Re: Chris Craft 430ies

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Thu 21. Jan 2010, 14:46

My experience with modern powder coats is excellent. They really hold up well, and can be applied with a household oven and a very inexpensive kit. www.caswellplating.com is the place to view some stuff. There are also specialty high temp clears, and of course ceramikotes for headers and so on.

Post by **Theo** » Sat 23. Jan 2010, 07:18

That's interesting. Can't wait to see the results.

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Sat 23. Jan 2010, 09:31

A couple of pics of the mallory dual point distributor... on the marine engine, the tachometer is not electric, but mechanical., so there is a tachometer drive off the distributor. I don't know if that is the case on the automobile engine...

: Marine mallory dual point distributor detail... tach drive

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Thu 11. Feb 2010, 17:47

So here is an interesting little issue.... One of the things that is confounding about the MEL engine family is how much change there was between years. It certainly would have been a problem for aftermarket companies as well.

Here is a comparison between a FEL PRO intake gasket set I bought a few months ago, and a NOS 1958 Mercury intake gasket:

: Intake gasket comparison: larger is 1958-59 430 engine

Look at the difference in the size of the ports!!! Needless to say, the super marauder intake and the 1959 heads I am using take the larger gasket. I also obtained a NOS 1958 head gasket which appear to be cadmium plated, and is steel.

: modern replacement head gasket & NOS head gasket 430

I measured both head gaskets and found there is a difference, albeit uncompressed, of .0010. Looking at the way both gaskets compress, and the thinner part of the steel head gasket, I would estimate the compressed difference is somewhere around .0015 .... I can't compute what the compression effect would be, but it would be there.

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Mon 1. Mar 2010, 13:34

Well, onwards and upwards....
I have disassembled the heads and found all the previous work on them to be scrap. Not all the guides were done, the intake seats weren't done, blah blah... How bad you say? I could shake one of the exhaust valves in the guide. No need to check guide play on that one and a couple of others.

I was almost pissed off, except that this engine was rebuilt on someone elses dime, not mine... but without knowing it, he sure had the right to be pissed off. So far none of the rebuild was any good. At least they didn't break anything.

Post by **Theo** » Mon 1. Mar 2010, 14:03

Not a big surprise to me. Boat owners are considered to be less educated on engines than the average hot rodder. Some shops may tend to work loose on their jobs. Quick jobs, quick money. Boat owners are millionaires anyway. That's what they probably think he he.
Cylinder head work is essential. Go for a shop with Sunnen tools. Opt for cast or bronze valve guides and a precise 3 angle valve job. Cast valve guides are known to be more durable and IMO are perfectly suited to boat operation. BTW, you might consider converting your cylinder heads with positive valve stem seals. Check out Goodson for your preferred seal and the matching cutting tool, just i case your machine shop doesn't have it.

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Tue 2. Mar 2010, 17:09

Thanks Theo, an education just meeting and talking with you.... I found a shop about 80 miles from me that does a significant amount of marine race engine work, and some car race engine work. He has very up to date tools, and a dyno as well. He talks like you.

This engine cost the former owner 4000 dollars american to rebuild this motore, and it was a total waste of money. We'll get it right this time.

Post by **Theo** » Tue 2. Mar 2010, 18:13

I'm not quite sure if the MEL takes modern positive valve stem seals well. I was a bit FE engine biased, when I recommended the conversion. On FE engines the valve train gets a lot of olio. We use to even restrict the oil flow just for not having the top flooded.
On the MEL I don't know. Some engines might even have poor oil supply to the top. So since they're installing new valve stem guides, you might not need the pos. valve stem seals at this time. You'll probably be on the save side using the stck. umbrella seals.
It would be interesting to run a MEL w. a cut off valve cover and check what the oil flow is like. I've done this w. the FE engine and mama mia what a flood. FE engines are famous oil smokers if you leave them stock.
Glad to hear you found a good shop. All the best.

Post by **Theo** » Tue 16. Mar 2010, 08:33

Peter, please contact Kultulz for the MEL torque plates. Hope to see photos of the honing process w. those torque plates. A video would sell really fast on YouTube I guess

Chris Craft crazy · Post by **Chris Craft crazy** » Tue 16. Mar 2010, 18:58

Thanks Theo... at this point I am assembling some more parts... I found three Nicson cast aluminum flame arrestors for the marauder manifold. They fit the 5 1'/8 holley and are vintage marine correct. They look way cool too.

: Nicson marine flame arrestors; Nicson scoops.jpg (25.82 KiB) Viewed 8666 times

I have glass bead blasted my heads inside the runners, and got them ready for guides and intake seats. Both rocker shafts have been disassembled, measured, cleaned, and reassembled. I will wait to order bearings after the crank and cam bearings are ground.