Volga Hydrofoils Messageboard

Found this old (1984) Volga close to Stockholm. The two latest owners haven´t even driven it. We now feel the presure and we need a lot of helf from you guys with your knowledge. We focusing now just on te engine, we got it with an mounted 350 v8 chevy. Never been running in this boat plus that we missing a lot of parts to make it run. Know looking for a diesel to install and yes we have been counting on it.

Hard do download pictures more will come.

Seems like we have some engine parts that we don´t have any use for....

Have make all pictures smaller in Photo shop??

Hi Alexander,
great find, congratulations.
The boat hull seems to be in a good condition.
You will have a lot of work ahead this winter in order to be able to sail the next summer.
A350 chevy engine is too heavy and overpowered for this boat.
It has been designed /exatly the foils/ to run at about 32 knots.
So you do not need such a power. The original GAZ 53V8 has an output of 100-120 HP depending on model.
In Bulgaria crate engines GAZ 53 are still to be had at E1900,- from the shop= factory new made 1980-1990.
complete with starter and generator.
Transportation is to be arranged extra.
But they are for trucks - not marinized. you must do this in a shop.
Another way to keep the original V8 sound is to use a BMW 4,4 or 3,0 V8 engine. or a diesel 6 inline BMW or Mercedes 3,0l not aTDI they are too expensive, if you have enough to spend you can save yourself a lot of truble and buy a marine diesel from VW marine or Yanmar - BMW marinized 2,0TDI. A 6 inline engine runs smoother it is internally ballanced - best choice./ well the best would be a v12 BMW, Mercredes or Jag/
Another option: find an old Lancia Thema V8/32 it has a Ferrari V8 3,0lt 32 valve engine very nice and after scrapping the car you will be left with an excelllent engine. Nobody will be having such a Volga.
Good luck.
Christian

A be chake be, kolegan!

Sas Chevy V8, toz chelovek mojebi ima golam etap, same marinaraza iska. Vidim tche tam ima V-drive, ama nema reduktori.

Ot mene ima 2 razlishenie tam: Shvetska Gurchivka (Schwedenbitter):

V8 GAZ 53L/Chevy V8 marina marina
ili
Diesel marinarizatovi

sichki sas ZF 63 IV i cardan shaft.

Za shto ti ni kupovash toz lotkata?

Sichku hubovo,
Joro

Dear Alex,

You found something nice. If you have the time and money ... you can make something great out of that. If not ... you can be very demoralized ... like the guys, who owned this boat before, thinking a V8 Chevy will do it for them. But these engines need to be marinezed before. Both Cummins and Volvo are selling such engines ... They don't even produce them themselves but buy them from GM ... Chevy V6 4,3 litres. A marinezed GM of such kind can be bought for appr. 2100 USD in the states. A second or first hand Diesel marinized will be the better choice. Most of our buddies take the diesel.

Stay tuned! Our Website has already several times discussed the matter. Read in our experience .... and welcome ON BOARD!

best regards,
Georg

Christian and Georg thank you for your input

I read every singel message yesterday but am still a little confused.

First of all, I don´t really care about the sound in that sort of way, I just want it to go as quiet as possible.
I know the 350 is to strong even thought our is old, but is it to heavy as well with its 370 kg?
So we also baught our self a second engine, a 350 diesel v8 (120 hp), been told it would fit on the same bolt as the small block. this one is a running marine converted engine. about 390 kg

I want decent fuel economy and a reliable engine to cross the baltic sea a couple of times without bringing to many rockets...

So how mutch did the original engine weight, I guess our boat hade an v8 Gaz 53 as it´s from -84, or am I wrong. 400 kilo??

BMW marinized 2,0TDI, best therefore it´s quality or therefore it fit the best
I would prefer to keep as mutch as possible original as gearbox, don´t want to rebuild everything.

Hi Alexander,

the GM 350 Diesel is the nightmare of every mechanic or driver, on both sides of the Atlantic.
It has head problems - the cylinderheads crack! A lot of vibrations. Too heavy ! A friend of mine had a Cadillac diesel with this Oldsmobile diesel engine - a lot of prblems even after rebuilding it with original parts from the US. He scraped the engine and put a BMW 4,0 V8 turbo diesel with new gearbox and now is happy.
The original GAZ 53 engine is 270 KG. with all generator,starter and flywheel. It is made of Alu.
Even a Vancini or a Perkins 4-212 4 cylinder engine from the 1960 are better!!!
Scrap the 350 diesel and put a normal Mercedes 603/ 605 3,0 TD. It has 140HP and 28KGM torque more than enough for the Volga.
Original Volga has 100-120Hp/3200Rpm and 28-30 KGM/1800-2200Rpm.
But if you want to have a quiet engine you must go for a petrol one.
Any engine inline six BMW or Mercedes 3,0 lt would do.
In Sweden you have very nice Volvo 6 cylinder engines.
A 5cylinder turbo from Volvo V70 would be good too. You just have to limit the revs to max 3500-1Min. in order to use the existing gerbox - V-Drive. or take a ZF gearbox from Georg , he knows them best.
We have discussed this engine problen here.
Good luck.

