1999 Longhorn Nauique Restoration

[dhmcfadin]

The exterior of the hull is completely done! Now we just have to finish the inside, floor panels, and then place the deck back on. This morning was exciting! The hull was set on the new trailer and I got to see the boat wheeled out into the sun for the first. Even the bottom of the hull is looking incredible. The boat really turning into something special.

Also, phenomenal progress has been made on the engine rebuild 2.0. As shown in previous posts, the damage was terrible but I found a shop to re-rebuild this engine but this time with pride and attention to detail. I should be picking up the engine this week. Over the next month, I will rewire everything and then take it back to the dyno.

I also posted about my desire to reinstall the original GT40 Intake. Despite the loss of power above 3500 rpm with the original intake, moving to something more exotic that made more power just didn't feel right. This boat needs to maintain originality with subtle improvements not drastic changes.

I started researching the GT40 intake and found the mustang guys have had great success porting this intake. It just takes a lot of work and the knowledge of where to grind and where not to. I researched and came across Larry Ordonio of Precision Porting Services. He was very familiar with this intake. I explained flow issues and we went over the dyno numbers. He felt confident he could make this flow more thane enough for 408 cubic inches. After about a month, Larry transformed the upper and lower manifold. He ported and streamlined each runner. He also opened up the mouth to fit an 80 mm throttle body. This thing should flow like crazy. I then had the upper manifold powder coated by Jose at Diamond Powder Coating. They've done all of my powder coat work including the windshield and did phenomenal job as always! Excited to have the engine back on the dyno in the next month. Can’t recommend Larry and Jose enough, great guys to do business with.

[t.franscioni]

Lookin good! I like the powder coat, won’t have to worry about rust at all with that finish. What’s left to do with inside of hull?

[1989SkiNautique2001]

I can almost hear that motor with that awesome airway!

[bturner]

This thread just continues to get better and better. This build should have been on a YouTube channel. Great work!

[dhmcfadin]

Thanks everyone, its getting there!

The interior deck and hull still need a little more gelcoat sprayed and the floor needs another coat. The floor panels also need to be sprayed. As they spray out, they wet sand and block, then spray out again. The underside of the bow of the deck also needs to be finished. Nautique hid a TON of imperfections with carpet. Without any carpet, it was important to me that every bare surface be finished out. They are getting close.

As far as to intake manifold goes, the upper and lower were hot washed and then sand blasted. The upper was sprayed with an epoxy primer and powder coated. On the lower, I used POR-15 stop rust kit. I wanted to powder coat but Jose advised against due to the fuel rails being there. He said the powder coat would stand up to fuel in the short term but long term it would degrade. POR-15 is desiged for fuel and etches itself onto the bare cast iron. Should look perfect for a long time. It was also super easy to apply and is self leveling. I really like the way it turned out.

[Fast351]

How have I missed this thread for so long? What a cool build! You must be the same guy from the f150forum... Unique user name, no idea you were a skier!

As you can tell from my user name, I know these engines well. I drag raced these engines for a very long time. My machinist was actually well known in the circle track racing circle, and I did all my own assembly work. It's precise work but not particularly difficult. It's too bad you ended up with a hack, but I'm glad you decided to do a full teardown. Better to catch it now than 50 hours down the road and have to tear the motor out of a fully assembled boat. BTW, good call on getting rid of those Windsor Senior heads. I had a set of those on one race engine and I could never get the valve stems to quit using oil and wearing out prematurely because of the funky valve train geometry in them. It also looks like your port guy did a fantastic job on the intake. Those long runner intakes can make good power but they're obviously designed for low end torque. If you're interested, check out "extrude hone porting". It's a cool technology that uses an abrasive paste pressed through the intake like a pasta press to smooth out the runners...

Couple of questions:

1) Any idea how much weight you added to the boat with the extra glass work? As a slalom guy I'd always worry about that a little.
2) Planning to do anything with the transmission or just use the stocker?

Anyway, really cool project! Excited to see how it turns out.

