Thought I would post a little about my most recent project.

So, the ultimate goal here is to swap a VH45 into a boat... This boat should be fast, but not built for speed.. It should look fairly stock from the exterior but still be usable on lazy cruises and trips to the sandbar. Ultimately, it's to have something completely unique that only a few people COULD have and most likely no one else has.

As a little history, I've been around boats my entire life. My family owns a marina (since 1946), and even though I've not continued in the family business I've definitely still been involved.

So late 2013 I was cruising craigslist, minding my own business when all of a sudden an 1970 Century Mark II popped up. What caught my eye about this particular boat is it was a 17' V-Drive. Most of the time (especially in this era), V-drives were reserved for boats 19' and above, so to find something this small in this configuration was somewhat unusual. I had never seen one of these boats before.

So what is a V-drive? As you may know, pretty much all boats are direct drive (although they may have some gear reduction), but in anything of this size and type they're almost always 1:1 gear ratio. So, all the "transmission" does is allow you to shift into forward, neutral, and reverse. Allow me to elaborate on a the different types of inboard marine propulsion...

In a true direct drive, the engine is mounted in the center of the boat. The advantage to this is its simplicity, and in some applications having the weight further forward is an advantage (example- boats designed for water skiing, this forces the front of the boat down minimizing the wake which is preferred for water skiing). The biggest disadvantage to this setup is that the engine has to be in the center of the boat, which means you have a large amount of real estate that cannot be used and makes moving around the boat and seating inconvenient.



With a V-drive, the engine essentially sits in the engine compartment backwards (with the front of the engine facing the back of the boat). An extra piece called the V-drive (which bolts between the transmission and the prop shaft) redirects the engine power back under the engine. The advantage to this is it allows the engine to be in the back of the boat, freeing up the passenger compartment, and in many cases is preferred for performance. The disadvantage is the extra cost and complexity of the V-drive (which is not that big of a deal)



This is literally the same setup as what I'm running.. The piece on the right side of the image is the "transmission" which has forward, neutral, and reverse.



Anyway, back to that fateful day on craigslist...... I spotted this boat, and ended up talking the guy down $1000 off his asking price AND I had him deliver it. What I liked about this boat is that cosmetically it was very nice, but mechanically it needed work. It had a clean hull, and had only been used in fresh water, so it made a perfect candidate for a swap..











When I took delivery of this boat, the Chrysler 318 that came stock in it was not firing on 2 cylinders despite having spark. After a compression check, those 2 cylinders had no compression. Probably a dropped valve, since the chrysler 318s in their marine trim are nearly indestructible, probably less than $3000 fix. Oh well, that won't stop me... For the record, running on 6 cylinders in this boat the Chrysler 318 still managed to push this boat well past 40MPH. I was very surprised. These boats were offered with a 340 Chrylser (250HP), and they could do 50+ MPH, so by increasing HP by almost 100HP and dropping weight by going to an aluminum engine seems very appealing.

2 days after taking delivery, this was the scene. Im sure too many of you can relate to this.



Ultimately, the mighty Chrysler 318 and factory equipped V-drive would be scrapped. The V-drive that came with the boat is a very old piece, and parts are nearly impossible to find, not to mention it would not handle the extra power of the VH45.. I decided at this point it would be best to upgrade the transmission and V-drive to something more modern (and with extra HP capacity in case of boost.... )

So, moving along, at this point I have no VH45. As some folks may know, searching for VH45's low miles for a decent price is getting very difficult. After talking with a long time Q owner and going back and forth for quite a long time, I finally got ahold of this car:



What's particularly interesting about this car is that despite being totally ragged out, it had a brand new engine in it. Not a JDM engine, a BRAND NEW long block, so this engine has less than 30k miles on it. I bought this car exactly for the heart of the beast, everything else would get scrapped. I bought the car for $700, sold about $200 worth of parts off the car, and got over $300 in scrap value for the shell, so at the end of the day I got a VH45 for $200... Plus, I salvaged the fuel pump and fuel tank from the Q that will be re-used on the boat, so that will save even more money down the road.

The old Q releasing her heart for the last time...

As almost anyone familiar with VH45's will know, you can almost assume that anything you do with this engine has to be custom. It's not like you can buy VH45 marine parts and call it a day, everything has to be custom selected and engineered for the application.

At this point, the primary priority is to mount the engine to the transmission. Essentially the design is taking a stock VH45 bellhousing, cutting it at a certain length, and welding a plate on the back of the bellhousing to adapt to the transmission. After hours of measuring, I designed a plate that would fit up to the VH45 bellhousing. I sent a drawing off to a local shop that cut this chunk of aluminum on a water jet cutting machine, and everything fit as expected..

This image is a mock-up fitting of the bellhousing.. The plate is not yet welded to the bellhousing, and the V-drive is not yet bolted to the transmission.





Since a marine transmission does not require a clutch or torque converter, they have what's called a "damper plate". Essentially it's just a splined plate with some springs in it (to absorb vibrations from the engine, like the springs in a clutch disk). This is mounted to a Z32 flywheel with the ring gear flipped around to utilize the stock VH45 starter. This damper plate was purchased, and I modified it to fix the Z32 flywheel. This involved adding holes and cutting it to a smaller diameter. One area that I got lucky is that a Z32 pressure plate made almost the perfect template to cut this piece to the proper diameter and holes.



