Those of you who have followed the Swampy saga know that my carbed 502s (one counter rotating) were built by Bills Marine in FLL and have never worked right - couple of booms later and a few years of unreliable hassle, my port motor locked up while sitting at the dock for 10 days - no aparent reason.....I've had it.

So my thought process is as follows:

1) Pull both motors (since I don't trust them or know what is in them) and swap the for 540 or 572 long blocks and change out the borg warners 1.5:1 transmissions for 72Cs at 2:1 (so that there is more ratio and so I can run two normal rotation motors). This would cost $16k plus transmissions and I'd have to buy regular rotation alternator, starters etc.

2) Find a reliable local engine builder and have them take my existing motors, add cubes, go through everything and dyno them ... put them back in the boat and hope more HP/Torque will work with existing trans ratios. For a pair of 500hps - this would cost me about $12k plus transmissions if I change them out. I'd prefer more HP/Tq but not sure what that would run yet.

Your thoughts?

Get them rebuilt since you already have the engines. Dean Gellner of Gellner Engineering can help you sort it out and get it up and running again. He will tare them apart, inspect them and quote you what you need to make them reliable again. Not only can he rebuild them, He can mod them to whatever setup you want to run. They do all of their machining in house. Dean also has a dyno shop so that wouldn't be a problem at all, one stop shop. Call him at his shop 216-398-8500.

Thanks for the lead. I have a good guy here locally that I trust and does good work - the new questions is:

Do I have him rebuild them and get me 510 cubes and 500 hp or do I buy a pair of 540 or 572 short blocks and have him move all my stuff over, dyno and tune? I could then sell the existing blocks or keep them as spares?

Decent short blocks would be around $4k, labor and dyno would add ?????? compared to $5500 each to rebuild and dyno what I already have.

What makes the most sense for a heavy cruiser?

What

I would work with what you have now and not have to
move things around. That will give you some decent
power for that big ol Harley...........nice riding boats

I'd rebuild what I have with a GOOD builder, or I'd do it myself.

I would say before you took the final decision have your engines disassembled and inspect all your components such as the block heads and hard components to make sure they are worhty of a good build without any weekness such as heavy corrosion in the water jackets in the blocks or the heads and no cracks from previous damage.This will not be too costly and may save you trouble later . Best of luck to you I know you've been contemplating this for a while.Sincerely Laz

That is very sound advice.

thanks guys - that is the plan

I think that replacing the engines would be better for resale.

diesels would be best for resale but ....... $$$CHAching$$$$