2 hours ago, facthunter said:
I personally think the chev Alloy V8 is a reasonable Motor for Aircraft, and said so BEFORE it was used in glider towing. It's NOT their High Performance engine though. It's a 2 valve Pushrod Motor. The Mercury V8 Motor is a very specialised Product. The Chev. alloy Block wouldn't like sea water. Even Cast iron doesn't. Nev
A lot of marine motors are now using heat exchangers, they run closed loop coolant for the engine with a heat exchanger drawing cold water from the sea/lake/river so there is no salt/dirty water going through the motor.
Don't discount the LS series alloy Chev's, even though it is a 2 valve pushrod motor it was used in performance models like the Corvette and Camaro. The commercial versions used a cast iron block with either cast iron or alloy heads and the same internals as the alloy block motors.
Mercruiser used Chev V8's from the 60s till 2020, basically truck motors with a different cam and heads