New to the forum... needing some general advise.

Glad I'm not the only one in for way more than my Correct Craft is worth. I am in the LA/OC area as well. Where do you usually boat? Throw up some pictures when you get a chance too!

Holleys for the most part,thats what PCM put on them. But like everything there are a few who try to swim against the current,matter of fact there are a few who even have Chevy's in them too
By the way if you do have a marine carb and it's the right size for the engine,Holley can give you the factory jetting sizes etc and then you can check yours to see if someone has changed things,oem was a 600 cfm

Hi Justin. One thing that comes to mind right away is how are you setting the idle? In the water,in gear? 650 to 700 is what PCM recommends. Do you happen to know what size prop is on it too? Another thing you can do is call the Holley tech line and give them the list number off the airhorn, see pic below and they can tell you what the carb is. You need to make sure its a marine one and same with the starter. If your engine is an original right hand turning one you'll need a starter to match. Automotive engines turn left.

Let me preference everything buy saying this is my 1st boat and its been a bit overwhelming.
I have a 1981 Correct Craft with a 351W/Holly 4bbl carb. I bought it off ebay thinking it was a runner, When I went to pick it up, it ran and sounded good. The next day she wouldn’t start, leaving me stranded in the harbor… I now have boat assist and a running boat… but want to make some upgrades (Car guy thinking) and 1 issue.

The boat has required extensive work… ~7K worth (Money spent… I’m sure there may have been a way to do cheaper but not what happened.) The boat has now had, new fuel filter, new battery cables, ignition rewired (Had a MSD6A wired in), installed a pertronix module, with the motor retimed, new cap, rotor, wires, plugs. 1 cylinder was 30lbs lower on the compression test so the heads were rebuilt and converted to hardened seats. There was a rear main seal leak and the engine came out for a new rear main seal. The carb was rebuilt (some rejecting) and a wedge placed under the carb as it was bogging off idle.

At this point the boat runs well… The Wedge seems to have helped the bogging of the motor though I have not done a sea trial to confirm. My concern is that it seems that the boat does not idle in gear low enough… If you set the idle to 600rpms is seems to run poorly. If I turn the idle up, I can put around the harbor slow enough. Once upon a time I was ok at setting up carbs, but am not at this point. I feel like the carb is either too large or poorly setup. The after its last adjustment it seems to run much better on the trailer, but have yet to try on the water.

Upgrades… Should I buy an Edelbrock and then make basic adjustments? I don’t need it for top end… really just want the ability to idle around and use on the lake.

Long term, I want to swap on an Edelbrock Al. intake, new pertronix flamethrower ignition and a gear reduction starter… The intake and start should shave 40lbs off the engine and gussy it up some.

As an aside, if there is a good carb guy in OC/LA area... who will tune the carb in the water, please please let me know... really could use the help.

Thank you,


Justin