14' Z-Craft Hydro totally redone with Mark 78 power head mounted on a Parker mid and Super Speedmaster lower unit with a Brass Litton race prop. Electric start! Perfect cottage racer!
I had this same motor on a 1959 16 ft. run about. Awesome engine! When I was a kid, my dad raced hydroplanes and they used this engine. Mains are needle bearings, no transmission in the foot. Bullet proof!
Mark 78 is 70 horses vs 60 horses for the Mark 75, friends. Long live the “Tower of Power”. I get goosebumps every time I hear one. I swear, my Dad’s old Maroon Mark 78 appeared to me to be alive. Especially when in reverse. It would be growling and looking to the left and then the right , back left as it pushed the Crosby runabout back. Seemingly impatient to be turned off for that very brief interval “silent neutral” and then he would shove that pistol grip into forward, setting her free to dig in and fly!!!!! No speed limit here!
I say it because I witnessed someone dry firing one of their race engines and the prop threw a blade. Luckily the blade did not hit someone but it did go through another boat.
