mopar 440 that was put into a boat?

Can a 440 car motor that is in a boat be converted back to Car and is it worth it?

  • Is this worth the 200 my friends wants?

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • or should i pass on it?

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Total voters
    3
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S

scott hoffman

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Hi everybody,
I need some advice, up to date i have only had small blocks 340, 360s my duster has a 360 in it now runs good. OK got a call today from a friend from work I have not heard from for some time. long story shork his uncle passed and left him two cars both challengers, and a bunch of parts, he not being a car guy is selling off the parts now. so today he offered me a 1970 440 motor that was a Auto motor that was converted for use in a boat, he says the motor has 2000 hrs on a rebuild it is from carb to pan and he wants $200 for it, Im not sure at this point what I would do with it, is it worth the trouble? can it be converted back to Auto? going to look at it some time this weekend, Thanks for any input Scott.
 
Unless it was a reverse drive in a twin engine boat, it is no problem, as most everything is the same as a passenger car engine. The problem with an old boat engine is, no antifreeze or corrosion inhibitors are used in cooling the engine as lake, river or ocean water is used to cool the engine and sometimes there is a great deal of rust inside the engine water passages. Sometimes the corrosion is so bad that the block is very thin in places.
 
IQ52 said:
Unless it was a reverse drive in a twin engine boat, it is no problem, as most everything is the same as a passenger car engine. The problem with an old boat engine is, no antifreeze or corrosion inhibitors are used in cooling the engine as lake, river or ocean water is used to cool the engine and sometimes there is a great deal of rust inside the engine water passages. Sometimes the corrosion is so bad that the block is very thin in places.
Click to expand...

Do you think it might be worth pulling the manifold and one of the heads to get a closser look, supposedly he was telling me it is a HP block, with forged internals. i was not planning on needing a big block but the 360 in my roadrunner has a slight rod knock, and i thought at least it might be worth a look since it started as a car engine?
 
2000 hrs on a gas marine engine is alot. More then most survive. It's been bored once already. And like said, if it wasn't set up on FWC it's had salt water run through the block. Reverse rotation will have the knurling on the seal surface the opposite direction which will not seal. . Like anything they can be subject to neglect and improper winterization. Bit of a gamble.
 
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2000 hours in a boat is a hard 2K. Given the rebuild, and the use, I'd think about only as a parts engine. It's worth $200 complete, even if it's just the top end or bolt ones.
 
Just to put 2000 hours into perspective; this is about;
1 hr a day, 5 days a week and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 4 years. or
1.6hrs a day,5 days a week, and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 3 yrs.or
for summers only;
10 hours every a weekend for 20 weeks per summer, for about 10 years; Kindof what a boat might do. A lot can happen in 10 years.A boat might sit in the water from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon, say about 40 hours. And it will probably be a start and stop deal, every couple of hours, and it will be running over 3000rpm for a good deal of the time. If the cooling system is lake water, the engine may never come up to a decent temperature. The rest of the time, the boat sits, with the cooling system sortof open to the atmosphere.
On the other hand, it may have had an independent sealed cooling system, and may have been running some form of additives. I have worked on both kinds.
 
AJ/FormS said:
Just to put 2000 hours into perspective; this is about;
1 hr a day, 5 days a week and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 4 years. or
1.6hrs a day,5 days a week, and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 3 yrs.or
for summers only;
10 hours every a weekend for 20 weeks per summer, for about 10 years; Kindof what a boat might do. A lot can happen in 10 years.A boat might sit in the water from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon, say about 40 hours. And it will probably be a start and stop deal, every couple of hours, and it will be running over 3000rpm for a good deal of the time. If the cooling system is lake water, the engine may never come up to a decent temperature. The rest of the time, the boat sits, with the cooling system sortof open to the atmosphere.
On the other hand, it may have had an independent sealed cooling system, and may have been running some form of additives. I have worked on both kinds.
Click to expand...

True. Most boats I've seen 440' s in there were 2, and in the 30'+ range probably in excess of 15k lbs. Now let's say I wanted to take them out and repower with 367's and wanted to push this thing 3hrs. offshore uphill in both directions on plane @ 3800 rpms plus troll around for 3 or 4 hours. What IVC and DCR am I looking for and what kind kind of efficiency can I expect to pick up being as we're measuring in GPH now? Just Trying to pick the right prop pitch.

Good to see ya AJ:poke: lol
 
I love you man, but you got WAY too much time on your hands.

AJ/FormS said:
Just to put 2000 hours into perspective; this is about;
1 hr a day, 5 days a week and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 4 years. or
1.6hrs a day,5 days a week, and 4.6 hrs every weekend for 3 yrs.or
for summers only;
10 hours every a weekend for 20 weeks per summer, for about 10 years; Kindof what a boat might do. A lot can happen in 10 years.A boat might sit in the water from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon, say about 40 hours. And it will probably be a start and stop deal, every couple of hours, and it will be running over 3000rpm for a good deal of the time. If the cooling system is lake water, the engine may never come up to a decent temperature. The rest of the time, the boat sits, with the cooling system sortof open to the atmosphere.
On the other hand, it may have had an independent sealed cooling system, and may have been running some form of additives. I have worked on both kinds.
Click to expand...
 
I have a reverse rotation boat 440 in mine real easy to convert back polish the rear crank seal, new pan, cam and also get a real dizzy and you are good to go. Oh yeah a oil pump also, runs like a champ and I sold the parts for more than the engine cost, boats are expensive. The cast oil pans are averaging 200 each.
 
Mine came from a boat that sank and it was pulled the next day and disassembled so it was a steal for my 200. 440 hp block, I will look for some specks basically the same as a reg 440 just beefed up parts.
 
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