Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

Hello, I just purchased a 1989 ski challenger 21' boat with a 351 Ford inboard. The engine says U.S. Marine Power on the valve cover.

question #1- Who manufactured ski challenger ( is it Bayliner )
#2-Who makes my engine ( he said its ford but searching
ski challenger engines Ford isn't listed.

#3 Boat has exhaust that comes out in middle above the carb
and then goes down and straight out the back. It has 2
long mufflers. Can I remove them and install straight pipes
Boat sounds O.K. but I want it to sound nasty like other
ones on the lake. If I remove mufflers will it harm engine at
all because of less back pressure.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions but I have searched and cant find out much about my new toy. I really want louder raspy exhaust but dont wanna hurt engine.

Re: Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

Welcome to iboats.

It should not hurt anything to remove the mufflers. Any serial numbers you can find on the block? Is the distributer in the front of the block or back?( Ford is front Chevy is rear)

Re: Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

It's likely a Ford inboard engine. They are fairly common in the inboards I believe. I don't know if the mufflers serve another purpose as far as fighting water reversion, so you may want to really read up on that before you go jury-rigging your exhaust. That being said, the exhaust manifolds are restrictive enough that I doubt losing the mufflers is going to cause any loss in performance.

Re: Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

Thanks for the fast response guys. Yes they are mufflers. Long fiberglass mufflers and I think they help keep water from coming back into engine. That means no hot rod sound. lol. Anyways the distributor is in front of engine. So that means Ford 351.
My sea strainer lid is leaking water pretty bad. How important is the sea strainer. Also I need to change engine oil and the guy said just use regular sae 30 weight oil. The boat has 375 hours on it and didnt know if I needed marine oil or just regular valvoline 30 weight oil. Thanks again.

Re: Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

regular automotive 30 weight should be fine.

The mufflers have 2 parts inside them and are designed to go in with a specific side up. I had to replace mine as they were leaking badly when I started my restore. I cut the old ones up and the parts inside definitely would slow water from flowing forward . . . but the outer diameter is 4" and the fittings are 3" so I doubt they create any real back pressure or noise reduction.

I drew up roughly what the fittings look like

Re: Newb, Lots of Inboard questions Help!

What a happy muffler part.