Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

[thegodown]

I'm pulling both engines tomorrow to replace the couplers. Is there anything that I should be checking specifically while I have the engines out of the boat. She's an 85 270 Sundancer with 185R Mercruiser engines.<br /><br />Any and all of your expert advise is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bt Doctur]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

heavy rust on the oil pans,rear motor mount bushings,shift cable, starter bolts(remove and anti-seize ),starter (check or rebuild)rear motor mounts are a major cause of coupler failure.remove the front mounts and make sure the nuts can be adjusted to do the alignment. dont depend on the original setting.

 

[thegodown]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

Good tips. Fortunately, this has been a fresh water boat most of it's life (stored near lake Powell until 2004) and there is very little rust anywhere. I've purchased the rear motor mount fiber washer kits so will replace those. The service manual says they are cemented in place. Should I epoxy the new ones?<br />I definitely will realign the engines once they are back in the boat.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

"185R Mercruiser engines"<br /><br />Are those the 470s,..??..<br /><br />I just use masking tape to hold "Things" in-place,.... No Glue,... No Epoxy.....

 

[thegodown]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

The 185R is a 229 CuIn (3.8L) V6. From what I've been told, they were used for 2 years only (84-85) by Mercruiser and are derived from Pontiac's instead of Chevy's. 185 refers to the HP they develop.<br /><br />They are pretty nice little engines. They have plenty of power (together) for my usage and seem to be fairly reasonable on gas, which these days is more important than ever.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

They're Chevy.<br /><br />The 229 is 3/4 of a 305 Chev V8.<br /><br />OMC used them a bit longer than Merc. from 1979-85. Volvo used for a couple years too called an AQ175.<br /><br />I have a 229 in my boat. I have a couple of factory short blocks too if you ever need rebuilts.<br /><br />Watch for surface rust on the valve covers- they're paper thin...even around freshwater they rot through.<br />And ditto on the starters recommendation above while you're at it...

 

[thegodown]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

Thanks hystat. Good info to keep. I have about 350 hours on them now and I'm hoping that I get another 350 before I need to go through them. Can you still get bearings, pistons, cams etc. for these engines?

 

[Bondo]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

The 229 is 3/4 of a 305 Chev V8

That means that a 4.3l Should just Drop right In,+ Bolt Up,........ Perfectly.........

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: Mercruiser engine removal tips and advice

Parts are available, yes. I even googled the marine cam by part number once and found it was still available.