[mariog]

found an old Hatteras 34' sedan cruiser. it has 383 Chrysler inboard engines.

what are your thoughts and opinions?

Mario

[Loren Schweizer]

While you might be able to source four decade-old MOPAR bits from Messrs. Whitney and Hemmings, I'd suspicion that greater, unknown horrors lurk within the deeper bowels of that ol' gal.

What's that you say? The boat passed her surveys with flying colors and the only issues are the clapped-out motors?

Re-powering with diesels would make sense ( if for no other reason than resale for your neck of the woods). All you have to do is take the cost of the new engines and multiply by two.

Hey, BTW, I got a really nice Dodge Dart you might be interested in.

[dogsharks]

I'm not a Chrysler fan, simply because I don't have any experience with them. The 383 has a good reputation in the automotive industry.

Condition is a lot more important than age. If they have good oil pressure and run well, you may get a lot of service out of them. You can get long blocks remanufactured so you can use the same ancillary equipment.

I bought a 1966 Chris Craft ten years ago, and one cylinder didn't have any compression. After a good tuneup and proper setting of the solid lifters, the cylinder came up to spec and I've been running that boat for TEN YEARS with very good success. Just because the iron is old, doesn't mean it's not viable. There are some other circumstances, like being salt water cooled inside the blocks (without a heat exchanger) in which case it would be bad news.



Ancillary equipment often goes bad and the thinking is, "it's a bad motor". This happens with any motor. Therefore don't let bad ancillary equipment like pumps, alternators, and coils, points, etc. make you think you need a rebuild. Pertronix ignition conversion is the best thing you can do to an old motor like that.

In the end they could also be junk, it just depends on the hours, type of oil, manner in which they were run, etc. Good luck!

Dogsharks