Teaser

[shaun]

Well this projects been a long one that's for sure... I figured i would have had this thing finished and running a few years ago. I finally got the motor in, fired it up, and took it out the weekend after the 4th. It ran great, definitely faster than it ever was when i was a kid. I had my dad launch me and i decided to let him park the truck and come back before i actually took the first cruise. He's been helping me with it here and there during this project and i knew he really wanted to go. Him, 2 of my buddies and I get in, start it up and take it for a cruise. I immediately noticed that it cruised at a lot lower RPM. As a kid we normally cruised at around 3500 rpm +/- a few hundred. I was cruisin alittle under 3K. After running it for about up river for a bit when i came across a smooth area i decided to nail the throttle... Holly shit was i not expecting it to pull has hard as it did. Now i don't have much to compare to because most of the boats I've been in had pretty much stock motors, maybe a cam or whatever... anyway, i look over at my dad and he has a huge smile on his face, i look back and my buddy's, they have a hollyshit/scared look on there face but are at least smiling... The back seat kinda did a wheelie i guess, never had that problem before :) So we cruise some more and then i slow down and ask my dad if he wants to drive. Of course he does, so he gets in the drivers seat and cruises for a bit, nails the throttle a few times and hands the boat back over to me... All in all it was a awesome first voyage. My dad is really impressed with the boat and all the work I've done to it. He keeps telling me it's never been this nice. It's really a nice feeling when something you work on comes out as you hoped. I was really scared that something was going to go wrong being this was pretty much my first motor build.
I want to thank everybody here who helped me on this project, especially the following guys...
Bob (Fiat48), You have put up with question after question after question and have always given me detailed answers and never seamed to get annoyed... even with the huge amount of basic questions i would ask!
Art (GoFastRacer), Same goes for you, no matter what i asked i always got a detailed answer from you and then more. If/When you decide to make a trip to redrock (now sandbar resort) let me know and I'll come out, beers are on me!
Chris (cstraub69), You've also put up with my questions, not only that but you gave me great deals on the stuff I've bought from you. The boat runs awesome and pulls hard throughout rpm range. I will tell you anybody building there own motor needing parts, especially a cam, I'm giving them your info!
Scott (SteelComp), your another one, helped me a lot of with timing chain issues and with trying to figure out rocker geometry. Not only that but your thread with your build helped me a lot too, i cant even tell you how many times I've looked at that thread. Sad this now is that for some reason the pictures on that thread are gone.
Well, like i said, I'm super happy with how things have turned out so far. It was a great feeling when people came up asking who built my motor and me being able to tell them I did, i just cant get that type of satisfaction from having a shop build it for me and that was the main reason i choose to do it myself.
The video isn't very long, unfortunelly i didn't get much video. My mom tried to take a video while i was making a pass but she's bouncing all over the place. The next outing I'll have a better video for sure. In this video I'm just running it on the trailer setting the idle and timing.
http://unix-scripts.com/hb/uploads/shaunboat1.wmv

[Morg]

Shaun,
It was a pleasure to follow your build. Great work.
Now you know first hand the pleasure of hitting the starter knowing you built her yourself, And she runs like a raped ape.:) :D :)
Hope to meet you at the river some day.
Morg.

[cstraub]

Shaun,
No, the thanks goes to you. It is your generation and people like you that will keep this industry alive for many years. It was a pleasure sir.
Now for the questions? How responsive is the engine. . . does it REV quick when you hit the gas? The powerband did it seem that no matter where you stabbed the throttle that the engine would "GO" without hesitation?
Again it has been a pleasure. When my customers have a smile on their face then it makes my job worth it.

[GofastRacer]

Shaun, you're quite welcome it was my pleasure, just glad to hear it all turned out great for ya!..:cool:

[ck7684]

Awesome!! Glad to see it's running!! I should have mine going soon too...I'm getting excited!!:D

[WannabeRacing]

Congrats man! Looks good.

[shaun]

Now for the questions? How responsive is the engine. . . does it REV quick when you hit the gas? The powerband did it seem that no matter where you stabbed the throttle that the engine would "GO" without hesitation?
Chris, Thats the first thing i noticed when i blipped the throttle while on the trailer... not only did it respond lightning fast but it really wanted to spin up. The powerband does exactly what you said above, I've only been out for one weekend so far with it but i got on it quiet a bit and no matter where i stabbed the throttle it took off like a bat out of hell. Every person that weekend with me who came for a ride when they got outta the boat pretty much said "holly shit man". I couldn't been happier with this motor! I'm already thinking about the next one, i'll be contacting you again here down the road for another one of your cams! I still would like to dyno/tune the motor to get as much out of it as possible plus i would like to see some numbers. Maybe this winter...

[Roaddogg 4040]

Congratulations Shaun... Glad it went well, also thanks for the build thread. It was great reading about your build and then seeing it run.
Steve

[BIGCHRIS]

Great job Shaun,enjoyed following your progress

[RCB19]

Your stoked!!! Why does the motor surge like that. Almost sounds like a blower motor.

[shaun]

Your stoked!!! Why does the motor surge like that. Almost sounds like a blower motor.
Not sure, it's always done that though, even with the 396 that used to be in it.. I want to say it has somthing to do with that manifold/carbs but i honesly dont know anything about it, i always thought loops came from the cam. I love the way it sounds though, the loop bumps around from 1000 to 1500 rpm on the trailer. Right now with where i have the idle at it only does that if i give the throttle a quick blip, it will surge a few times and then catch up with it self... i just give it another blip :D I wish i could run the idle lower but as of right now if i get off the throttle and the idle is where i want it the motor shuts down. I'm going to play with the timing more and see what happenes, right now i'm at around 15-18 deg @ around 1000rpm and 35 deg total at 3200 rpm. I'm going to change the bushing to try to get at least 36 out of it, sounds like i should try for 38 if i can get away with it.
*EDIT* thinking back now, my dad took the 396 and put it in his truck, and the truck had the same surge but it was alot faster and didnt have such a wide rpm range... I think the computer was attempting to correct for it though. Not sure, must be the cam and/or piston combo? The 396 had domed pistons like i have now, not sure about the cam... My cam was designed for my combo by Chris Straubb... I'm sure sombody will chime in and give us some info about it.

[Daytona100]

Sounds good.:D

[ck7684]

I'm curious about the cam specs, or are they top secret??:)

[cstraub]

I'm curious about the cam specs, or are they top secret??:)
My cam spec's are not secret. Once the customer has them they are free to share with whom ever. Just remember one thing, each cam I do for someone is designed for his/her combination and to reach his or her goal. I can't design the "Ultimate" Jet cam, doesn't exist because with human nature we are all different. Shaun's 454 is a different animal then Steelcomps 454 with different combination of parts and goals.

[ck7684]

Right-O, I was just wondering because our builds are fairly similiar and I was wondering how close our cam specs were to each other...;)

[shaun]

Right-O, I was just wondering because our builds are fairly similiar and I was wondering how close our cam specs were to each other...;)
Did you get your cam from Chris also?

[ck7684]

Nope, got mine from Bullet Cams...

[gn7]

always remember Shaun, there no stipid questions, just stupid answers, and not one of the people you listed that helped you hit the ground running. They ALL had to learn and ask a ton of questions too. So pat your self on the back for getting it done and being smart enuff to ask, (the right people), and the most important thing, YOU LEARNED SOMETHING. CONGRATS

[Fiat48]

I could sense the excitement in your video. This is what it is all about.