Questions about an older Chris craft

[rthomas]

Getting real serious about a 1969 31' CC commander, twin 327q's low hours since rebuilds, my question is why did CC install these motors backwards? and not its not a V drive boat, the front of the crank mates to the trans its hard to see exactly how this works because of the heat exchanger is mounted on top of the tranny.

[Bond-o]

Getting real serious about a 1969 31' CC commander, twin 327q's low hours since rebuilds, my question is why did CC install these motors backwards? and not its not a V drive boat, the front of the crank mates to the trans its hard to see exactly how this works because of the heat exchanger is mounted on top of the tranny.

Ayuh,... I haven't a clue, as to the answer to yer question,...

Like I said in Scott Smith's thread,...

Back in those days, ChrisCraft used many, Many custom castings from Chevy...
These are Nothing like the castings used by Chevy, even though they are Chevy castings...

Some of the Strangest SBCs I've ever seen, were ChrisCraft motors...

[Capt Ken]

There was so many configurations of engines in the 50's and 60's. Just like CC installed counter rotating engines in all their single engine boats. They felt all single engine props needed to turn clockwise. But the Q series was different. Now remember, the old flathead six engines was always installed flywheel forward.

[Lyle29464]

Wild guess here. Maybe it had to do with the front slump oil pans and keeping the starter high and dry?

[Capt Ken]

Many of the old flatheads actually shared the oilpan with the crash box and used the same oil.

[rthomas]

Yeah the starter thing is the only strong logical reason I can see, I guess they missed the bus on being the first ones to piggy-back a starter.
Yesterday I did the "mechanics inspection" and was not at all pleased with what I found, the port engine (witch is brand new) has a lot of internal clatter and continually backfires out of the carb and has low compression (avg 110psi), we looked in a few of the cylinders with a camera and could see that it has very fresh hone markes, my thought on that is that the rings have not seated yet. the starboard motor seems to run well and makes no noise, we spot checked 3 holes and got 160 on all, the problem with the starboard motor is that it has a pretty bad oil leak that isnt obvious from the top of the motor. I think that both carburetors are junk, they appear to be original and they run very rich (as per plug appearance)
This boat was advertised as a turn key-ready to go setup and it seems to be anything but, I will guess that taking care of these issues could run about $5k does that sound reasonable?

[Lyle29464]

5 k is a bunch. I would check for valve timing and a few other things. Maybe a wet compression test will rule out rings and rule in the cam timing.

[Bubba1235]

Are one of those engines a LH rotation? (Most were in the Commanders) I make mention of it because dropping a different engine in place isn't exactly easy. As to the clatter,,, any chance its the LH rotation engine? If so I think I'd take a good look at the valve train. Seen a few of them rebuilt using the old cam because there are no replacements. Just a word to the wise...

[rthomas]

One of them is a leftie but I think its the starboard motor and its the port one that yaks. I met with the owner and he agreed to fix the oil leak on the starboard motor and take care of whatever ales the port motor, which is hopefully only a valve adjust, Ill take care of the carbs and some other minor stuff with the rest of the boat.

[Ned L]

There is a real reason. Running the engine 'flywheel forward' allows the engine to sit lower in the boat, which equates to a lower shaft angle. AND. Likewise at any given shaft angle it allows the engine to sit farther aft in the boat.
There is a 'stub shaft' that presses on the timing chain end of the crankshaft that is the input for the reverse gear. The timing chain is inside the rear bell housing between the block and the reverse gear. Those C.C. small block Chevy marine conversions are real nice engines and still very desirable for the mahogany speedboat crowd and others (for exactly the reason I mentioned above).

[rthomas]

The shaft angle makes sense, my big concern is availability of things like risers, pumps and heat exchangers. A good number of these older CC's have been converted over to a Crusader setup and that makes me wonder if there is something not good about these setups.

[F14CRAZY]

Check with the chriscraftcommander.com guys.

The Q series was to allow for lower mounting and to keep the flywheel from picking up bilge water.

I have Q's with V drives, making a double backwards configuration. Difficult to explain to people...