My Floating Muscle Car

[CC-John]

Back in 2017 I picked up a clean, one owner 1973 Century Resorter 16 that had spent over 25 years parked in the back of a garage in Spring, Texas. It still had its original Chrysler Marine LM318 inboard with only 715 hours.

Here's a few pics taken right after I found a good roadworthy trailer to load it on and bring it home.

100_2645 by cc_john67, on Flickr

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Typical of most of these old boats, the carpet covered plywood floor was rotten in several places, along with the wooden seat bases being rotted out. While the engine ran perfectly after getting it fired up, it sweated oil from every seal and gasket in it. So out came the engine and the old floor, and over the next five years all the issues were addressed. I installed a new epoxy encapsulated plywood floor, covered with marine vinyl flooring. The engine was torn down, hot tanked, tolerances checked and reassembled with new piston rings, bearings, gaskets and seals. The transmission received the same treatment. Once assembled, it was repainted in the proper Chrysler blue and a set of reproduction decals were installed. The engine was also converted to a period correct original Chrysler closed cooling system to protect the engine's water jackets from brackish or salt water. While the engine was apart, I worked the heads over with a die grinder, cleaning up all the ports just below the seats and cleaning up the transition around the valve guides, along with gasket matching the manifolds to the heads. Then they were sent to the machine shop for a set of hardened exhaust valve seats and a set of new stainless exhaust valves.

Here's a few pics of the engine patiently waiting in its cradle while I finish replacing the floor in the boat, and rebuilding its engine beds.

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More to come....

[CC-John]

A few pics of the new floor and engine beds..

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The old steel fuel tank had seen better days so I had a slightly larger aluminum tank built to current USCG standards to feed that thirsty Mopar.

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Finally the day came to reinstall the engine.. Not gonna lie, the pucker factor was off the charts having to back the boat under 900 pounds of engine hanging over six feet in the air..

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But the blue beast settled back down on its new engine beds like it was nothing..

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More to come...

[CC-John]

Now it was time to install all the seats, connect all the electrical and see if this damn thing might actually run..

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The moment of truth...



She now has almost 950 hours on the clock, and has performed flawlessly with nothing more than annual tune ups and oil changes, and a voracious appetite for premium fuel..

Still trying to get her propped out right, the port work on the heads really woke up that little 318 Mopar. The factory propeller was a 13x13 3 blade Nibral, I've already had it repitched to a 13x15 with heavy cup and she'll still spool up to close to 5000 RPM at WOT. Looking like I'm gonna be ordering a new prop with a couple more inches of pitch to bring the RPM's down to around 44-4500 RPM at WOT. That will likely push the top speed well north of 50 MPH, which is hauling some serious butt in a small sixteen foot boat..

[Bruces]

Nice . What is the transmission ?

[CC-John]

Originally Posted by Bruces

Nice . What is the transmission ?

It's got a 71C Borg-Warner Velvet Drive, 1:1 direct drive. It still has all it's original sintered bronze clutch plates, they didn't have any visible wear when I tore down the transmission to reseal it, so just put them back in..

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The bronze clutch plates still looked like new with just over 700 hours on the transmission.

Forward clutch plates..

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Reverse clutch plate..

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[Thumper]

Very impressive boat. What a sound. I had a 16 foot aluminum boat and put a 5hp Merc on it for cruising/swimming on lakes. It is hard to imagine that much heft and power within the same length hull. With more pitch on the prop, you will pull a couple of skiers barely off idle at 1700-1800 rpm comfortably. They'll both pop right out of the water in a second or two from standstill. It will be a spectacle to witness, and hear! Nice project.

Do have someone get some video when you float her and go for a maiden voyage. Please.

[CC-John]

Originally Posted by Thumper

Very impressive boat. What a sound. I had a 16 foot aluminum boat and put a 5hp Merc on it for cruising/swimming on lakes. It is hard to imagine that much heft and power within the same length hull. With more pitch on the prop, you will pull a couple of skiers barely off idle at 1700-1800 rpm comfortably. They'll both pop right out of the water in a second or two from standstill. It will be a spectacle to witness, and hear! Nice project.

Do have someone get some video when you float her and go for a maiden voyage. Please.

Thanks!

This ol' girl's days of pulling skiers are pretty much over, all she has to do is provide me with a few fun hours on the river every couple of weeks to maintain my mental health.. She never fails to draw a crowd at the launch ramp or any dock I tie up at.

Right now as under propped as it is, its acceleration from a dead stop is absolutely brutal because the engine can spool up to its peak torque so quickly. It almost feels like getting shot out of a cannon! Which is surprising since this little boat tips the scales at just over 2700 pounds with a full tank of fuel. She's like a lot of the early fiberglass boats.... Grossly over built.. I launched it off the top of a huge wake from a passing wakeboard boat one weekend and put probably three feet of daylight between her keel and the water. The only thing that rattled when I landed was my fillings!

Here's a short video I shot on her "maiden" voyage back in October 2022. My buddy driving the boat was scared to death as it was his first time driving a boat.