[dhmcfadin]

How have I missed this thread for so long? What a cool build! You must be the same guy from the f150forum... Unique user name, no idea you were a skier!

As you can tell from my user name, I know these engines well. I drag raced these engines for a very long time. My machinist was actually well known in the circle track racing circle, and I did all my own assembly work. It's precise work but not particularly difficult. It's too bad you ended up with a hack, but I'm glad you decided to do a full teardown. Better to catch it now than 50 hours down the road and have to tear the motor out of a fully assembled boat. BTW, good call on getting rid of those Windsor Senior heads. I had a set of those on one race engine and I could never get the valve stems to quit using oil and wearing out prematurely because of the funky valve train geometry in them. It also looks like your port guy did a fantastic job on the intake. Those long runner intakes can make good power but they're obviously designed for low end torque. If you're interested, check out "extrude hone porting". It's a cool technology that uses an abrasive paste pressed through the intake like a pasta press to smooth out the runners...

Couple of questions:

1) Any idea how much weight you added to the boat with the extra glass work? As a slalom guy I'd always worry about that a little.
2) Planning to do anything with the transmission or just use the stocker?

Anyway, really cool project! Excited to see how it turns out.

Man, I wish I would have met you 6 months ago lol. Glad to see another 351 enthusiast. So I swapped the intake but never got around to rebuilding the GT40 P heads. The new engine builder and New machine shop took a look at the current heads and said they actually looked really good from a setup perspective. I am taking a gamble on the Windsor Sr and hoping they perform properly. Luckily heads are fairly easy to swap down the road unlike a full rebuild. I will know fairly soon if everything is operating properly as I’m going to log some hours on the dyno with a brand new scratch tune. Then I’ll doing a 10 hour shake down with the engine running in the boat without any upholstery or floor panels. I really want to put the drivetrain through the paces before anything is buttoned up. It will be during this time that I evaluate the heads. What are your thoughts on this game plan?

As far as the trans goes, I’ve got a perfectly good 40a in the garage right now. I think I am just going to clean this one up and stick with it for now. This will be something I monitor closely during the shakedown. But I am not holding my breath. SKIDIM makes a great 80 series kit if I need to swap.

In regard to additional fiberglass and gelcoat, I’m am going to try and have the boat weighed after the fact. I’m sure there will need to be some balancing done just like Nautique did during the original water test. I think all of this is part of the fun of this build.

[Fast351]

Man, I wish I would have met you 6 months ago lol. Glad to see another 351 enthusiast. So I swapped the intake but never got around to rebuilding the GT40 P heads. The new engine builder and New machine shop took a look at the current heads and said they actually looked really good from a setup perspective. I am taking a gamble on the Windsor Sr and hoping they perform properly. Luckily heads are fairly easy to swap down the road unlike a full rebuild. I will know fairly soon if everything is operating properly as I’m going to log some hours on the dyno with a brand new scratch tune. Then I’ll doing a 10 hour shake down with the engine running in the boat without any upholstery or floor panels. I really want to put the drivetrain through the paces before anything is buttoned up. It will be during this time that I evaluate the heads. What are your thoughts on this game plan?

Sounds like a solid plan!

The way you check the valve train setup (FWIW) and I'm sure this is how the guys at your machine shop did it is you dummy up a solid lifter (since yours are hydraulic, they would collapse from the valve springs with no oil pressure). Then you put some blueing dye (or a sharpie) on the end of a valve stem, put the rocker and pushrod on, and rotate the engine to get a sweep on the valve. You look at where the wipe pattern is on the tip. Two things to look for are

1) off center. This is a must correct issue. If you have side loading on the valves all the time the guides will wear pretty fast.
2) width of sweep. This is a less serious issue. Ideally you want the rocker arm to push straight down on the valve tip, but since they move in a radial motion you will always have some width to the sweep.

I ended up screwing around with different brand rocker arms and pushrod lengths to correct for the geometry as good as I could get it, but the guides still wore out. Of course I was running bronze guides which is a race type thing (yours are probably just cast iron) and they wear a lot faster, also 7500 RPM doesn't do it any favors If your engine shop says good to go, they are probably right.

