My name is Tracy and I am from Oklahoma and have been in Ca since 2000 and made it my permanent home after four years in the AF from 2001-2005. I am in the central Cali delta and own a 1961 50 foot Chris craft conni. She has two MEL 430s in it. I have reluctantly decided to rebuild these engines as the cost of re powering is almost twice the price as a rebuild. I love the way these old engines sing but hate there weak power output for there displacement, the last 350 chevy I built had 300hp and 400ftq. That is more than a marine 430 Lincon. I would much rather use a small block chevy and get much better fuel economy, or a set of diesels but as mentioned replacing the engine with anything other than original is much more costly.

Here is the project and it has a solid hull and was hulled out and all bottom work was done. I am currently working on making it look like new outside but am saving for the engines.


I am familiar through research with the Mel engine and hope I can rebuild these babies. Many use custom Pistons from wisco but that companies Pistons are crap. I would rather pay to have it sleeved and use used original Pistons. I am not a professional engine rebuilder but pretty competent. My last build was a weber 750cc two cylinder four stroke with 200hp. befire that was a old 350 chevy.

Both 430s run good but one has bad piston walk and sounds like a knocking rod at low rpm. Both have over 2000 hours.

Hello Tracy, and welcome. That boat looks really nice! From the photos the outside does not look bad at all.
Could you please share your progress with us. This forum does not get a lot of posts, but does get tons of visits. And if you do post I'll sure be watching your project!
I have gone with the Wisceo pistons twice now and have had no issues. I guess time will tell. But I have to admit they are pricey.

All the best,
Rick

It won't be a fast build. I am currently assembling all the knowledge. I would have the engine built for me but the last several times I had a well known shop do this for me on other projects the engines had issues from oil leaks to reused rocker arm nuts. I noticed the high traffic volume and lack of post. I guess there are lots of lurkers learning a lot. I sure did while reading Chris craft crazy's thread.

I suppose for an old engine that is not hot rodded up the wisco Pistons are good. I have had tolerance issues with wiseco for high power builds where clearances are much more important. Since the original Pistons lasted 60+ years and 2000 hours I think a good used set will outlast the boat. I also feel sleeving technology has become much more reliable and I can have all the machine work and sleeving done for the $1400 I was quoted from wiseco. It's about 800 for the sleeves, then however much the install, piston fitting and honing and it's not worth the extra money for the wiscos.

I am having a hard time figuring my compression ratio as there were so many different ratios used by Chris craft from 10:1 down to 8.5:1. This will determine weather I sleeve or not. It needs to be at least 9:1.