Bruno Stillman boats

Looking at 1979 totally rebuilt

Diesel cat 3116 with 1500. Hours

Very nicely redone

Seems solid ...any thoughts

 

Don't these have cored keels and some of them have had problems? Could be totally wrong

 

3116

FYI I would look at the engine thouroughly I have a 3116 in my Jim Beal and was very happy with it however it is the 305 hp version. The engine hasn't been the most popular cat and I'm pretty sure it's discontinued. I haven't heard to many good things about the 350hp version,so the purpose of this forum is to share experiences and hopefully gain knowledge from one another.

 

Seems solid,do you mean it isn't cored?Bruno made more solid glass 35 hulls than the 42.I know of a lot of Brunos that are cored and some are very wet,but they all are still being used.The biggest problem with them is resale,and a surveyor that doesn't like them.In some cases it may be hard to insure.The earlier hulls were put together better from what I have seen.As for a 3116,not the best cat ever made,but there are a lot of them out there.Not a high hour engine in my opinion.

 

3116 had a bad rep from some bad blocks that were cast early, i'm prety sure most of them are out of circulation by now. the guys i know that ran them got 8-12 thousand hours out of them. one guy had a pair in a bottom fishing boat with 18k hours, but they were shot. actually a friend of mine has a little over 6k on a rebuilt 350 right now. if you want your engine to last most of the time it's in your control, pull the little red knob back.

 

A 1779 is an old girl. Make sure that the hull is not cored. Brunos had some hull failures. The rudder posts would pull through the hulls that were cored.
The boat also most likely has a single steel fuel tank; if original it is overdue for replacement.
The 3116 are good motors if you have a good one. The 3116 had pourus block issues on some of the series. You may want to check with with CAT and see if it was one of them. I believe those blocks were made in Canada. The 3116 was discontinued and replaced by the 3126 which is currently the C-7.
A 350 HP 3116 your boat should have a TD 506 gear at 1:5 ratio.
Wheels are Brunos are tight. I believe 21 diameter is the max that will fit. Sounds like a 15 knot boat at cruising RPMs
Lastly check the deck for soft spots, which many had. Plus the fiberglass rudders, some of which spun on the post.
A great sea boat & design, good luck with your plans.

 

the bad 3116 blocks were cast in france. the rudders pulled out of solid galss hulls too, what happened is the rudder jumped out of the shoe, and all there is, is what looks like a 4x4 with the rudder drilled through it. the factory decks were a joke, 3 layers of 3/8 plywood stapled together with no bulkheads in the boat. the cored hulls are only a problem if you drill holes in them. the hulls are a good design, but the finish work was probably the worst that has ever been done. i'm pretty sure they hired a bunch of out of work house carpenters to finish them