Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[shanjon]

im contemplating a speedboat project and as i have a spare x30xe i was considering putting it in the boat ,
does anyone know if the engine will be ok with salt water running through it ( obviously it will be flushed through after being in the sea etc )
sounds temptiong 3.0 v6 speedboat i could even name it miggy

[Darth Loo-knee]

I must admit i have thought of this myself since seeing a bloke with a speedboat which had a Cortina engine in it....
I should it would go well  

[Kevin Wood]

I would have thought salt water would be a very bad idea in a mixed metal engine. I believe the normal way of cooling marine engines is to have a heat exchanger that separates engine coolant from sea water?

This also gives the system some thermal inertia so it can cope with the water intake sucking air and re-priming itself every so often whilst making sure the engine is always full. In addition, the normal thermostat would be useable to keep the engine temperature constant and get it warmed up quick.

Kevin

[mantahatch]

Hmmmmm what gearbox would you attach to it ? what pitch propellor are you using ? and the size of the boat ? most marine gearboxes are single speed forwar/reverse devices.

Mike

[Martin_1962]

im contemplating a speedboat project and as i have a spare x30xe i was considering putting it in the boat ,
does anyone know if the engine will be ok with salt water running through it ( obviously it will be flushed through after being in the sea etc )
sounds temptiong 3.0 v6 speedboat i could even name it miggy

Nope - cast iron and aluminium - will corrode.

You want a heat exchanger type cooling system, not a problem - will just cost a bit more but the engine will last a lot longer

[ghondie]

As most others have replied you will have to run a closed loop cooling system, exactly the same as the engine already does.
the only real difference would be that the radiator would have to be swapped for a heat exchanger, this uses the seawater to cool the loop system, basically like you hanging the car radiator over the side of the boat in the sea. in theory it would work pretty well i guess.
only things you will have to get over are things like the ecu missing sensors, as i doubt you will have the lambda sensors fitted. also things like the ecu trying to talk to other units in the car.
not sure how you would solve that? addon ecu or something???

as for moving the boat, i reckon that you would have a pretty good top speed and the engine would be a pretty good match for most speadboats.

Regards
Nathan

[Martin_1962]

Lambdas if pre cat - no problem - post cat - I be Kevin knows how to fudge it.

[Bandit127]

It's called "marinising" and can be tricky. Car derived V8s have a reputation for unreliability. There's an article here, from the States.

http://www.glen-l.com/weblettr/webletters-7/wl56-marinizing-1.html

Good luck!

[Mr Skrunts]

What a cool idea.

Anyone that does the conversion could you please create a picture diary of it.  Allthough I have no interest in boating the mechanical aspect of it really intrigues me.

 

[hotel21]

I like these conversions....



saves using the salt water cooling alternate....  

[TheBoy]

v6 won't be the best, but not bad due to low done torque, though depends what you want it for.  Our old ski boats had 3.5 v8s to give the grunt, but were only good for around 40-45 knots