Marine Buick V6

I was recently given a marine Buick V6 that is complete with all marine parts like wet exhaust manifolds, adapters for outdrive and outdrive itself. (Manufacturer unknown at the present) I am curious if anyone has any experience with these engines? Are there any differences that would make them more, or less desirable than an automotive engine? Any reason they could not or should not be repurposed for use in a Jeep? I am long past any interest in boats so all the marine parts will be sold or given away, I am sure there will be very little interest in 50 + year old marine parts. TIA.

 

Im sure others will chime in, but I recall others using marine engines, but that some of them rotated backwards from standard.

 

I recently found myself in the same situation. Someone was giving away a 1967 225 Odd Fire marine engine here in San Diego. It came identical to yours. Exhaust, etc. I figured what the heck, I’ll take it apart, use what’s good, throw away what’s not. Let’s just say being an engine that came out of a boat here in San Diego ( salt water) the engine block and the heads were only good for boat anchors because chunks of rust just kept flowing out, no matter how much I tried to flush it. However, I kept everything else like oil pan, crank, pistons, rods valve train, etc.

 

A few decades ago I heard the sad tale of a couple fellows who went through the effort to graft an early Honda Civic engine into a Suzuki Samurai. Imagine their surprise and dismay when the found they had 4 gears in reverse and only 1 forward! That's right; those Honda engine rotated the opposite of just about any engine in the known universe. Maybe still do.

 

Yep 90's for sure but they also sit on the driver side of the car. The entire driveline is flipped.
Easy fix is to use humvee portals. That would be an interesting rig.

 

During that time period, the Honda V6 turned the same direction as everyone else while the fours turned backwards. That means the V6 Honda accords have the transmission on the opposite side of the car from the four cylinders. As I recall that was the case until some new four cylinders came into being in the mid 00's.

 

The reverse rotation thing is a bunch of crazy bs. I did encounter a 6-71 Detroit with reverse rotation once. Did notice the blower being on the other side of the engine and got to checking .No wonder it was a cheap buy.

 

Some marine application automotive engines use different castings from what I have been told, they are thicker, I don't know if this is because marine engines are always under load, or to combat the effects of corrosion, or ? Reverse rotation engines are common in twin engine boats. My engine came from a single engine boat so it is probably the same as a car engine as far as rotation is concerned. The only real differences in reverse rotation engines is the cam and distributor. I have lots of Dauntless specific stuff like aluminum intake manifolds, HEI, MSD 6246 Odd fire specific ignition module, a complete junkyard TBI system I hope to be using with this engine. Rust in any boat engine is a given. Any further comments are welcome.

 

If you are lucky, some of the marine engines have heat exchangers where the block and heads run antifreeze. These usually only have raw (salt) water cooling the exhaust manifolds. The heat exchangers are usually long cylindrical accessories 4” -6” diameter connected by 3/4” -1” hoses.
-Donny

 

Keys5a Yes mine does, the previous owner said the engine was rusty inside, he did not elaborate about what parts are rusty and I haven't looked yet. I don't know if this boat was ever in salt water, fresh water, or both. There are lots of both, here in Alaska.

 

I bought a very cheap military L134 years ago that was used as a marine engine. I've never seen anything so rusted. I had to drill the piston around piston pin to remove crank then break the pistons out. Some guy in Europe bought all the rusted loose stuff for good money. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't so bad down in the oil pan but everything else was useless.

 

I had a friend that found a old 327 chevy engine from a gen set , don't remember the brand gen set and wanted to use in in his 1957 chevy. It did turn out to be reverse rotation and he could not end up using it.

Mike

 

You’ll soon find out when you crack those heads off. I had rust flowing out in chunks the size of a half dollar to a quarter. Broke my heart because i really want to keep and rebuild the heads at the very least.