Inboard sunk in Chris Craft

I just got my 27' Chris Craft home so I can start work on the engines. It filled up with rain water from the Hurricaines last year and was left standing for about two months by its then current owner. He sold his house where he had it docked and had to get rid of the boat so I took it off of his hands for free. After towing it for 7 1/2 hours up the St. Johns river behind a home built 14' 50 hp fishing boat and spending a week building a trailer for it, I managed to get the 8000 lb beast into the yard. One engine's oil shows the milky color of water intrusion and the other does not. Both starters went under as well as part of the gear boxes. The boat has twin dirrect drive shafts through the bottom. I am considering draining all fluids and soaking the cylinders and crank case in Marvil Mystery oil for several weeks to make sure nothing is stuck before turning the engines over by hand with the plugs out. Does anyone know if this is a bad idea? I have done this with success with old car engines. The engines are 4 cylinder Chris Craft marine engines. What are they based on (Chrysler, GMC Ford etc...)? I also have a good mercury 4 cylinder I/O engine I am pulling out of another free boat a tree fell on, is this compatable? All help is appreciated as this is a lot of boat to take on and I am looking foward to taking it to the Bahamas next year.

 

It will be MUCH cheaper to simply use 5 gal of diesel with a Quart of ATF as soaking mix, instead of MM oil.

Simply getting the engine to turn over is NOT the problem. The rings may be siezed to the pistons , the bearings may have disolved , who knows?
Pull the engines and install new parts , or have them rebuilt by a good mechanic with access to a good machine shop.

FAST FRED

 

There are only two ways to save a sunk engine. One is to raise it and get it started right away, if it wasn't down for long. This requires a lot of oil, oil filers, fuel filters and a full day of effort, but the heat of the engine will boil out what wasn't drained with repeated oil changes.

If you do not have the luxury of getting to the engine before shortly after sinking, then they need to come apart. You may be able to start it up, but what happens if a ring is rusted and breaks while you are running it. A cylinder that could be honed and re-ringed now needs to be bored, if you got it shut off in time not to cause too much damage. If your luck is anything like mine, you will not get it shut off in time and the piston will break, rods bend and the valves will smash the top of it and you will be looking for a new engine.

 

Thank you Fast Fred and Hunter25, I am convinced. After the soak I will pull the motors and take to a mechanic friend to pull apart, clean up and hone then reassemble. The time to break down is not 60 miles out.

I am still wondering what the engines are (Ford Chevy Etc...) for parts like carbs and starters. Any info is appreciated.

 

Not knowing the model and year of your boat makes the question of what engines difficult to answer.

Chris Craft installed a builders plate inside the engine box, usually on the underside of the lid. It is generally a brass or bronze plat with the engine, trans, reduction gear, make, model and year info etched into it.

The engines also may have been replaced at some point if the boat has some age to her.

Once the engines are out and stripped, their make should become obvious. Most manufactures have a logo cast into the block or at least a casting that is easy enough to identify, assuming the person doing the disassembly if familiar with marine engines. Every engine I have seen also has a ID number stamped into it some place.

If I had to guess, I think it is a 1960's era Sea Skiff with Gray Marine engines. Where in central Florida are you?

 

I am in Eustis/DeLand. It is a 1978 Catilina model cuddy. I will look for the plates you describe. I have the owners manual and all receipts for work done since new. I don't think the engines were replaced but you never know. I am off work Sun, Mon and Tue so I will be able to get to work on the engines with the above suggestions in mind. This is way beyond the size of previous projects (Cars, smaller boats, building machines from my own castings etc...) but I will get it done, one small part at a time.