Engine identification problems

dochockey wrote: I'm guessing Lake Oconee? ha as to the boat I'm at a loss, I love it Jim G comes with that history with one post and then disappears?

Sorry I never got a notice to this post until today. I'm on Lake Hartwell. At one time I had a 1950's 20' debonair. It still had the original intercepter engine in it with the awful dearborn hdy trans in it. When I got it. I had to take it as part payment for a boat I restored for the owner. The trans was fried. I rebuilt it. It took 4 months to figure out the parts for it. Turned out all the internals that wear plates seals etc came from the big 3 car manufacturers.

I own a wooden boat restoration shop. I do everything but upholstery. Which Is why I could give you the correct history on the old engines. I couldn't even count how many of those old engines I have done.

I do have 3 or 4 customers with wooden boats on Lake Oconee.

I also have a customer with a 1975 ski nautique with 250 hours on it still running the original Escort GT engine in it. He purchased it from the original owners family. It still had the complete owners package in the glovebox along with the original bill of sale.

If anyone has questions about the old engines. I'll be happy to help if I can.

Hi Peter,

I don't remember. Post-restoration, this boat was intended to be a fair-weather runner for an elderly couple (and their occasional kids/grandkids as guests). It needed to be a well-behaved, relatively quiet, easy to maintain, turn-key solution, which I suspect it no longer was with the Sterling. That's just a wild guess, though - maybe the block was cracked or something... Is this engine an aircraft conversion, typically? At the time I was slinging fuel and washing boats for minimum wage, the pre-1960's stuff (with the exception of the museum pieces) got repowered, I saw a lot of tired Chris Craft motors taken out and replaced, a few patched up, a few remaining AMC "fireball" v8s, mostly with the suicide carbs replaced, a bunch of older, but still running Chryslers (including the odd Hemi), and the small block Fords powering the ski boats to impressive thousands of hours. GM Powertrain was coming on strong in everything that was new.

With the knowledge of prior Hutchinson employees (and their offspring), a really well-educated "old school" engine rebuilder/installer/mechanic who worked at this marina, a very wood-boat friendly area in terms of vendors/owners, and access to the Clayton Antique Boat Museum in the area, it is a place where wooden boats continue to thrive. Numbers seem to be declining slightly in the Thousand Islands, but it's still a good showing.

Owen: My experience with Canandaigua is only via floatplane and mostly just aerial, although we have landed for lunch at a great place about halfway down the west side, can't recall the name. And although we've been on Keuka over 200 years, my trailer experience there is exactly nil, but there are nice ramps at the state park, north end west branch. Hammondsport has nice town docks about 2 blocks from the square, some nice shops and restaurants, not sure ramp situation. There's a CCFan named Keuka, think he lives in HPort and I think he trails, he might be able to give you some more info. There's also ramps on the inlet in Penn Yan, but I'd stick to the park.

Jim G: You may recall, we met in your shop not long ago when I was working on a project for the HPD. Nice visit, nice shop, enjoyed boat and alfa chat. I'm the guy who's going to bring you my Century Mark II up from Oconee for a little rehab later this winter. Small world. Glad you're a CCFan, everyone here can certainly benefit from your knowledge.