Omc/ Mercruiser swap

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Mopar44134

Mopar44134

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My brother has an old Cris Craft that came with an OMC 3.0. I picked up a Mercuiser 3.0. We stripped out the donor boat last weekend. Now the tough part begins. We had to use the OMC bellhousing so the motor mounts line up. We didnt want to swap out the outdrive.

The couplers are different and since we had to stick with the Mercruiser coupler, we shimmed out the OMC bellhousing for clearance.

We still have to figure out the connection for the trim pumps but thats minor.

What are the chances of lining up the input shaft with the coupler? I figured, put the outdrive in gear, spin the propeller to turn the shaft to help with alignment.
 
Be careful with the imput shaft depths, they differ.
I recently replaced a marine engine cuz the outdrive shaft was too long, and burned up the main thrust bearing in the engine.
That motor literally stank of burnt oil .
 
If that OMC outdrive is anything older than a Cobra series you don’t want to use it. Better to just use the whole Merc I/O setup.
 
889
Topless69 said:
They never put a Bravo on a Merc 3.0 it’s got to be an Alpha gen1 or 2. The Bravo Is a later heavy duty drive
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yes you are correct i don't have much experience with the Alpha but i had more than one bravo apart . there all junk the bravo 2 is fair at best . if your just blasting around the lake there fine but for commercial use they need major upkeep every 500 hrs .
 
Yeah, for recreational use 500 hours ends up being around 5-10 years. I’d say after that amount of time most people are looking to sell it or get a new boat anyway.
 
Topless69 said:
If that OMC outdrive is anything older than a Cobra series you don’t want to use it. Better to just use the whole Merc I/O setup.
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The omc came with the cobra outdrive. the alpha 1 was with the mercruiser. the alpha one needs the bellows replaced.
 
Topless69 said:
Yeah, for recreational use 500 hours ends up being around 5-10 years. I’d say after that amount of time most people are looking to sell it or get a new boat anyway.
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I was thinking about that too. I figured, get this boat running. West Branch state park is 15 minutes away, lake erie an hour, if i use the boat this year, buy a newer boat next year. I looking more for a pontoon boat. I saw a nice one at one of my customers, 3 pontoons, with twin 250 hondas. Only $110k
 
Mopar44134 said:
I was thinking about that too. I figured, get this boat running. West Branch state park is 15 minutes away, lake erie an hour, if i use the boat this year, buy a newer boat next year. I looking more for a pontoon boat. I saw a nice one at one of my customers, 3 pontoons, with twin 250 hondas. Only $110k
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“Only” 110k LOL!
My brother is a boat mechanic and he worked on a pontoon that had twin 300hp Yamahas - To me it was hilarious watching that pontoon screaming across the lake at ~70 mph!
 
Topless69 said:
Hope you get that combo going. Zipping around on boats is great fun, working on them can be a major PITA.
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I agree. its been years since ive been on one. I have a jon boat with an electric motor i do some fishing on. but not the same.
 
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