Have you tried taking a length of small diameter hose to your ear and moving the hose around that part of the engine? Might help in pin pointing the exact location of the noise. I know this is tough around a spinning flywheel. Although it seems to come from the front of the engine, a vacuum leak at ...

Unless you're fortunate enough to have a later model with the closed crankcase breather like this picture, there's no way I know of to attach a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold. Drilling and tapping cast iron or aluminum is always risky of causing stress cracks.

I had a similar problem on my Graymarine V8. Ran a new wire and soldered the wire to the funky tab connector that attaches to the points - problem solved.

Glad to hear that you chased away the electrical gremlins, but what concerns me is what happens when NOS parts are truly no longer available? Same goes for the old shops with the gray haired guys (like me) that fade away.

Just a suggestion when you go to drill the new holes for the screws; getting the hole centered in the rub rail countersink is easier and more accurate if you use a VIX bit. It goes by other names, but it has a retractable spring loaded mandrel that centers the bit in the rub rail hole and at least b...

I have modified quite a few trailers for wood boats up to 25 feet long. There is a lot of on-the-spot engineering and trial and error to get it right. I always over engineer the supports so that I don't have a failure on the road. It's not impossible to do, but for a 33 foot cruiser it will be more ...

If you have a keel support board on the trailer up towards the bow, the use of teflon strips on the carpet dramatically eases the friction of sliding the hull across the bunk. There are strips available at marine supply or boat trailer places for this. I use these on the bow keel support on my 25 fo...

That fiber washer and spacer where the distributor connection attaches has to be in a certain order otherwise it shorts the terminal to the distributor body (ground). That sounds like your no spark problem. I don't have the diagram electronically for this but someone here should and hopefully will p...

Depending on the size of the screw head and how much space you have to work with, a tack puller can be useful. You carefully wedge the puller under the screw enough to lift it for grabbing with pliers. Spinners are to be expected with 73 year old screws. Not meaning to be dramatic but there will be ...

Are you certain it's a model A engine? For 1955, they did offer a model B 4 cylinder which was an improvement over the old pre-war A engines; stronger crank, shell bearings instead of poured babbit. All other offerings for 1955 would have been 6 cylinders like the K series. Are you getting this data...

Where are you located?

Yeah I looked into that style flywheel turner too and there just isn't any clear room to use it. They're meant for using under a car/truck engine and while there are obstacles around there as well, you have more area to work and better leverage. If the K engine is out of the boat and you can lift it...

Pictures are worth 1000 words...

Looking at the flywheel, for a standard rotation engine it will spin counter clockwise. In the center of the flywheel should be a 1 directional boss that a crank originally would fit into. You could try putting a wrench on one of the flywheel bolts, but if the engine is stiff, you'll be turning it c...

Yeah you don't want anything loosening up at the starter solenoid terminal. Lots of grounded metal around there and the results would be spectacular. The buss bar idea is a good one instead of the battery as it will not subject the connections to loosening up every time you disconnect and reconnect ...

You won't get too far with a borescope through the spark plug hole on these flatheads. The plug is pretty much over the deck at the valves, not enough space to sneak the scope into the cylinder unless its real skinny. There is an "inspection" plate on the starboard side of the crankcase, meant for o...

There is an adhesion test, albeit a somewhat destructive one you could try after the top coats have dried. You score a cross hatch, sort of like a tic-tac-toe game on the finish down onto the lower layer and place some sticky tape over it. Do not use a finish sensitive type of painters tape. When yo...

There will be a lot of opinions on this process I'm sure, but I will comment on the CPES question. There should be no need to scuff up the CPES before first coat of varnish. Although the CPES may look a bit lumpy, the subsequent coats of varnish will fill that in nicely and after build coats and san...

From what I have read on the Customs, Chris Craft wasn't making their required profit margin on this post war series. The immediate post WW2 economics may have played into that too. Maybe they felt it was overbuilt or over accessorized so they redesigned it as the Riviera line.The redesign also supp...

I have only used the CPES product for sealing stain on the boats as well as sealing bare wood for primer/paint. I can only state that once applied, if you have to strip off the stain (I had stained some pieces the wrong color!) it will be very tough, tougher than if you had just used stain only. The...

The challenge is finding an engine lift that can lift high enough to be of use in this case. Also, they tend to be a bit unstable when the load is up at it's maximum height and the lift is extended all the way. In the past, I have used a gantry with chain falls for this purpose but now that I have a...

That's an awesome Porsche drawing.

You could try using a length of small diameter hose held up to your ear as you move it around the engine rather than the screwdriver method. Don't get it caught in the flywheel!

Probably worth temporarily removing the generator belt and then starting the engine to eliminate any belt or generator bearing noises. Was it a rhythmic squeaking that increases with RPM or does it squeak at the same rate all the time? A vacuum or exhaust leak can cause a whistle but different RPM w...

Did you put the plugs in after adding the oil and then crank it over? That could cause some problems as the oil doesn't want to compress. Compression tests are best done on a warmed up engine, throttle fully open, all plugs out. Keeping all the plugs out might show poor compression between 2 adjoini...

If it has this adjustment screw on it it can be adjusted to a point. The cap is removed exposing the adjusting screw. The cover should be pulled off and the sector and worm gear inspected for wear though. Most lost their lubricating oil long ago and were subject to wear and rusting.

Here's the pics. The length from the tip to the stop that seats on the tube when all the way in is 21 3/4". This is from a 327 where the dip stick tube is between the exhaust manifold and the valve cover as in your pictures.

I have a Chris Craft 327 that I will be removing as it is not correct for that boat (not even close!). I can measure the dipstick tomorrow and let you know the length from the stop on the stick to the end.

I drain my tanks as completely as possible for winter storage. Even though I run non-ethanol gas in season, I still prefer empty tanks.

Some ideas: Verify that the distributor advance is working. You'll need a timing light with advance knob to accurately check this. In lieu of that, take the distributor cap off and twist the rotor, it should spring back indicating the advance springs are working. The whole springs and weights assemb...