After a friend came up and helped me tack weld the bellhousing, I sent this off to my trusty fab shop for them to weld out. For the record, they charged me less to weld this out than it would have cost me to fill an argon bottle on the TIG welder, and any welder knows how tricky welding cast aluminum usually is...

we are now at the moment of truth, where we determine if all that measuring, welding, and other effort was correct....



This is the first time you'll ever see a VH45 mounted to a Borg Warner 72C and Walter RV26 V-drive.



Everything fit, and spins freely.. A large hurdle overcome.

We're now at the point where it's time to test fit the engine into the boat... Fortunately the way this boat is designed, there's literally acres of space in the engine compartment, making fabrication of engine mounts and general installation pretty simple.



Engine and transmission are being suspended by the hoist and a couple wood blocks. Everything seems to fit pretty good, only a few minor modifications needed by the saws-all...



The transmission that I bought conveniently came with mounts that I can re-use. Since the transmission of the engine mounts directly the prop shaft (no u-joints or anything), proper alignment is critical and must be held within 0.003". That being said, adjustable engine mounts are necessary to ensure the engine is sitting correctly.

Since the transmission engine mounts are already there, using an engine mount kit from www.performancevh.com, an angle grinder, and the box the angle grinder came with, I fabricated up these engine mounts... I essentially re-used the plates that mount to the engine, modified one of the plates, and cut new pieces joining the two. This is partially through the weld process, still not cleaned up and not yet finished from using the trusty stick welder.



After a coat of paint, the mounts are installed.. If you look closely, the mounts I made sit on an adjustable mount that has a rubber bushing in it.



Engine and trans completely supported by it's mounts.. Dare I say it's in it's final resting place... Just ordinary adjustment to get everything in place.

elwesso wrote: This is the first time you'll ever see a VH45 mounted to a Borg Warner 72C and Walter RV26 V-drive.

First and last I bet.

When's the anticipated first start?

This is absolutely awesome Wes. While it's been years since I've messed with boats they've always been my other temptation outside of cars. I'm quite jealous that you got a hold of a Century this nice to swap this motor in. Century and Chris Craft ski boats are by far my favorite boats.

Yeah I feel I got lucky too. What's nice is this boat originally came with BLACK interior... WTF, who would be stupid enough to put a black interior in a boat? Anyway, the interior has been redone to something a little more practical as you can see...

I/we also have an old Chris Craft, first model that was fiberglass... 1968 Commander 23', one of the rarest commander's (135 made in 2 years). IT was my grandfathers, and he's owned it since 1972.





James, I am hoping to be ready to booze-cruise by May. I think that's pretty reasonable.. Things left to do is fabricate the exhaust, fabricate a water pump bracket, mount the gas tank and run fuel lines, wiring (should be fairly trivial)...

Wow Wes, helluva project!
What is the ultimate goal for the boat? Sleeper?

frapjap wrote:Wow Wes, helluva project!
What is the ultimate goal for the boat? Sleeper?

I would just say overall for a sleeper/something unique. Main thing is I HATE carburetors and distributors, and the VH45 is almost perfect for marine applications. IT's light, makes good power, and loves extended periods at high RPM. Since the VH has a 7000+ safe redline, doing 5000-6000 RPM top end should be pretty easy for it.

I don't think I'll be breaking any speed records with this. Just kind of ball-parking some numbers here, if I could do 51 MPH with the Chrylser 318, I should be doing about 61 MPH with the VH. That would be plenty fast for me, especially since this boat isn't known for it's handling. I won't be able to race too many folks, but I'll be able to scare them..

That'll be a damned fast boat! You'll embarrass some of the folks on their skis, too.
I've seen a few LS1 powered boats on LS1tech, they freggin' scream. I bet you can give them a run for the money.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4JhdQPxvg[/youtube]
Will you bother with mufflers, or be the badass on the lake with screaming exhaust at 6000 rpm giving everyone the bird as you roar past them?

Are you going to change out the prop while you're at it, too?

frapjap wrote:That'll be a damned fast boat! You'll embarrass some of the folks on their skis, too.
I've seen a few LS1 powered boats on LS1tech, they freggin' scream. I bet you can give them a run for the money.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT4JhdQPxvg[/youtube]
Will you bother with mufflers, or be the badass on the lake with screaming exhaust at 6000 rpm giving everyone the bird as you roar past them?

Are you going to change out the prop while you're at it, too?

Take a look on Youtube, there's a Toyota V8 powered jet boat. That is pretty cool as well... The 1UZ guys think their engine is the bomb when really the only thing that makes it "better" than the VH is the aftermarket, the VH is a more capable engine stock..

No mufflers, straight exhaust. Mufflers on speed boats are lame.

I will have to change the prop out to accommodate the extra HP, and possibly the rotation. I'm not 100% sure but I believe the old Chrysler rotated opposite of "standard" automotive. Reason being so they could use an RH prop regardless if it was direct drive or V-drive. Reverse rotation engines exist in marine land because on dual engines they counter-rotate so the boat doesn't have a tendency to drift one way or the other.

Wes, that Chris Craft is awesome.

I don't have a picture right off-hand of the Longino family boat, but it was a Century Resorter that looked very similar to this:



The boat is still in the family today and has been since the early 80's. I don't know the exact year it is, but it's sporting a 454 big block Chevy that gets it down the water very well. It was one of the fastest boats on our lake when I was younger, but it was a total sleeper. I think it's top speed was somewhere around 68mph.

All this boat talk is making me want a boat again dammit. I don't need a boat.

How's the progress, Wes? Saw that welding table- is that for the boat?

Wes- if the world floods, can you come pick me up in that bad larry?