TOPIC: 1967 Buehler Turbocraft Nimrod Project

Hello all! My father picked this up sunday from CT. It's a 1967 Buehler Turbocraft Nimrod with a chrysler 318. It's pretty complete as far as engine,steering and drive components go.

The downside is it has a squishy deck, manifolds and timing cover water crossover are all cracked bad, engine turns over as does the drive. We think the engine wasnt winterized at all which cracked most of the cast iron parts

It had carpet over generic plywood screwed through the top layer of glass, so you can imagine what that did as it got waterlogged over the years!Water seeped through the screws and swelled up the deck, it has a bulbous shape now.

Spent a few hours removing the rotted top layer of carpet and plywood to get to the glass, next step is cutting it open to get to the stringers. Here are some photos


What it looked like before we ripped out the top layer of carpet

Where its at now

meatloafoverdose,

WELCOME ABOARD.

NICE boat, too.

yours, satx

Welcome aboard, good project!!!!!

Bob

What a great boat, being a Buehler owner makes me a little biased. Think of how forward Buehler was with the center console back in the early-miod 60's. I think it will be pretty spectacular when you finish her. I may have a donor boat out in Iowa if you need any parts. The cool thing is that the 318 Chrysler is very plentiful and will be an easy installation.

Thanks!

We might be going with a mercruiser vortec 350, because we can get a complete truck engine for 250, and we got the cooling for one already. so that with a few extras

We would love to stick with chrysler since its already in it and we arent much of a chevy guys anyways, but we are having a bear of a time finding the water cover that goes onto the timing cover (pre-75) plus the block is cracked, someone put marinetex over it to seal up the cracks.

I to am looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Thanks for posting.

Just a update- we called up a local junk yard that is one of the last in the area that still has pre 1986 vehicles and are getting a 318. Just got some manifolds as well, so tomorrow I'll be getting the engine, we will be starting up the one in the boat before we yank it out. I'll settup the camera and tripod and get a video of the start up!

Saturday we worked all day on her, pulled off the manifolds, ground down the marinetex on the block to decode the serial, and its not the original engine but a late 70's 318. Nothing special, so we wont feel ashamed to update the engine with one from a 86 fifth avenue.





We tore open the deck finally and what we found wasnt a surprise. The foam was holding massive amounts of water, so we will be removing ALL the foam from between the stringers, we will also be removing the inner sides as well in order to reach the outer stringers. Do it once do it right!

the 318 marine motor is based on a heavy truck motor with sodium cooled valves and heaver castings my dad ran one in his fishing boat for over 12 years on the original short block with three valve jobs you have to replace the exhaust valves every time they can not be ground was rated at 210 hp

Charles

Just a follow up since it's been a while.

We scored a 360 Marine Chrysler, the deck has been stripped clean, in a few months new stringers will be made or existing ones boxed in and foam will be added and we can start redecking

Ryan