Thread: BBC newbie checking in

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Hello all, this is an incredible forum! So far I've only scratched the surface reading the tons of info here, but I'm duely impressed by the depth of knowlege here. My bad for not finding you sooner!

So here's the thing...I have a right hand 454 in a Barefoot Nautique ski boat and am an active member of correctcraftfan.com, but the info over there is mostly about fords. I rebuilt my engine last winter and worked through some problems, but I will be going back through it again this winter.

Are a few boat questions welcome here?

Hope so!

Greg

Heck, boats are fine... Though some won't admit to it, there's a number of us on here who have done the boat thing... I had a jet boat for a couple years, determined that it made a giant hole in the water that I continually tried to fill with money!!!!!---but it sure was fun!!!!

Thanks Dave!

Here's the story then. I have a 454 (#14015445) with peanut heads that I think came out of a P-30 van or a motorhome. I had the block cleaned up and machined after replacing a cracked one. It's .030 over and I think the rest is original. It's also reverse rotation and has a gear driven cam.

The problem I have is what I call a slapping lifter. The lifter seat has straight line wear like it isn't turning. This happened after I was chasing another noise(backwards pistons). What I mean is I had 10+ hours on the engine without this problem. I think I caused it by overtightening the rocker with the engine running. I thought the piston knock was bad valve adjustment...live and learn. I changed the lifter twice after I corrected the pistons, but it's still the same.

So I want to go back through it this winter. I want to understand why the lifter is like it is and of course fix it. New cam and lifters?

I would also like to have some mild upgrades and tried a few, but I got so much conflicting info that I left it about stock in the end. It's a ski boat, so I need to keep a good idle.

Here's the gear drive



Here's what it looked like when I thought I was done?!!? LOL



Since that was taken, it has the stock intake and valve covers back on. I had scorpion RR's on it until someone told me I'd blow a tip and scatter the motor.

Thanks!