76' Hondo Pantera GT 18'

[Stc038]

Me and my dad picked up this 76 Hondo pantera gt 18' a few weeks ago. We bought it off the original owner, the trailer even had 3 of the original tires from 76. The hull and paint are in great condition. The interior was redone a few years ago. It has an oldsmobile 454 in it, when the original owner bought it he got the olds because he preferred it over the chevy for some reason. He said in the motors prime with a brand new impeller he was able to get the boat up to 65-70mph, I don't know how he would've recorded it though cause there is no speedo.

We took it out to parker this last weekend and put around 2 hours on it. Everything ran strong other than it had a little trouble idling maybe due the old fuel that was in the tanks. We didn't push it over 4200 rpm's because it hadn't been run in a while and we didn't want push her too hard. We ran 91 octane, im wondering if I should be running 96 or even 101 octane in it? Does anyone know the ideal octane for this particular motor?

 

[jetboatperformance]

Very Nice find for sure .. re the Olds , good call on your parts regarding treating it nice, the Olds 455 is as I'm sure you know "sensitive" (due to inherent oiling issues) to prolonged high rpm sustained runs and your investment will last longer if you keep the RPMs down and run in short bursts . Likley the previous owner was honest as that performance is consistant with the jet the boat and the motor also likely he used a gps to judge speed (or he could have been B'sing . Would say its a safe bet that the engine is original ? and if so the high compression version came with 10.25 to 1 compression and deserves 91+ octane at minimum, when built leaded gas was still around. IF you can look into a bore the piston dish depth will tell the story as to fuel requirements shallow dish annotates high compression , deep dish (5/16") would be a low octane motor. Best of luck and Welcome to Jet Boats Tom

some power plant history... In the early 70's Olds was "king" in these production boats thru a massive deal with the industry and Olds with BBF's emerging and coming into their own , 454 Chevy was offered by some but also sometimes with no warranty as I recall in the case of my first Miller

 

[wishiknew]

Cool Find!!!!!

 

[76 Hondo]

Hey, that's my old buddy Kenny's Hondo! know the boat very well, always ran very good for an Olds, have many pictures of our Hondos together.:thumbsup

 

[BUDMAN]

Bad ass boat

 

[Hye Power]

Nice clean boat, but without knowing the compression hard to say on what octane you should be running. When you were running 91 did you hear any pinging?

 

[HOOTER SLED-]

Yea...be careful with that Olds went through a few myself.........and it's a 455, not 454. Clean boat. Look into getting a big pan, not a stock one. And an oil restrictor kit if it doesn't have one. I'd never run an Olds again. Don't wanna knock your choice...just trying to give you a heads up. Great power and torque with those motors. Just a pain in the ass to babysit and worry for me. Enjoy. :thumbup: