A bunch of students from the Tennessee Technical Center in Nashville and the Nashville State Community College have successfully managed to extract a 400-horsepower 5.6-liter V8 from an unfortunate Infinity QX56. All they need to do now is to wait for a craftsman, a thousand miles away in Freeport, Maine, to complete his work on a completely stripped down Chris-Craft Holiday boat. So, what's the connection in all of this? Well, these are stages of a project called Infiniti QX56-Powered Boat which is exactly what it sounds like: they are going to marry the Infinity engine to a renovated version of the 1962 boat.

This is not a pioneering case of a mechanical heart transplant. Chris-Craft boats have had a history with "Hotroding" (the process in which a powerful engine unit is coupled with a classic chassis). Previously, power plants such as the 431-cubic inch Lincoln marine engine or the 440-cubic inch Chrysler Hemi marine V8 one, have had the pleasure of propelling those iconic, mahogany vessels.

"The use of the powerful Infiniti QX56 V8 is fitting with the history of this particular craft," explained George "Dodo" Brockman, owner of Freeport Boat Outlet, who is overseeing the build of the Infiniti boat project. The Infiniti V8 is actually lighter than all of the previous powerplants and won't require any special bracing or hull modifications to fit it into the original engine bay."

Infiniti QX56 Powered Boat

So the QX56 V8 is more of an evolution than everything else. However you don't just yank out a V8 from a car and strap it to a boat without tweaking it beforehand. After removal the engine had to be sent at Bracket Marine in Westbrook, Maine for a trial with its future ZF/Hurth marine transmission. Then Alabama was the place where new, water-cooled exhaust manifolds were fitted and also a closed cooling system was adapted. One stop still remains to be done – Its back at Infinity's for a close inspection to see if everything is up to standards. Hopefully by the time the engine is fully ready to install, the restoration process of the Chris-Craft Holiday boat will have been completed with an all new, rot-free, frame patched together by mahogany plates. Other genes from the Infinity QX56 will also be transferred on to the boat – leather upholstery, NavWeather™ provided by XM® and a speaker and sub-woofer system all complete the luxurious package that will be the Chris-Craft QX56.

Source: Infiniti