BTW, here is a cheap tool to use to do your own engine analysis for big problems:

https://www.amazon.com/JEGS-80532-Fi...=fsclp_pl_dp_2

Cut open your filters when you change oil. Look in the paper element for metals. Some zinc from bearings is normal. Copper means you're into the bearings. It can save a cam/crank if you catch it early.

BTW, 4000 hours on a 20 year old boat? Jesus, that's using it. My Ski Nautique sees maybe 35 hours a year. Of course it only goes from the lift to my lane, runs hard for 10 minutes, and back to the lift every time I ski.

[dhmcfadin]

Sounds like a solid plan!

The way you check the valve train setup (FWIW) and I'm sure this is how the guys at your machine shop did it is you dummy up a solid lifter (since yours are hydraulic, they would collapse from the valve springs with no oil pressure). Then you put some blueing dye (or a sharpie) on the end of a valve stem, put the rocker and pushrod on, and rotate the engine to get a sweep on the valve. You look at where the wipe pattern is on the tip. Two things to look for are

1) off center. This is a must correct issue. If you have side loading on the valves all the time the guides will wear pretty fast.
2) width of sweep. This is a less serious issue. Ideally you want the rocker arm to push straight down on the valve tip, but since they move in a radial motion you will always have some width to the sweep.

I ended up screwing around with different brand rocker arms and pushrod lengths to correct for the geometry as good as I could get it, but the guides still wore out. Of course I was running bronze guides which is a race type thing (yours are probably just cast iron) and they wear a lot faster, also 7500 RPM doesn't do it any favors If your engine shop says good to go, they are probably right.

BTW, here is a cheap tool to use to do your own engine analysis for big problems:

https://www.amazon.com/JEGS-80532-Fi...=fsclp_pl_dp_2

Cut open your filters when you change oil. Look in the paper element for metals. Some zinc from bearings is normal. Copper means you're into the bearings. It can save a cam/crank if you catch it early.

BTW, 4000 hours on a 20 year old boat? Jesus, that's using it. My Ski Nautique sees maybe 35 hours a year. Of course it only goes from the lift to my lane, runs hard for 10 minutes, and back to the lift every time I ski.

Awesome info. I will have to ask how they checked. I will pick up tool. A lot easier than using a can opener lol. I actually have 5 Blackstone Lab test kits ready to rock for this engine. That was actually how I found out how bad of shape the engine was in after finding the larger aluminum shavings. Blackstone was awesome. Going to be monitoring like a hawk.

[t.franscioni]

Any more sneak peeks on the inside hull work? I bought some of the materials your fiberglass guy is using and am picking up any ideas and tips from your project as I can.

[dhmcfadin]

Any more sneak peeks on the inside hull work? I bought some of the materials your fiberglass guy is using and am picking up any ideas and tips from your project as I can.

Not much yet. I’ll be out there Tuesday. I’ll get some more pics then.

[t.franscioni]

What new with the longhorn? Hope all is good.

[dhmcfadin]

What new with the longhorn? Hope all is good.

Still moving slowly. My fiberglass guy had a major influx of work lately and since we bought the 95 super sport, I told him I was not in a rush to get it done. One day soon, I will have an update

[dhmcfadin]

Got to see the boat for the first time in a few months. All hatch and floor panels are complete. Gaps are nice and even. Entire floor was block sanded, wet sanded, and polished. It's like a mirror and about as level as you can get for a floor. I almost don’t want to cover all that pretty gelcoat with Seadek. The deck should be going back on within the next couple weeks. From here, I may put the boat on the back burner for a bit. Now that we bought the 95 Super Sport, I am not in such a rush to get Ol' Horney done. The delays due to Covid have actually allowed me to re-think a couple things on the restoration.

[t.franscioni]

Awesome! That came out perfect. might PM you some questions about this step of your project I’m about to gel coat my interior here soon just waiting on an air compressor big enough for the job.

Any insight into what your rethinking on this project?