1999 Longhorn Nauique Restoration

[dhmcfadin]

Small update, Boat has been completely sanded down inside and out. Hull stiffeners have been glassed into place. All screw holes around the perimeter of the deck and hull have been filled and sanded. A layer of glass was laid down around the interior top edge of the deck and hull. A little more blocking/sanding followed by floor panel making, we will be ready to spray gelcoat. The top and the underside will be fully sprayed natural white. Then hull will be re-sprayed inside and out including the engine/bilge/ski locker compartments. Big progress coming soon! John's attention to detail is just incredible.

[dhmcfadin]

With all the chaos going on in the world, I feel torn about posting updates but here it goes. I saw the boat this afternoon and John has made some incredible progress. The deck top, bottom, inside, and out have been sprayed with new gelcoat. The interior of the hull has also been sprayed. You will notice that the floors are slightly discolored. John has sprayed a thin layer of gelcoat and is going back to block sand once more to ensure the floors are perfectly flat. My favorite part is the squared of ski locker. I'll be using part of that space for batteries. Next week he will start spraying color and then onto the bottom of the hull. He is doing some incredible work. The boat should ready for stage 1 of reassembly in the next few weeks!

[SilentSeven]

I vote post away....a little normalcy during the chaos is a good thing. (PS - boat's looking great!)

[Bevostein]

I vote post away....a little normalcy during the chaos is a good thing. (PS - boat's looking great!)

I wouldn’t call this project “normalcy”. Lol. It’s over the top awesomeness.

[t.franscioni]

Don’t feel bad about posting man.... we need some good news right now.

[jtryon]

yup what they said...keep posting updates!

[dhmcfadin]

Have a few more pictures to share. The areas where the tower mounts, were ground down top and bottom and then new glass was laid for extra strength. When this boat was built, Nautique had only been building towers for 1 year. This upgrade was something at the top of my list. In general, I made a point to strengthen the deck as a whole. Another thing is the gas fill neck. When the boat was built, the fill neck was rotated so the word "gas" was sideways. Drove me crazy. Decided to straighten it out. Another item was flush mount lifting rings. And finally, filling in the stern light receptacle and the lock mechanism for the rear locker.

[dhmcfadin]

[bturner]

That is some off the chart work there. Love seeing the posts as I sit here locked away in the house. Still cold out so we up here in the north can't even work on anything in the garage yet.

This would have made a good TV show.....

[Evening Shade]

This would have made a good TV show.....

No doubt! Could've been on Ship Shape TV.

[Evening Shade]

Bob got the new intake manifold intalled and I got to see the engine on the dyno. The intake swap transformed the hp and torque curve. I lost a little torque down low but widened the power band significantly. Peak HP 438.2 at 5500 rpm. Peak TQ 460.2 at 4200 rpm. At 5200 rpm I gained 90.2 hp and 91 ft lbs over the GT40 intake. Below is a video of the dyno run. Doesn't tell you anything but it sounds nice!

dhmcfadin I was looking at your dyno charts and don't see how you came up with the 90 hp and 90 ft lbs gains with the Holley over the GT-40. I'm not nit picking. I'm just trying to understand from where the numbers came. I assume you used the factory engine specs to compare the rebuilt engine dyno runs.

The power band maybe not as good as it is with the Holley intake, but the HP/Torque curves you got with the GT-40 look like a perfect match for a tow sports boat. Clearly from the numbers, the Holley flows way more air and will keep screaming all the way to the rev limiter.

I know you went with after market pistons and increased the displacement to 408, but what else did you do? Just heads and cam? Did you get to 408 by stroking it, boring it, or both?

[ScooterMcgavin]

That is some incredible work going into this boat! And I agree definitely could have made a show about this build. Looks amazing and thanks for sharing your passion for this boat.

[dhmcfadin]

dhmcfadin I was looking at your dyno charts and don't see how you came up with the 90 hp and 90 ft lbs gains with the Holley over the GT-40. I'm not nit picking. I'm just trying to understand from where the numbers came. I assume you used the factory engine specs to compare the rebuilt engine dyno runs.

The power band maybe not as good as it is with the Holley intake, but the HP/Torque curves you got with the GT-40 look like a perfect match for a tow sports boat. Clearly from the numbers, the Holley flows way more air and will keep screaming all the way to the rev limiter.

I know you went with after market pistons and increased the displacement to 408, but what else did you do? Just heads and cam? Did you get to 408 by stroking it, boring it, or both?

So the dyno chart was comparing my 408 with a GT40 intake and my 408 with a Holley High-Ram intake. All other parameters equal. Yes, the gt-40 made torque more like a ski boat engine but what you don’t see is below 3000 rpm. The gt40’s torque ramped up quickly and fell off quickly. The power band was very narrow. I was willing to sacrifice some peak torque for a drastically wider power band and more torque across the entire power band. Not talking peak numbers. I’m talking the overall power band. One of my goals with this boat was to run 53.1 mph. That number comes from adding 10 mph to this boats top speed when it was tested at Correct Craft. Why? Because I wanted to lol. No other reason. I wouldn’t have been able to get there with the gt40 intake.

I came up with my numbers by looking at the biggest power differences at the same rpm. At 5200 rpm, I gain 90.2 hp over the stock intake. At 5200 rpm, I gained 90.9 ft lbs over the stock intake. It’s this jump at 5200 rpm that will get me to 53.1 mph.

We got to 408 cubic inches by both boring and stroking. Every single internal component of the engine was replaced.

[t.franscioni]

What are the two holes in the stringer down at the transom end of the hull?

[dhmcfadin]

What are the two holes in the stringer down at the transom end of the hull?

Those are vents. Came from Correct Craft that way.