Taking my time this winter to do a full ground up rebuild of my 300 for Thunderbolt III. I note gasket sets and carb rebuild kits available from Old Mercs site, any suggestions for a source of needle rollers for small and big end bearings? I guess all ball bearings I'll be able to match locally without too much problem.

Merry Christmas!

I look forward to seeing your rebuild I have a 350 to do up at some stage You could try these for parts http://store.oldmercs.com/Default.asp also these sometimes have some but you are better off asking by email as he might not have them on the website http://www.nymarine.ca/parts.htm

http://www.maxrules.com/ When I rebuilt my obsession,sorry '69 Merc800,I got all from here,including the roller bearings.Mind you not local .I phoned them,told them what I was doing and all arrived.And the good old customs and excise missed me....for a change.

You can still get the bearings, not NLA yet. The 300 is a wonderful engine. I have three in my collection and nothing revs like them! The 40 inch powerhead seems to be more rev happy than the 44 incher, and there is less difference in the top end power than you might expect. Can't beat the idle quality either, they are like a sewing machine. Rings are getting a little tough to find as they are now NLA from Merc, but there is still some vendors who have them here in Canada and the USA. I have restored a few of these so please ask if you need parts or info on rebuilding, Cheers!

My preferred carb kits for your engine:
1395-9258-1 CARB KIT, KB-2A, FLOAT VALVES
1399-1145 CARB KIT, GASKETS & PACKING
these have worked out better for me, although the aftermarket Sierra, et setera, kits will also work.

Great to see you here Larry & George! We could do with a few more of our friends from over the water on here.

Glad to be here. Can't wait to dig into some of the issues the lads have here to offer!!

What George said, as usual.

Hi gentlemen,
good to hear from you across the pond and appreciate your love of the old motors! I'm rebuilding my 300 to go back on Thunderbolt III, my 1956 3 point kneeler hydro (by the way for our Canadian cousins, she is a C class hydro designed by E.G.McCrea of North Hatley, Quebec, and built in the UK I guess to a set of his plans. Dieter Konig, the German outboard wizard got the same style hull up to 73mph with a 500cc 3 cyl Konig.) Of course I'd really like a 35H or a 55H - one of our members has a 55H but wants loads of money for it, and a Belgian friend has a 35H but won't part with it!

Whilst the 300 is in bits I ran again yesterday with my '66 350 twin on the hydro ( see Ivy lake posts). Went really well but the seams are leaking - that's what you get when you treat old ladies badly! Anyway I reckon with the 300 rebuilt and a little fettling here and there hopefully I'll get 45mph + I need to beat others running A class utilities with Yamato motors!

I you'd like to pm your home addresses I'll mail a copy of our club magazine to you.

Chris
(current chairman CMBA)

Old E.G.McCrea advert from Boat Sport magazine.