine back in the boat and I took it out labor day weekend. Boat ran best of 70mph at 5000rpm trimmed out in 1-2 ft chop. Found a leaking bellow and pulled the boat. October I pulled the stbd side engine to have Dave match the cam to the new port side cam. Found some water contamination in the trans, Dave and I both think the water seeped in the tailshaft seal from the leaking bellow since there was a rust line around the trans from all the water sitting In the bellow. The stbd side helmet has a considerable amount of play, looks like ill be needed a different transom assembly. When draining the drives, found metal In the port side, looks like it will be time for a rebuild on that one. Yay!
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Winter work:
The boat came with freshly built 540 long blocks in 2020. Dart Big M tall decks, Eagle cranks key wayed for the blowers, Molnar rods, JE dish pistons, Brodie Big Brodix aluminum heads, topped off with used Weiand 177 blowers making about 3psi of boost. After advice from Dave and many others, I decided to upgrade to 871's for less heat and more boost. Plan on running 5psi, goal is 800hp on a reliable tune up (fingers crossed). Won't be running intercoolers this year since I'm quickly approaching the max budget for this winter. I found really nice set ups of used Hampton 871's and everything else I needed.
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Now have to upgrade the fuel systems to feed them. Pumps with the 177's were holley 110 gph mechanical with regulators. Been looking at bigger pumps with bigger fittings in the 130 gph range, and also possibly adding electric pumps for insurance. All the fuel line needs to be upgraded from -6 to -8 at the least or -10 more ideally. Also picked up nice used marine machine hydraulic steering helm to stern. Picked up a nice set of used gaffrig guages too.
The boat is not perfect, has its fair share of stress cracks and signs of its age . Ideally I'd like to run it for another 2 seasons and then do a full restoration while putting my power package in another hull during the course of the resto so I can still go boating. But for now I plan on enjoying it until then. Hope you guys enjoy this thread as it continues and i appreciate any input or advice! Thanks!

Cool old ride , was that a factory staggered or was that a old triple engine that got converted.

I remember Van Andels had a 377 in Holland with triples back in that era called Warp Factor, but they had a 377 before that I think was a staggered boat that was all white like yours though can’t remember the name of that boat.

2nd picture in post #1. What are those spacers on your Gil manifolds? Helping a friend on his Powerplay refresh and need to raise the exhaust about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches.

I wish I was smart enough to have a "budget" lol

It's looking good Frank! Also looks like you're doing it the right way. My advice would be to not go way overboard with trying to make it perfect. Those cracks are probably just in the gel. My boat had about 3.89 million cracks in the gel and took forever to get them fixed, and I have found a few I missed here and there. If you have a nice original boat, you may be better off keeping it that way. (I wouldn't listen to this kind of advice and don't expect you to either lol)

I will measure them them tomorrow. I have to get them ceramic coated since they are all rusty and cruddy. The exhaust was custom fabbed so the water mixes it at the end of the pipe right at the transom.

Thanks! Judging by the original stringers and pics from the transom be redone in 2019 it was a factory stagger.
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Thanks! I really love your KV build. The only two reasons I chose the 377 over the 38 KV was for the staggered engines and raised deck, absolutely love the cabin on this boat. There's about a dozen stress cracks I'd like to fix that are noticeable, this boat has definitely seen some rough water judging by some of the cracks. I'm not sure of the condition of the stringers and bulkheads under the cockpit. The bulkhead behind the fuel tank is questionable and so is the cockpit sub-floor. The stringers in the bilge and cabin didn't throw any worrisome readings on the moisture meter though. There are quite a few things I don't like about how the boat was re-rigged with the new power and transom. After re-rigging my 292 Formula, I'm a real stickler for how things are done and how they look. There were a few corners that were cut that I'd like to remedy.

As to how far I want to go with a future restoration would be determined by funds and priorities when that time comes. I used to have alot of hobbies (playing music, hot rods, snowmobiling) but have been shifting my focus more to boats and starting my marine service and transport business. Right now I don't have a girlfriend or kids but that can definitely change by that time. :eek:

I'd like to redo the stringers and bulkheads and go with Cossa board, reconfigure the stringers in the bilge, add a bigle bulkhead similar to the apaches and set the port engine back about a foot. Move the cabin entrance to the center of the cockpit and build a new dash similar to the cigs with steps built into the cabin door. Holy crap that sounds like a big project but man would it be cool :cool-smiley-011:I plan on having this boat for a very long time, so whenever it happens. I plan on keeping the current graphics and the wing.

Only cosmetic change will be a purple powder coated aluminum swim platform this year with a telescoping ladder.

Now that I remember the staggered 377 the Van Andels had in Holland was all white and it’s name was Warp Factor.

Their triple engine they replaced it with was black and named Black Magic.

Devos old KV just surfaced out of a barn.
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Yup, I know who owns Conquest now, I see it every time im at his shop, definitely a cool boat!

Yea Todd Kon aka Baronmarine sent me those pics a while back. . Tell Big Dave Surfer Tom said hi from Naples Fl.

Does Todd have that boat now?

I have to drop off one of my blowers to him very soon. Will tell him for sure!

No I don’t know who owns it .

Figured I'd bring this thread back since there have been some big developments in the last few months...
I decided to sell the SSM3's and go with merc extension boxes and SSM4's. I purchased some boxes and nice transom assemblies from my buddy Tim in New York, and bought a pair of #4's from waybomb here on OSO. Also Dave at Wesco put one of the 8-71's on one of my 540's. I'm hoping the 4's and boxes get the props in cleaner water and raise my X dimension enough to free up some MPH and do some trial and error after that to make this big girl move a little better! Hoping to make around 825 HP a side with the bigger blowers and cams on 5 or 6 pounds of of boost. Won't be running chillers this year since I've already exceeded my budget, but no thermostats and splashing some VP leaded 110 and boostane in the tank to keep her happy. Here's some pictures.
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Sounds great. looking forward to seeing it run. But please stop using trigger words like "budget" though. That hurts my self esteem lol

Hahahahahaha I definitely understand. I had no idea i was gonna end up buying everything i have in the last year.
I would like to mock up my drive height in the next week or so, just to get and idea of where the X is gonna be. Then I have to do some welding repairs on the extension boxes and drive skegs, reseal, strip and paint.

What did you do with the 177 blowers you had?

Sold them last year to fund the 8-71's

Get in touch with Team Archer (Dan) on here to get the correct X dimension. If anyone would know, it would be him. No need for trial and error.

I plan on giving him a call while doing mock up. I actually mentioned it to him when i visited his shop a month ago.

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Seen this and thoight about painting the extension boxes purple to compliment the purple on the back of the boat. What do you guys think?

I vote purple. I think it would look cool.