Let's Make a List

[drbarbara]

Ferm wrote in my previous thread "The next thing I would look for is a marine distributor to fit your engine as automotive distributors do not have flame arrestors in them to prevent sparks from igniting any fuel vapors". Besides the marine distributor what else do I need to look at?
-Alternator
-Starter.

This is starting to sound very painful. In the mean time can I just leave the vaccum line open?

Thanks.

[drbarbara]

I have been trying to find the marine distributor on the net. Most of the ones I am finding have electronic ignition. My current one is mechanical. Are they interchangeable?

[macojoe]

Best thing you will ever do to get a kit and convert from points!

[drbarbara]

So I can just change the distributor for a marine distributor with electronic ignition?

[THEFERMANATOR]

I can't make out everything from your pictures, but I can tell it doesn't have a marine style cooling system in it. This can cause serious problems with engine heat from the manifolds as the set-up you have now won't allow water to flow into the manifolds until the T-stat opens. A marine style cooling sytem is meant to constantly circulate the water through the block and always allow a steady flow of water through the exhaust manifolds. When the engine gets up to temp it will then allow the cool water coming in to be routed through the engine and then through the manifolds. The engine mounted pump is meant to constantly circulate water, and then the remote belt driven is meant to feed the manifolds and supply cool water for when the T-stat opens.

I couldn't find a good picture of your alternator to see if it was a DELCO marine or not, or to see if your starter is amarine style. Also make sure to keep the rust on the engine under control and to keep them constatnly painted. Marine oil pans, valve covers and timing covers are normally a slightly different alloy to help resist rusting. Or they have extra painting steps taken to properly seal the metals from the salty enviroment. Marine engines also have different camshaft profiles to them and a different timing profile in the distributo designed to work with the different engine loads and constant high RPM's. And I couldn't see if your fuel pump had the fuel drain tube on it to prevent fuel leakage to the bilge.

I personally wouldn't worry about the camshaft, but would get a marine distributor(electronic ignition will be fine and more reliable than points for the most part). Just make sure to run the right coil and such to match the distributor as some use an external ignition module to fire the coil(PERTRONIX is the preffered conversion kit). As for the metal components , make sure they are clean and painted. OSPHO, a wire brush, ZINC CHROMATE primer, and good heavy duty enamel are your friends here. If rust shows up, make sure to clean it good and then treat with OSPHO to kill the rust. Then prime it and paint it with a few coats to protect it from future damage.

It's a bummer you got stuck with a poor conversion, if done semi-correctly a truck engine works just fine in marine useage. Finding another engine that is blown, but complete is normally your cheapest way to get all of the pieces to properly convert one over.

[macojoe]

I said it once I will say it again!! Bracket and outboard!!

By what everyone is saying the last owner didn't do you any favors by just droping everything auto in there, you going to spend a ton getting it all right!!