by Sam Rabl
We have received quite a number of letters asking our opinion and advice on installing an automobile engine in a boat. We have often stated that it could be done satisfactorily and on several occasions have been severely criticized after doing so because such and such a contemporary magazine devoted exclusively to boating condemns the practice. We have read articles in these magazines that have actually made us afraid to ride behind the auto engine in its native element! Let us analyze this situation and see why the boating magazines will condemn the installation of an auto engine while hundreds of auto engines after several years of use ashore will go out and earn a living for some poor tidewater fisherman. We will find part of the answer in the costly ads carried by the marine motor manufacturers in the pages of these magazines, yet, paradoxical as it seems, we will find a small sprinkling of ads for conversion parts for auto engines in the same issue that condemns the practice of using them! Let me say at the start that if I had a free choice between auto and marine engines I would choose the marine, but this would not stop me from putting a converted auto engine in my boat until such a time as I could afford a real marine motor. Auto engines were designed for a specific purpose, just as were marine and aviation engines, but auto engines have flown, and aviation engines have driven boats, so there you are! My first piece of advice on the installation of an auto engine in a boat is to install as few home-made conversion parts as necessary to make a satisfactory installation. It has been my experience that it is the conversion gadgets that give the mostt trouble. Most of the fisherman installations use only a water pump and a universal joint. These installations are going out daily and doing their stuff in a manner that disproves for all time the old bunk that an auto-engine will not work in a boat. All the rot that has been written on the subject can be nullified by one visit to any fishing village and hearing the fishermen brag of their Fords, Chevvys and Buicks, and they are not talking about their cars but their boat motors.
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