I agree to Christian,

Americans have no significant fuel prices, they never had think about economy and do not know how to built small diesels.
But their petrol engines are good, cheap and sturdy.

Okey, I can buy that, lets get rid of that diesel.
I had a look at the alternatives, like a volvo t5 but still, to convert a volvo might be cheeper then buying a second hand marin one but not to easy and probably never be as good as the original volvo marine engines. Found som BMW petrol engine, but the work to make them fit compared to the small block petrol version. Seems to me that the small block isn´t to reliable + its heavy, don´t need all that power as we said.

I would love to find an engine that fits right on to the original gearbox, havne´t found any info about that, maybe the 350 petrol v8 thats already mounted is to be finished...? Guess the fuel ecnony wouldn´t be the best, but maybe not that big difference.

Hi,
As I remember, there was somewhere (on this forum?) a Volga equipped with 3.0D 115 Hp MercedesMarine that cooperating with ZF marine fitted very well to the desired parameters of original shaft and propeller (torch, rpm). The engine was OM603. As it was discussed many times here, overpowering your Volga may not only be dangerous for your own safety (max speed) , but also requires rebuilding of remaining drive line elements, and at the end omits the economical aspect that you seem to look at.
Before I went toward Volga Hydrofoil, I was considering another old boat and by that occasion I found a Polish guy located in Germany, who represents a.o. ZF Marine, but his core business and speciality is overhauling and marinization of engines. Considering various engine/gearbox combination, try to call the guy (he is Polish, but should speak perfect German) or write him about OM603+ZF Marine gearbox TOGETHER . Inquiring about engine and gearbox combined, I would expect a good price. The engines for sale you may find at http://www.marineyacht.pl/strona.php?id=56. The site is in Polish, but the technical are easy to read. To have an idea of quality - in the menu on the left, there is a link to FILM (movie) . Engines are ready to put into the boat. Avoiding your own overhauling and marinization cost and long distance transportation costs (200-300 km by car+ Baltic ferry won't costs you a lot ), you may want to take this combination as an option .
In my Volga (just arrived from Russia) my V8 zmz53 works great, but if I was searching another engine option, I would carefully examine the OM603 + ZF combination.
Good Luck!
Tomasz
PS. By this occasion, as a new on this forum I say Hello to all of you Gyus 

Hi Alex,
The GM 350 petrol is an extremely reliable engine.
I do not know which version you have in the boat. but it is ok if everything is there.
the fuel consumption depends on the Rpm so put a rev limiter for the Volga it is 3200-3300 -1 Min.
Another thing : mesure the compression of the cylinders it should be around 1/8,5 -9,5.
If it is lower you can change the pistons, shave the heads it is very easy as this is a V8 with a single central camshaft.
I do not know the dyno chart of this engine, but it should be a low reving one - truck type max torque at 2000-2500 Rpm.
If that is not the case you could change the camshaft too.
The GM "Small Block" is very blue-printing friendly. One could make anything out of it - a tow truck - boat engine or a dragster or round circle engine for NASCAR.
The choice is yours.
In a word keep the engine if it is in working condition, it will last forever, and spares a very, very cheap compared to european parts.

By the way Georg is right in 1970 - 2000 the Americans could not build a good small Diesel, the GM 350 Diesel is a good example, it is a 350 Block beefed up, but has a lot of problems, heads, pump, etc. it was built in the 1970's.
The next GM 6,2 V8 TDI - Duramax is a great engine it goes up to 1200HP supercharged and turboed - for offshore racing,
but it would be too much for the Volga, even the basic version from 2006 has 350 HP which is too much.
Very relyable truck or boat engine, I would put such an engine GM 6,2V8Diesel anytime in a boat that needs such power.

A have looked for anyone using a mercruiser 3.0 or 3.7 in there volga. No one??
I have found cheap ones with everything I need to it. Wondering if the startengine is fitted on the engine body or the transmission and also if it fits.
Power wise it shouldn´t be a problem ??

I am sure you'll soon be flying!