Repowering twin Crusaders

[thewatercallsme]

My father owns a 1980 37' Silverton Convertable with twin 454cid Crusader 350s. He decided to put the boat on the market after 3 years of sweating hurricanes in florida. Here's the bad news, the boat hadn't run in about 8 months, literally it just sat there as a fish atraction device (you should see the bottom) and when he went to start one of the engines the starter sounded like it was bad. He had his mechanic look at it and determined he blew a rod and the engine was siezed. The mechanic said it'd be wasteful to put the time and money into the older engines.<br /><br />My question is, what's a reasonable price to do a dockside repower.<br /><br />I know this is a loaded question and there are multiple variables but he asked me how much I thought it'd be. He's considering letting the boat go for next to nothing to someone willing to repower on their own.<br /><br />I'd like him to get two Crusaders in the 7.4L or 6L range with EFI.<br /><br />Any ideas???

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Repowering twin Crusaders

beats me but I know where a decent,or were when I removed them, pair of 454 mercs with 1.5 to one clutches are. I replaced them with 8.1 volvos and ZF tranny's. broad creek marina in wanchese or Joes marine can tell ya about them, both are fresh water cooled and have 1900 or so hours on them. they have been out since spring.

 

[Don S]

Re: Repowering twin Crusaders

The boat needs hauled out and blocked to do that kind of work. Not even realistic to think about replacing engines in the water. How would you get the engines up and down the docks? Or lifted out of the boat? I suppose a crane on a barge could do it, but $$$$$$$<br /><br />I would also consider going to diesel on that size boat.

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: Repowering twin Crusaders

Anything can be done and a jack a$$ like me would carry the motor down to the boat in pieces and then assemble it on the deck of the boat before dropping it in. As for the old motor. After I stripped everything I didn't want off of it and cleaned all the fluids out of it, it would make a awesome mooring anchor <br /> Honestly if you do pay someone to do it and you "replace" the motor there is plenty of gear heads out there that would love to have the old one. Locked up or not. I even have to admit my first thought was "I wonder if he is getting rid of the old motor. Worst case if I had to have a couple cylinders sleeved it would be a small price for a 454".

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Repowering twin Crusaders

having done many in water repowers its possible. its easier on the blocks. and yes I have done one by assembling the motor in place. we assembled the short block and manually set it in the bed. then installed the heads and accessories. not a great way but its all we had.<br /> we usually use the forklift to get them in and out. worst one was a 58 egg harbour with 454 crusaders. had to dissasemble the salon and cut up all the carpeting that had been installed 2 months earlier. I have access to a pipe a frame that a friend and I built to move the stbd engine to the port side on another egg harbor I did. just depends on how much time and money ya wanna spend.