heavyhauler

Does Anyone Out There Know What The History Of Orca Challenge Is? 38' Fever From Lake Conroe, Tx. I Bought It In August And Am Trying To Trace Its History, Especially The Engines

Cold Sweat

I talked to the owner before it was sold, I'm sure he told you it was his friend's boat since new, so he should know all there is to know, if not maybe he can tell you who the original owner was unless there was a problem with the sale. Told me the 540's had some work done by Fountain when new, took care of a problem, end of story. Hope all is well with the boat, looked really nice, just couldn't swing it at the time. How does it run with the bulldogs?

heavyhauler

It Was A Classic Case Of A Lot Of Mismatched Parts. Bottom Ends While High Dollar Were Built Like Blower Motors. Had 1/8" Stroker Cranks, Good Rods, Dished Pistons, And Monstrous Camshafts. Top End Had Heads From 1974, Angle Cut To The Max, Ported, And A Pair Of 4500 Holleys Flowing Over 1300 Cfm. Had Tall Deck Blocks With Short Deck Intake Manifolds, Etc. Unbelievably The Boat Would Run On Top End Pretty Respectable, But That Was It. I Got A Good By So No Problem, But The Guy I Got It From Didn't Know What Was There, I Don't Think. I Was Just Trying To Find Out If It Did Have Blowers On It At Some Point, Or What They Thought They Were Achieving By Building It The Way They Did. It Had Injested Water On Both Engines, So The Rebuild Was Inevitable, But I Didn't Expect To Find Inside What I Found. By The Way It Was 557 Cubic Inches, Will Be 565 When I Get Done, But I Threw Everything But The Blocks, Cranks, And Carbs In The Used Parts Bin.

heavyhauler

The original owner is supposedly no longer lives in the U.S., according to the guy I got it from.

Cold Sweat

Did he tell you the same story he told me? Sounds like he didn't disclose all the issues at the time of the sale. He told me they were factory 540 bulldogs with cam problems if I recall, really low original hours, 125? I couldn't sell a boat to someone and not disclose obvious problems, he had to know there was a problem with the engines. Thats just wrong! Thats still alot of money to spend and have to pull both engines Good luck

heavyhauler

The hour meter on the boat showed about 130 when I got it and the condition of the boat itself was immaculate and original as best I could tell, so I couldn't dispute that, but I don't know for sure if the second owner really knew all about the boat or not for sure. He claimed he didn't know it had injested water and that he didn't know or was unaware that the motors had been modified, and once again I can live with that, because when I met him the engines did start and we took it for a ride and it was strong, but wouldn't idle below about 3000 rpm's. I figured it was just the big carbs needing work since he told me it had not been run much in the last 3 years, and assuming the motors were stock, but when I got it home and went through the carbs and couldn't get it to idle and then changed the carbs out for a set of smaller ones thinking the 4500's were too big and still wouldn't idle, I started pulling plugs and checking compression and started finding problems, but still never give much credence to anything too bad until it was obvious I was going to have to take down one of the engines and look at it. Once that we saw what we had it was too late to look back then, so down with the second to change out the mismatched items in it and make it match up with the other one. The port engine was in bad shape because the water damage to one cylinder was old and had ruined the cylinder so it had to be bored and the bearings were turning black with heat so crank was bent and rod was messed up on same cylinder as was piston (naturally). By the time I had found all this it was obvious that a lot of changes needed to be made if I was ever going to be able to get any enjoyment out of it, so the rest is almost history. In spite of that, I hold no malice, but I would love to know if the boat ever had blowers or if they started one way and changed in mid stream, or if they took blowers off and just put some old heads and carbs back on it to get rid of it. Anyway outside of the short sea trial I had in Mississippi when I met the second owner, I did make 2 attempts to take it out but never got away from the dock either time, so I am anxious to get to take it out with the new matched up combination. Also contacted Fountain early on and they had original records of how it left them but no records of any modifications. The blocks were the original serial numbers, but everything else had been changed, and while everything but the heads were high dollar pieces, none of it went together, and the casting numbers on the heads went out of production in 1974 so it has been a calamity.

tomtbone1993

I really don't think you know what the hell you are talking about.

wstultz

Heavy,

Again, I've been around the boat and original owner since it was new. He was never happy with stock but learned his lesson on his first fountain. This is why he order Orca straight from the factory with nothing crazy on it except every option available. I did not have access to any paperwork before I was going to buy the boat, so i don't know what he sent it back to Fountain for, but I do know that it NEVER had blowers on it. I knew the Orca better than the second owner, whom you bought the boat from, and I far as I knew they were stock. The second owner bought the boat b/c he got a deal and he was going to flip it. After driving the Orca around the Lake for a few times he was actually torn between selling his Cigarette instead of Orca and keeping it as his pleasure boat. The original owner sold the Orca to the second owner for the simple fact that he NEVER used the boat anymore. It sat out back of his huge house on the lake forever. I know for a fact that the hour meters, which you said read 130 hrs, were the original hours on the boat. In fact, I was surprised it had that many.

Cold,

Both owners of this boat were unaware of any problems with the engines and there were never any cam issues like you stated. I personally drove the boat before it was delivered to Heavy and it ran like a scalded a$$ed ape. It made me very sad to see her go because I could not sell my boat in time to buy her. Don't turn this into a $hit talking thread on something you know nothing about

spk1

I watched the boat run flawlessly several times during the summer of 07 on lake conroe. The boat was very strong, and if my guess is correct, it was running very close to 80-85mph. There werent any blowers on the motors, and there were several people that wanted to buy the boat when it sold.

heavyhauler

I've made it clear I'm not dissatisfied. The one time I got to ride in the boat before we exchanged money for property it ran like hell on top end, but would not idle at all. I have torn both engines down, and the only thing stock in them were the blocks and they were standard bore, but those motors had been down not once but many times. The port block even had a hairline crack at the bottom of one cylinder and someone had drilled an 1/8" hole to stop the crack in the cylinder wall. It was near the bottom of the cylinder where compression could not be affected and since bowtie blocks have siamese cylinder walls no water could come through from a water jacket. Both motors had 1/8" stroke BRC cranks, eagle rods, ross pistons and reed cams and the pistons were dished for about 8 to 1 compression. Everything there was classic parts for blower motors. The head castings were automotive that GM stopped producing in 1974, a set of L88 open chamber heads and had been ported and angle milled some .200, milled so much that the casting marks were eliminated on the flat surface of the heads. Great set of heads for a drag car, but not for a boat. They had used 9.8" intake manifolds on the 10.2 inch blocks, so they had added spacers to make them work and because the heads had been cut so much, the intakes had to be milled to the extent that the metal thickness where the distributor bolts down were paper thin and when we removed the distributor in the port motor the metal seat where the distributor set fell into the lifter valley. The 4500 Holleys were automotive style as well and not the marine style carburetors. To conclude, I'm not talking sh$t, I'm talking facts, and asking questions because I know it didn't come that way and I know someone knows the real story, and as I've stated I don't think the guy I got it from knew what he had, and for the short period of time he had it, the motors were slowly dying. Between 1994 and 2007 a lot of things happened and someone knows the real story. I bought it and paid for it based on the man's descripton, the survey that the man provided me that Wstultz commissioned a month before I bought it and of my own inspection and I was happy when I got it and I'm still happy in spite of the fact that I've spent $20,000.00 dollars that I wasn't expecting in late August, just glad I was able to be in that position. No one needs to take offense because I'm not. If I was wrong to wonder why someone would take such a nice piece of equipment and cobble up the most important part, then I apologize.