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Old 10-21-2019, 12:58 PM   #21
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For the motor mounts, I'm pretty sure the 300hp TAMD70s were a factory option on that boat. Diesels in Chris Crafts in the mid 80s were typically Volvos in that size range for the boats that came as gas or diesel.
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Old 10-27-2019, 08:37 AM   #22
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We've decided not to roll the dice with any Volvo powered boats. It's really too bad because there are some nice trawlers out there with Volvo's. I can't imagine being somewhere in the Exuma's and needing an engine part that no longer exists and has to be manufactured.

So, now concentrating on boats with Lehman's, Cummins, Cat and Perkins. In that order. All natural aspirated would be icing on the cake...
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Old 10-27-2019, 09:30 AM   #23
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If you like the Commanders other than the Volvos, there's always the option of buying one with 454s (cheaper) and then re-powering it at some point. But even before re-powering, the only major downside to the 454s is fuel consumption. Beyond that, they're pretty durable if cared for and parts are everywhere and not expensive.
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Old 10-27-2019, 01:28 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rslifkin View Post
If you like the Commanders other than the Volvos, there's always the option of buying one with 454s (cheaper) and then re-powering it at some point. But even before re-powering, the only major downside to the 454s is fuel consumption. Beyond that, they're pretty durable if cared for and parts are everywhere and not expensive.

Our typical season is 2500-3000 miles, so feeding a couple of 454's might eat into the fuel budget a wee bit!
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Old 10-27-2019, 03:08 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by Sidclark View Post
Our typical season is 2500-3000 miles, so feeding a couple of 454's might eat into the fuel budget a wee bit!
Figuring you'd be in the 1.2 - 1.4 nmpg range around a knot below hull speed compared to 2.5+ with a lot of diesels, yeah, they're thirsty. The difference is a bit smaller running fast.

But at the same time, depending on purchase price difference and maintenance cost differences over time, it can still take a while to make up the difference in fuel cost. I've done the math on dumping my 454s for diesels and as much as I'd love to do it, saving money would never be the reason. It would easily take me 3000+ hours of running to make up the repower costs in fuel, and that's assuming that my maintenance costs over that time don't go up at all with the diesels.
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Old 11-01-2019, 03:40 PM   #26
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We recently sold our '87 Chris 410, which by then was called the Constellation and not the Commander, yet was essentially the same boat. When the original 454s began to go south, we looked at repowering with diesels. Our mechanic reminded us of all the other stuff that would be involved, from transmissions (the old Velvet Drives wouldn't handle the torque of an equivalent hp diesel), to motor mounts (as mentioned previously in this thread), to fuel lines and wiring harness, different props, not to mention that we'd have to change over to a diesel generator as well. We ended up repowering with fresh reman long blocks overbored 0.060", rebuilt Velvet Drives, reman Rochester Quadrajet carbs, and conversation to Delco electronic ignition.

After this repowering work, we had a reliable drive train with a two year/unlimited hour warranty on the long blocks, slightly better fuel economy, and better low end torque which helped in locking and docking.
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