Classic Australian Wooden Power Boat Association

Yeh Dave I did. I bloody fell over at the price for a savage from NZ ($2500). Other than that they offered a Bowman for around $1400 or more if I wanted a header tank type. Consequently I walked.

Well after some absence I'm back. Our house move is done thank god (13th) and this better be the last one bar the cemetery.
This week I've managed to get the heat exchanger fitted and most of the cooling pipework done. I thought I'd try mounting the unit under the seat to keep the engine bay a bit less cluttered and to keep it all under the cover. I picked up a kit off Gumtree pretty cheap and the unit is well capable of the hp output of the engine. I relocated the raw water pump so I could fit the engine water pump. I'm hoping I wont have to go to a 3/4" pump but it may be a possibility. By all my calcs I'll be close to ok as the heat exchanger is a 3 pass unit. All that needs to be done for the first run is to put a high point bleed in the exchanger and a bit more hose work to the oil scavenge pump. Getting close now!

I found a decent sized header tank far out weighs the capabilty of the heat exchanger. I marinised a honda car engine and even with a pretty larger exchanger it got hot. I put a large header tank on it. Problem solved. Yiu cant have too much water in a cooling system.

Thanks for the advise Dave. Yep I'd have to agree. I also reckon a good sized header tank helps with temperature and pressure surges when coming off full noise to idle as well as allows for a good free flowing bleed return from any low points that might trap air.

Getting close today to turning the key! Finished off raw water plumbing for the heat exchanger, plumbing for sump scavenge pump system and its wiring. Just got to prime the oil system, re jet carby, fill with coolant and fire her up.

Fingers crossed.

Nice one Matt

Hey Craig, Good job mate, Good luck on the start up as theres nothing like the relief of hearing that engine start and run clean after a rebuild,

Damo

With the Holden 6, as you would be aware, it's important to prime the oil pump. Make sure that you also fill the oil filter as well.

Good luck with the first fire up. Don't worry if the engine starts and runs a bit then stalls. Holdens seem to do this for some unknown reason when they get a surge of oil pressure.

Thanks guys.
I had a few issues the major one being a bad coil. For a minute I thought I had the wrong cam in it as it seemed fairly lumpy but it eventually got worse and I kept frying the points. It did my head in for a while but some testing proved the coil was shot. Apart from a minor oil leak from a warped blanking plate for the fuel pump mounting it was all good. The raw water pump is flowing better than expected but I'm holding out on that till I get it in the water and I load it up. The scavenge pump for the sump is working well too and now with a sight glass level in t he sump I've got a good visual on what is happening with oil levels. Its really scary to see how low 5 litres of oil comes up with the engine in its nose down position. It barely covers the pump pick up with the engine off let alone running! The scavenge pump brings the oil back up to where it should be without flooding the other end of the engine.
Hopefully in the next few days I'll get over to Glenmaggie for a few tuning runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfaWZyW ... e=youtu.be