Project 1980

[Lockey14s]

Well its been a busy summer with work and boating, so havent had much time to come on here. But I thought I would share my most recent project, a 1980 19BR that made it all the way out here from the west coast. The good folks at Boat Bling were on a cross country tour with the boat when they discovered that water was starting to mix into the oil. Being so far from home and not many options they reached out to me to see if i wanted to take the boat off their hands. of course I cant let a good classic go to waste so I bought it from them.

my buddy and I started tearing it down to figure out the water intrusion problem, and also "pickle" the motor. we found that the heads were pretty rotted and one had pushed through the head gasket. So that was the issue, seeing as the rest of the motor looked fine. I had a spare motor sitting in my garage with good heads and a high rise intake. so we swapped everything over.

of course little challenges here and there, but we got it running and after a couple of oil changes it was super clean! took it for a test ride and the gimbal bearing was growling very badly. So I pulled the drive and it looked like a little water had gotten in. ordered the bellows kit with the shift cable and replaced everything. Man that wasnt too enjoyable. Second test drive went very well, everything seems to be working and operating like it should. Except when you are cruising along and punch the throttle it bogs bad, but then catches up. I did some research and I think the culprit is the secondary air door opening too much on the Q-jet carb. the spring tension can be adjusted so i am going to try that next before throwing a bunch of parts at it.

the boat is in great shape and just really needs to be cleaned up. all the teak needs to be sanded and oiled. I redid the pinstripe and refinished the swim platform so far. I also added a swim ladder I had laying around. We will enjoy the boat for now, but i think in the spring we will try and find it a new home. We like having the one classic and a bigger bow rider, so this wouldnt get used much.

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[Lockey14s]

here are some overall pics

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[Big Block Power]

Very nice. And now it has vortec heads. Looks like the water has been in there for awhile with that much rust starting? Quick 55hp gain.
Try putting a accelerator pump on it first. Or float level. Is that carb set up for the better head flow?

[Lockey14s]

Very nice. And now it has vortec heads. Looks like the water has been in there for awhile with that much rust starting? Quick 55hp gain.
Try putting a accelerator pump on it first. Or float level. Is that carb set up for the better head flow?

Actually they arent the vortec heads, but they have the center bolts that make them look like it. it still uses the 12 bolt intake instead of the 8 bolt vortec style. so it was the in-between heads. But i like them better anyways and they dont leak like the old style do.

not sure how long the water was in there, and id probably rather not know haha. But we went through it as best we could aside from tearing down the short block and looking at the bearings. it runs nice and smoothly though, lifters seem fine, has good oil pressure. not saying it will run forever, but definitely has a lot of life left in it.

We did rebuild the carb and it has a brand new accelerator pump on it. Another thing i might try is putting the pump arm in the other hole (which seems like it would deliver more fuel). But everything is pointing towards secondary air door adjustment. I have also wondered if the carb needs re-jetting due to the high rise intake and different heads, but i want to try the simple things first.

[Big Block Power]

Sounds like you have it covered. Nice looking ride though!

[Lockey14s]

haha I hope so! Im not use to dealing with Q-jets. Ive heard they are great carbs once they get dialed in though

[Big Block Power]

haha I hope so! Im not use to dealing with Q-jets. Ive heard they are great carbs once they get dialed in though

Just be glad it's not a Carter