Very cool boat. Does the ls like the same amount of timing in a boat as it does on the street loaded? I have a project I am helping someone out with and he swapped 2 6.0 liter ls in with a btr stage 2 truck cams. Its a large boat. Maybe 30 ft. 13000 lbs. Just curious as I do alot of tuning on ls engines in cars but boats are different and big ones like this especially. Very cool boat you have. I will have to watch the other videos.
I didn’t want to do cams because boats see a lot of constant high RPM and I didn’t want to stress the valvetrain more than needed. I’ve dropped enough valves in my time to never want to do that anymore. Plus I wanted the low end. As for the tuning I’m mostly using the auto tune via the Terminator X. So basically a simple street tune is fine. I haven’t had any issues at all with the engines running this way. With the closed cooling I have them running hotter temps to keep efficiency and engine life up. I can’t imagine why you would want to change anything with timing or AFR over a street tune. The Terminator X does a pretty good job of getting as much timing as needed for the fuel run and the trims are on the money. I haven’t had a single issue with any of the engines this way. This year I’ve been running them harder and cruise at 3500rpm and sometimes will run them at 4000 for awhile. I’m trying to be gentle with them so they live and have no issues. These 30’ boats are not race boats so it will only be a headache in broken stuff if they are pushed hard to go a few MPH more on a hull not designed for it. The boat you’re working on is the same size and weight as mine. Should be a nice upgrade for it but it’s not going to make it a fast boat.
@@GVR1670 yea its on stock pcm. The air fuel is 13.5 under load and ramps to 13.0 wot at 3700. Spark is 23.5 to 24 at 3700 and ramps to 25.5 up top thru from 4500. I tune alot of cars. I figure the ls is gonna like what it likes. All I ever tune ends up being right around those numbers. Hey how did you get hotter coolant temps? His are cool. He has a johnson pump setup. Is there a way to route them so the engine sees hotter temps than 130f?
@@dropsandlsswaps7605 Yes agreed that's what I did. The most efficient and safest tune for the street seems to also be best for a boat. The only thing I changed with the tune on mine over a car is the cold idle. I have it fire up from a start at any temp (hot or cold) to hit 2k RPM for 5 seconds and then pull it down to 650RPM. This way when I'm launching it at the boat ramp I'm not struggling with a boat that wants to move too quickly at a fast idle. Start, wait 5 seconds, 650 idle- now where it is consistent and I'm not flying off the trailer. How are the engines cooled? Are they cooled via the raw water in an open system or is it a closed system using coolant? My boat originally had an open system that used the lake water to cool the engines. If it is cooled this way you have to keep the temps down where you are at now as the lake water is not under pressure. Low temps like that kill the motors faster because they are always running cold. There is nothing you can do about that in an open system unfortunately. If you have a closed system using coolant like you see in a car/truck, then you can run the hotter temps because it's under pressure. My system has heat exchangers in place of a car/truck radiator and runs coolant (no raw lake water in the blocks). I found a pair of boat coolant exchangers used on Ebay I couldn't pass up so that's why I went the route I did. They work real good and I never have to worry about my block deteriorating or freezing and cracking in the Winter. I can also run higher temps for life and efficiency. Another plus is I can run it in salt water without too much trouble. The water outside the boat never touches the engines- the exchanger does all the work. For the LS you can get all kinds of different thermostats. If the system is pressurized and closed loop I'd run a 190-210F t-stat. If you are using the raw lake water in an open system I'd stick with the 130-150F t-stats or you will eat the engines up. Here linked is a good video explaining the closed and open cooling systems. At 1 Minute into the video is where they get to it: th-cam.com/video/IvGy93Dkrxs/w-d-xo.html
@@GVR1670 wow that is awesome. Closed loop cooling with the w2w heat exchanger. I know its open lake water. So yea not pressurized. K thats what I figured the engine is gonna want what it wants and that's pretty much. Just got to dial in air fuels and spark for highest rpm per throttle angle. Got it out again today with the 2nd engine running. Both engine are 6.0. Same cam. Same everything. 2 different v.e tables. Its never as easy as it seems it should be. Rinse repeat on the tune and we should have wot with both engines soon. Maybe Sunday. I will take another video. Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the advice.
I had a quick question. I as to whether your LS swap is doing. I was curious as to the weight of the manifolds and risers if there was any issue. I would appreciate some feedback. I'm going to leave another comment and post a link to my business here in Florida with my email and contact info
I was just in Miami for vacation :) The boat has been excellent. We took it out at least twice a week every week before the end of the season out here in Colorado before the snow hit. We are going to redo all of the cushions this year on the flybridge and interior to make it perfect. We expect once things warm back up out here that we will be out often again with it. In Colorado we don’t get much time out on the water. There is a part 4 and 5 to this with it completed. The manifolds are heavier but that’s why I went with the LM4 all aluminum engines because they are considerably lighter than the old all iron 305s. This allowed me to go closed loop cooling too without adding more overall weight to the boat. More info on the build linked below in a forum thread I started: www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/1177696-twin-ls-repower-mpfi-terminator-x-mercruiser-crusader-bayliner-3058-a.html
@@GVR1670 thank you for taking the time to respond. I have a couple LS engines laying in my shop and I was considering doing this on a Sea Ray. I have a Dependable Regal boat that we use quite a bit. But there are plenty donor boats that do not get used. That would be great candidates.
K&N filters are coast guard approved for boats. I use one mine and have never had an issue with inspections.
he kind of reminds me of Norm Macdonald.
