Inspect the bellows every year when you pull the drive for the annual maintenance (check alignment, bellows, gimbal, and u-joints)
Does your 470 have the upgraded heat exchanger?
I had two old merc's that had sentimental value as they were my fathers as well, a Mark 7 and a Mark 20 that both were running, but needed help (ignition, carb, water pump, etc.). sold both for $225 to a canadian snowbird that restores them.
look around on AOMCI and see if someone else has...
the 8.1 came with stainless elbows. so you dont have to worry about the elbows BARR probably made the castings for Mercruiser as they are one of the OEM casting houses for Merc, Volvo, PCM, Indmar, and Ilmor.
Bittersweet..... Lost my good friend Jeff to cancer a few weeks ago. His widow offered some boat stuff.
Two ditch bags, wet suit, air horns, Bennett repair kits, dock lines, ski ropes, dock step, spare anchor, small fuel tank
after adding my first oil drain kit, that is what I do now for all marine motors. yes, the oil has to be warm. and yes, it takes about a beer or two's worth of time to drain via gravity. however that is when I change the fuel filters and oil filters.
remember, these motors area a derivative of the industrial motors and came down the same assembly line as the truck motors. other than core plugs, head gaskets, cam and the circulation pump. it is essentially a truck motor.
some of the marine motors used the larger industrial engine oil pan...
First, welcome aboard
Members come and go
Restorations all take the same path. De-rig the boat, build a cradle, uncap the hull, cut out the bad, replace with good. Re-rig
Looks like the hull structure is rotting and the boat needs the hull to be restored.
Could be poor layup, however my guess is the foam is waterlogged and the stringer grid needs some attention
