On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:47:11 -0400, TJ wrote:

I have two questions. Is there anything else I should be looking at?
And, how much of the poorer performance could be attributed to the
"bigger" prop? (meaning, should I buy one closer to original specs?)

I suspect your problem is related to cooking the engine rather than
the prop. That impeller was getting ready to go and when it did,
given the situation, it cooked everything.

Truthfully, that engine may be a goner. Even assuming that you have
access to parts for that engine, you probably scored the pistons
pretty good and after all these years, there might not be a lot of
room left for new rings/pistons. Good luck with that though.

With respect to the prop, if you have the original (I forgot if you
did or didn't), that can be rebuilt easily - there are plenty of
rebuild shops around that can handle that.