Author Topic: OMC Stringer Drive to Mercruiser Conversion (Read 73820 times)

Rosscoe · « **Reply #20 on:** November 04, 2013, 08:35:45 PM »

This made me think about him and had to go back and showed the Vid you posted to Joni. Unreal. We watched his bit on Driver Rehab too. Man, he is going to mess with the wrong guy sometime.

"I'll live with the cuts on the hands. LOL!"

If it were my choice, between the two, I would take the cuts on the hands any day!

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #21 on:** November 16, 2013, 04:31:41 PM »

Beautiful day today, almost 60 degrees, excellent for pulling out an engine. Took the boat to a guy I know who has a tree and landscaping business where he has a machine with a boom to help me hoist out the engine. Came out in less than a minute. I will have a hoisting video shortly.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #22 on:** November 17, 2013, 09:51:03 AM »

Engine out video:

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #23 on:** December 27, 2013, 08:25:07 AM »

Very shortly I will be continuing my work on this project as I'm sure everyone is waiting in great anticipation. I've sold the drive and steering cable on ebay so there's no going back now. I've also finished with my regular day job at the boat shop for the winter and have the next 3 months off to devote to this conversion. My new Christmas present will help me accomplish that so I can do fiberglass work and not have to freeze off my fingers. I think 125,000 BTU will do nicely!

Rosscoe · « **Reply #24 on:** December 27, 2013, 08:44:57 AM »

Are you able to move it inside now? That will help.
Do you already have your donor motor and drive? Guess you have transom work to keep you busy for awhile but with 3 months off, you should be able to make a lot of headway.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #25 on:** December 27, 2013, 08:49:45 AM »

I will be able to back the rear end of the boat into a garage, at least as far as the hard top will allow, and the heater should keep the work area toasty. I also have tarps I can use around the opening of the garage to insulate it as much as possible.

I haven't picked up the donor engine and dive yet but they are being held for me for when I need them. I still have yet to go inspect them but the engine is supposedly low-hours and has been sitting in the corner of a garage for the past few years.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #26 on:** January 13, 2014, 04:28:15 PM »

Had a nice day today, almost 50 degrees, and I finally got started on the conversion. First cleaned out the bilge with some spray cleaner, a brush, and power washed all the gunk out. Then started the deconstruction by cutting back the stringers from the transom. Port side stringer is pretty rotted out so I'll have to rebuild a good portion of it after the transom is completed. The starboard stringer wasn't as bad but will still need some reconstruction too. When I'm ready to build side platforms for the engine motor mounts I'll do the stringers at the same time. After cutting back the stringers I then cut out a section of the transom wood around the OMC drive hole. This I will fill in with 3/4ths marine ply to close up the hole, then I'll cut a larger piece of 3/4ths ply that will be glassed over the rest of the inner transom face. This will give me the thickness I need for a Mercruiser transom assembly.

CVX Fever · « **Reply #27 on:** January 13, 2014, 05:22:29 PM »

Nice clean job so far Rich. So is there a common spec for locating the height or X dimension of the transom assembly? Do you have a template/fixture for cutting the transom assembly opening and drilling the holes?

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #28 on:** January 13, 2014, 05:29:24 PM »

I have the measurements to mark the height of the X dimension which is based on the degree of angle between the transom and keel. I'll be using a home-made template, the same one I used when I recut the hole on the V174.

Rosscoe · « **Reply #29 on:** January 14, 2014, 07:26:44 PM »

You've gotten some of the nasty part done.
How will you go about locating the motor mounts? Just measuring or do you have an old block? Then of course you have to get correct distance from the transom. Hang the drive and work your way forward? It helps that you've done this before.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #30 on:** January 14, 2014, 07:40:32 PM »

Quote from: Rosscoe on January 14, 2014, 07:26:44 PM

You've gotten some of the nasty part done.
How will you go about locating the motor mounts? Just measuring or do you have an old block? Then of course you have to get correct distance from the transom.

I plan to just measure the distance and spacing of the motor mounts on the engine when the time comes.

Quote

Hang the drive and work your way forward?

The drive goes on last, but the transom assembly will need to bolt onto the transom before the engine goes in.

Quote

It helps that you've done this before.

I haven't, actually. I'm making this up as I go.

Hyperacme · « **Reply #31 on:** January 14, 2014, 08:01:37 PM »

" I haven't, actually. I'm making this up as I go."

LOL

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #32 on:** January 16, 2014, 04:37:38 PM »

Here's a preview of my plan:

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #33 on:** March 05, 2014, 04:43:22 PM »

Been a little while since I did anything with the boat but got out today to brave the cold to do a little grinding and cleanup to prepare the transom for a plywood filler.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #34 on:** March 08, 2014, 11:49:18 AM »

Went and looked at my potential replacement engine today, a low hours early 2000's Mercruiser V6 complete with transom assembly, drive, and all the mounting hardware. It's going to need a starter and some clean-up work which I'm not worried about. The biggest problem will be the transom assembly. It's a late 80's Alpha One rig and it's got a bunch of problems. It will need a new gimbal bearing and shift cable and the upper steering pivot is toast. I may try to get a transom assembly from ebay rather than try to fix up this one, it's a mess. The drive looks ok but I'll know more when I start digging through everything. If all goes well I'll be picking up everything tomorrow.

CVX Fever · « **Reply #35 on:** March 08, 2014, 01:27:00 PM »

Cool Rich, I figured with such a new motor it would have a Gen 2 drive and transom assembly. Was everything pulled out of 1 junked boat?

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #36 on:** March 08, 2014, 01:37:21 PM »

Yes, it all came out of an 80's Larson boat so all the drive components are Alpha One Gen One. The engine was a recent replacement from the same boat so there are no compatibility problems.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #37 on:** March 09, 2014, 12:53:54 PM »

Picked up the engine and related connecting/drive components today. Overall I think the engine is good, will know more when I can crank it over and go through it. I'll need a starter, motor mounts, possibly new exhaust manifolds and risers. I'm looking into replacing the transom assembly and whatever other small hardware I'll need to slap it all together.

Rich_V174SS · « **Reply #38 on:** March 10, 2014, 07:42:53 PM »

Started going through the engine, replaced the starter, cap & rotor and got her cranking over. Found out there was no spark being generated. My test light told me the ignition coil was bad, no continuity - voltage was getting in to the positive terminal but nothing coming out on the negative terminal. Swapped it out with another coil - that problem solved. Still not getting spark. Test light revealed the timing sensor in the distributor wasn't pulsing. Swapped out the sensor with a new one - problem solved, now has spark. Put some gas to it and got it to fire and run. It blew out a bunch of rusted metal chunks from the exhaust so I'm not gonna trust running any water through them for fear of water ingestion into cylinders. Not happy with the way it ran though, sounded like it was missing at least one cylinder on each side. Great! Now I'm hoping I don't have to pull the heads. Will know more tomorrow when I do a compression check. Test run video below:

MarkS · « **Reply #39 on:** March 11, 2014, 05:19:30 AM »

She does sound a bit rough, hope it's just routine maintenance (plugs, wires, etc.) stuff Rich. We'll keep our fingers crossed for ya!