Yes, that salt thing is a real bear. Back in the mid 70's, when my father-in-law was rebuilding his boat (home-built circa 1947 36-foot knock-off of an Elco) he ended up scrapping a beautiful matched pair of big flathead six Scripps (top of the line marine engines back in the 40's) due to the horrible corrosion in the water passages. And this boat spent most of it's life cruising the Hudson from just south of the GW Bridge up to the Tappan Zee and out into western LI Sound -- brackish water at worst -- not nearly as bad as the really salty water in the lower bay and outside the Narrows! I saw several pairs of Chrysler hemis (331's I suppose, or maybe 392's, with two two's, getting scrapped for the same reason. What a d**ned shame.) Pop repowered with Chrysler Marine 360's while most of the others ended up going the marinized SBC route. The boat really lost something with that change; there's not a sweeter sound on the water than an old wooden boat with two big flathead sixes hollering through a pair of 3-inch copper wet exhausts!