Very cool boat. Does the ls like the same amount of timing in a boat as it does on the street loaded? I have a project I am helping someone out with and he swapped 2 6.0 liter ls in with a btr stage 2 truck cams. Its a large boat. Maybe 30 ft. 13000 lbs. Just curious as I do alot of tuning on ls engines in cars but boats are different and big ones like this especially. Very cool boat you have. I will have to watch the other videos.
I didn’t want to do cams because boats see a lot of constant high RPM and I didn’t want to stress the valvetrain more than needed. I’ve dropped enough valves in my time to never want to do that anymore. Plus I wanted the low end.
As for the tuning I’m mostly using the auto tune via the Terminator X. So basically a simple street tune is fine. I haven’t had any issues at all with the engines running this way. With the closed cooling I have them running hotter temps to keep efficiency and engine life up. I can’t imagine why you would want to change anything with timing or AFR over a street tune. The Terminator X does a pretty good job of getting as much timing as needed for the fuel run and the trims are on the money. I haven’t had a single issue with any of the engines this way.
This year I’ve been running them harder and cruise at 3500rpm and sometimes will run them at 4000 for awhile. I’m trying to be gentle with them so they live and have no issues. These 30’ boats are not race boats so it will only be a headache in broken stuff if they are pushed hard to go a few MPH more on a hull not designed for it.
The boat you’re working on is the same size and weight as mine. Should be a nice upgrade for it but it’s not going to make it a fast boat.
@@GVR1670 yea its on stock pcm. The air fuel is 13.5 under load and ramps to 13.0 wot at 3700. Spark is 23.5 to 24 at 3700 and ramps to 25.5 up top thru from 4500. I tune alot of cars. I figure the ls is gonna like what it likes. All I ever tune ends up being right around those numbers.
Hey how did you get hotter coolant temps? His are cool. He has a johnson pump setup. Is there a way to route them so the engine sees hotter temps than 130f?
@@dropsandlsswaps7605 Yes agreed that's what I did. The most efficient and safest tune for the street seems to also be best for a boat. The only thing I changed with the tune on mine over a car is the cold idle. I have it fire up from a start at any temp (hot or cold) to hit 2k RPM for 5 seconds and then pull it down to 650RPM. This way when I'm launching it at the boat ramp I'm not struggling with a boat that wants to move too quickly at a fast idle. Start, wait 5 seconds, 650 idle- now where it is consistent and I'm not flying off the trailer.
How are the engines cooled? Are they cooled via the raw water in an open system or is it a closed system using coolant? My boat originally had an open system that used the lake water to cool the engines. If it is cooled this way you have to keep the temps down where you are at now as the lake water is not under pressure. Low temps like that kill the motors faster because they are always running cold. There is nothing you can do about that in an open system unfortunately.
If you have a closed system using coolant like you see in a car/truck, then you can run the hotter temps because it's under pressure. My system has heat exchangers in place of a car/truck radiator and runs coolant (no raw lake water in the blocks). I found a pair of boat coolant exchangers used on Ebay I couldn't pass up so that's why I went the route I did. They work real good and I never have to worry about my block deteriorating or freezing and cracking in the Winter. I can also run higher temps for life and efficiency. Another plus is I can run it in salt water without too much trouble. The water outside the boat never touches the engines- the exchanger does all the work.
For the LS you can get all kinds of different thermostats. If the system is pressurized and closed loop I'd run a 190-210F t-stat. If you are using the raw lake water in an open system I'd stick with the 130-150F t-stats or you will eat the engines up.
Here linked is a good video explaining the closed and open cooling systems. At 1 Minute into the video is where they get to it:
th-cam.com/video/IvGy93Dkrxs/w-d-xo.html
@@GVR1670 wow that is awesome. Closed loop cooling with the w2w heat exchanger. I know its open lake water. So yea not pressurized. K thats what I figured the engine is gonna want what it wants and that's pretty much. Just got to dial in air fuels and spark for highest rpm per throttle angle. Got it out again today with the 2nd engine running. Both engine are 6.0. Same cam. Same everything. 2 different v.e tables. Its never as easy as it seems it should be. Rinse repeat on the tune and we should have wot with both engines soon. Maybe Sunday. I will take another video. Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the advice.
I had a quick question. I as to whether your LS swap is doing. I was curious as to the weight of the manifolds and risers if there was any issue. I would appreciate some feedback. I'm going to leave another comment and post a link to my business here in Florida with my email and contact info
I was just in Miami for vacation :) The boat has been excellent. We took it out at least twice a week every week before the end of the season out here in Colorado before the snow hit. We are going to redo all of the cushions this year on the flybridge and interior to make it perfect. We expect once things warm back up out here that we will be out often again with it. In Colorado we don’t get much time out on the water.
There is a part 4 and 5 to this with it completed. The manifolds are heavier but that’s why I went with the LM4 all aluminum engines because they are considerably lighter than the old all iron 305s. This allowed me to go closed loop cooling too without adding more overall weight to the boat.
More info on the build linked below in a forum thread I started:
www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/1177696-twin-ls-repower-mpfi-terminator-x-mercruiser-crusader-bayliner-3058-a.html
@@GVR1670 thank you for taking the time to respond. I have a couple LS engines laying in my shop and I was considering doing this on a Sea Ray. I have a Dependable Regal boat that we use quite a bit. But there are plenty donor boats that do not get used. That would be great candidates.
I like it!