Engine swap

W

wellcraftv20step

Senior Member
Hey guys, i need help again. Yesterday I brought home the new to me 180 hp 4 cyl mercruiser. Afriend of mine will be doing the job with me , he has swaped a couple of boat motors years ago and he builds race car motors, i'm pretty sure i need to change out the transom plate from the old 3.0, aside from that can i get some tips on what to do and not to do to make it go easier, Thanks John,
 
i think the mercruiser manuals ae avaiable on line. Its not a hard job. Biggest mistake I see when swapping engines, most try to swap it like a car motor, you don't have to unbolt it at teh bell housing. Start with pulling the drive, put the gear shifter in fwd, that allows the drive to be pulled off, look for some utube vidoes on pulling the drive. Once the drive is off, pull the two verticle motor mount bolts behind teh bell housing, pull the lags that hold the fwd motor mont to the stringer. DIsconect the hoses and wires, don't forget the ground wire on the back of the bell housing. Rent or buy an alignment shaft when setting the alignment going back in, all in all not a bad job. Check every thing you can look at while yo have it out, check mounting bolts, hoses, seals, bellows and everything else. Good luck
 
I'm sorry Wellcraftv20step.. Like the others I have totally zero exp with I/O's .. I'll be happy to make a trip and help you if it's needed, but I really can't give you any pointers since I have no experience. And of course the offer to borrow my cherry picker is always open if you need it. :head:
 
Now thats what i i'm talking about ,thank you Spare. The bell housing was my biggest concern. . Paul i kinda lucked out, the auto shop next door offered to swing the motor for me. :sun:How nice was that. I really dont know why i just did'nt ask them in the 1st place. Oh now i remember it's because i'm not to smart !!!! My buddy and i will do the rest.
thanks everyone
 
with the amount of meds I was on when I typed that, I'm suprised I didn't tell you to cut a hole in hte bottom of hte boat and rop it out thru the bottom:you:

glad you got it figured out. Look on line and pick up a factory manual for your engine and drive, Mercruiser has probably the best written manuals out there, you should be able to get all your answers from it. If you can't figure something out, post up
 
I haven't swapped a motor, only pulled it up to change the oil pan.

I am not a real mechanic and found that the user manual was fantastic. You should try to find one. Get one for both the motor and outdrive.

I think the hardest part I had was getting the motor aligned with the mounting bolts to the bell housing (I did it all by myself).

rkc
 
engine swap

Road King Cole, i think i have the manual from an old regal sport fish i had, what a great boat that was . Anyway I was wondering what kind of top end and cruise speed your getting
 
wellcraftv20step said:
... Anyway I was wondering what kind of top end and cruise speed your getting
Click to expand...

Good question.

Well, I ah...I... don't remember...

I think she is supposed to go around 40mph? I think I was a couple MPH behind the "supposeds to go"....

She gets up and planes well. On the ocean I usually do not get to go full speed that much.

sorry,

rkc
 
Its not a bad job, just make sure when you set the new motor in you get the rear motor mounts set correctly. Pay close attention to how the rear mounts are set up. I screwed up the first time and put the triple lock washers(springs) in the wrong spot, and had to go back and change that. I couldn't get it aligned and had a strange vibration. Get it set on the rear (inner transom mounts) and adjust the front motor mount until the alignment tool slides in with no force. When you put grease on the tip of the alignment tool and insert into the coupler on the flywheel, carefully pull it out and look at the grease left on the tool. You can fine tune the alignment this way! Look up Sterndrives.com they've got the procedure written out pretty good. Good luck!
 
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