[Reaper22]

The mechanic found the oil leak on my 95, 350 magnum but was not the cause of power loss and loss oil pressure because only lost quart oil, He found two cylinders that showed signs of high detonation and one had 6psi and the other had 0psi on pressure test, He cut the filter open and showed lots of bearing material, So now I have to make the decision to weather just install long block like $5200 total with new water pump impeller or complete 350 MPI like 11,200 installed, The boat is a 1995 Mariah Shabah Z212, Would like some input on what I should do here, The boat is in almost excellent shape and plan on keeping it for awhile so should I stay with carbureted and put long block in or spend twice as much on fuel injection???

[Brian Belcher]

My opinion.....
Have the short block rebuild and have heads reworked. A clean carb works as well, as I've discover this past weekend.
That's your cheapest route and would as sound an engine as buying a rebuilt one. Case in point, the engine house will want your core to rebuild and sell to the next fella.

[TCJ95Z-235]

Reaper, Sorry to hear the bad news on your motor. Hope you're able to get her up and running again soon.

My opinion......
If it were my boat I would be doing as Brian has suggested.
You can buy a lot of carburetors with the $6000 difference.

[Reaper22]

Put a deposit down on a rebuilt long block today, Dealer said they have had very good luck with them in the past, Gunna cost me $5107 and that's with labor and new water pump, Said would not warranty it unless new pump was installed, So purdy much be a new motor and said he could have me on the lake this year yet, Got fingers crossed cuz there is a break in on them... Thanks guy's...
BTW Guy's found this guy thru another forum and pose to be the carb guru if you need service or parts..
Cliffs High Performance Quadrajets | Quadrajet Carburetor Rebuild Kits, Parts, Quadrajet Rebuilding, Quadrajet Parts, Bushing Kits, Carb Tuning

[Reaper22]

Originally Posted by TCJ95Z-235

Reaper, Sorry to hear the bad news on your motor. Hope you're able to get her up and running again soon.

My opinion......
If it were my boat I would be doing as Brian has suggested.
You can buy a lot of carburetors with the $6000 difference.

Ha Ha Ha, That's a great way of look'n at the difference Bro, Ya helped me with my decision....

[Hudson River Steve]

The bigger question here is what caused your present engine to experience that amount of detonation? If you do not know the root cause then you still have some work to do. You better have your mechanic check out your ignition system carefully before reinstalling it on your freshly rebuilt engine. Did you have fresh fuel? Or had it been sitting around and become very low in octane? Hopefully it was just carbon build up in your old engine. It would be a shame to destroy your new motor in the same fashion as the old one.

[Reaper22]

Originally Posted by Hudson River Steve

The bigger question here is what caused your present engine to experience that amount of detonation? If you do not know the root cause then you still have some work to do. You better have your mechanic check out your ignition system carefully before reinstalling it on your freshly rebuilt engine. Did you have fresh fuel? Or had it been sitting around and become very low in octane? Hopefully it was just carbon build up in your old engine. It would be a shame to destroy your new motor in the same fashion as the old one.

Thanks man, I agree, The guy said he had it out 4th July, He kept all service records and he only put 12 hours on it in a year and a half, It had half a tank and I topped it off before I went out, The mechanic thinks it got run hard but I don't believe I had it over 4700rpm, All I know is it was running good and jus lost power, I shut it down and took off again and it would not get over 40mph and then oil horn went off, I shut down, Restarted and no oil pressure, Shut down and checked oil and only quart down, so I put quart in it and fire it back up and oil pressure at 40psi at idles and no horn, Shut down and got towed in cuz did not want to damage motor (HA) took to repair shop and he showed me lots of metal in filter, My question is how was it run hard at 56mph and trim quarter up on gauge, I did have oil in bilge bout a quart but he found leak on where remote bolts on where filter bolted on and a quart low should not have dropped oil pressure and why did it come back up, So should I put a new distributor in it as well, I really would like to know root cause... Jus don't understand the sudden loss of oil pressure and then it returned and could that been root cause of bearing failure and detonation, had has not finished checking out damaged engine, He is jus goin by what the spark plugs looked like and the amount of metal in the oil filter to tell me motor is shot...

[Scottie1961]

That's a nice looking boat. If it were me I would find some vortec heads and bore the block 30 over. You can probably find someone to assemble the crank and pistons. Slap an Edelbrock RPM intake on and new carb. Your power will increase to over 300 horsepower which will make for a real fun ride! Don't beat yourself up about the engine failure. Probably out of your control and sounds like the seller was on the up and up. Things happen but you've got a really nice rig so repower and have fun with it! I have basically the same boat (202 Shabah) and when my engine goes i'm going with a Vortec.

Check this out if you want a plug and play motor:

5.7L Vortec marine engine-SILVER Package (1967-2013 replacement)

[Scottie1961]

Sorry Reaper just saw your post about down payment on motor. Sounds like a good option from a local mechanic. You might talk about the Vortec heads and see what he thinks. Adds some dollars but would be worth the money IMO. Good luck and hope you get back on the lake soon.

[Reaper22]

Originally Posted by Scottie1961

Sorry Reaper just saw your post about down payment on motor. Sounds like a good option from a local mechanic. You might talk about the Vortec heads and see what he thinks. Adds some dollars but would be worth the money IMO. Good luck and hope you get back on the lake soon.

Yeah bro a turn key carbureted motor like $9200 and an MPI motor $12000 so opted jus straight long block for $5107 installed and like TCJ95Z-235 said can get allot of carbs for $6000 lol, Would have loved to get the MPI turn key jus figured carb still worked 22 years later can get by many more years and still have a nice boat, The motor add you posted is cool thou...The motor the dealer ordered is a vortec long block was ordered jus know it was a 357 instead of a reg 350... I'm sure this dealer/mechanic is get'n it from Mercury Marine direct that's why it's a little higher in price...