Hi group,
I'm in a world of trouble and I desperately need some advice. After attempting to call the only Moomba mechanic (the only one within two-plus hours of my house) for over *two months*, I finally had to resort to using a conventional mechanic who is very familiar with the Chevy 350, in hopes fixing my Moomba's Indmar 350 Carb engine. That went very badly and now I'm stuck with a new engine that doesn't work - not sure what to do next.

Some background: After I purchased a 2000 Kanga w/94 hours, my engine overheated in *less* than an hour. It appeared that something may have been stuck in the cooling system, but it was too late once I realized it was running over it's heat threshold. I wound up with water in the oil, etc (cracks heads from what I understand). I immediately called the local Moomba tech, no return call ... Local Indmar techs - two disconnected lines, one (MasterCraft specialists) didn't call back.

My only option was to try a conventional automobile mechanic who did a lot of work with similar engines. He purchased a new Chevy 350 Vortec that according to him is identical to the Indmar (as far as the basic block/heads that he was using), then he used all of the existing marine parts from the Indmar to outfit the engine.

When all of this was done, the engine seemed to run fine (out of the water at least) -- just one problem. To this day, I can't get the engine over 3,600 - 4,000 RPM (depending on the day). I attempted to take the engine back to him on four separate occasions and he swears up-and-down it runs perfect. Without a load (out of the water), we've rev'ed it over 5,000 without a problem, every time. Yet as soon as the boat hits the water, I cannot get any top-end. Wondering if it wasn't able to push the shaft, I attempted to align the shaft to the .002 required by Moomba; however, that didn't give me any added speed. The prop and all other parts are the same parts that worked great on the original engine. After reading this forum, I had him set the timing to 10 BTDC @ 850 RPM as recommended here for more WOT -- but this didn't help. He checked/adjusted the carb several times, but he claims it's running fine.

I've spent literally weeks trying to comb this forum for something that might give me an idea -- but I can't find anything similar to my circumstance.

Unfortunately, I'm not mechanically inclined and I have a new Moomba I purchased that I have yet to be able to use for fear I may be jeopordizing the engine in the present running condition. Most recently, the mechanic doesn't want to work on the boat because he swears it runs fine. Essentially I'm stuck with a very large, pretty paperweight.

My question is two fold: One, does anyone have *any* idea what the problem might be -- why I can't get more than 4,000 RPM on a good day - from a new engine ... Two, does anyone have a recommendation for a marine mechanic somewhere near West Palm Beach, Florida?

Thank you in advance for *ANY* suggestions!
-Rusten