hey guys, this might belong in social corner, but i have seen alot of these airboats
this summer, and my first thought was, hey, i wonder if you could use a slant 6 to power one of those? looking online, most appear to be around 350hp v8s, and some that i have seen have bigger extensions on front then the one in the picture...so maybe a nicely built hyper pak slant could be made to work? how much hp could you get out of a naturally aspirated hyperpak? i dont know exactly how wide open you run them, probably with a slant you would be running pretty high, could a turbo setup work? after reading what i came up when i started typing this maybe it belongs in the engine category...so, anyone done this? thought about it? any experience with airboats?
thanks

Not trying to say it wouldn't work, just saying it would be impractical. The slant will be 8-10 inches longer than a small block Chev. If you look closely on the propeller end of the engine, you'll notice a speed reduction unit. Whether it's gear drive or belt drive is irrelevant, one can probably not find a similar item for the slant, so it would all be custom fabrication. That will lead to cubic $$$$.

I also suspect that an airboat doesn't really need something like a 200 horse V-8 in order to motor around on the water. I suspect one would be better off with a nice, compact V-6, or even a turbo 4-banger. But then, I don't live in the southern swamp areas, and am not an authority.

Roger

i didnt notice that, yeah, cubic$$$ lol... and i didnt think about the difference in length either, good points, were only a few hours away from each other too, im about an hour from the quad cities on the mississippi, but ive seen quite a few around the area this summer at work, thanks for your input!

If the slant had the same bell housing bolt pattern as a Mopar small or big block, it wouldn't be hard to do. The motor mount stands are all handmade, a slant wouldn't make it any harder. The problem woulb be that you have to run a gear driven prop RPM reducer. I've seen a Mopar 440 in an airboat, it used a Mopar to GM adapter from TCI to mount the reducer. An old 727 adapter may be used but then you would have two adapters stacked, making the O/L even longer.
Even if it will work, a slant would be a poor choice. It's too heavy for the 225 cu in it gives. An aluminum block will only make it slightly more feasable. I've never seen anything smaller than a SB Chevy on one and these are low buck boats. An airboat needs big power when it goes out of the water, it is helpful if it is able to run on dry ground which is sometimes needed.
What would look cool would be an all aluminum 572 Hemi!, but it would only be cool, a good aircraft motor would still outperform it due to it's better power to weight.

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Slant Cecil

I have seen quite a few that have air cooled VW flat fours(Beetle motor) in them. Little things will move too.

I have a friend also who has an airboat with a 283 Chevy equipped with Vortec heads and a dirt track cam, and a 750 Edelbrock. That thing will fly and it is a very light engine too.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

I say build one with a twin turbo Caddy 500.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Not all auto engine powered airboats have a gear reduction drive. I don't know much about airboats, except they are noisy, and keep me awake, some nights. Last night when I got gas, there was an air boat fueling up, also. It had a small block chevy, with direct drive. I asked the owner about gear drives, and was told "some do, and some don't". It depends on the engine torque, the weight of the boat, the desired speed, and acceleration, and the prop.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

thanks everyone for their input, because i have seen alot sitting around while im at work, but you cant just stop the garbage truck and go have a conversation with someone about a boat lol....

Why not?

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

the boats are usually sitting in front of a house or shop with no one around, and id get fired yesterday was my last day, now its time to pack for school...

About 17 years ago or so, in south fl. We were all standing around goofing off at the tire store I worked at then. We heard this strange sound, kind of but not quite like a helicopter. we saw this old pickup truck sitting at the stop light out front, with an airboat on a trailer. A few seconds later someone noticed the airboat was running and had someone sitting in it. When the light turned green the airboat "dirver" hit the gas and the truck slowly rolled down the road. We all about fell over, we were laughing so hard.


seen all sorts of airboat engines. as always more power and less weight is always better. I love slants, but wouldnt be my first choice for that application.