I have a 1982 Carver mariner 33. It has ford 351's with v-drives. I need to repower and I was wondering, can I repower with mercruiser or chrysler engines? I have two chryslers available. will they bolt up?
Depends on what you have for the mechanical coupling between the engines and the V drives. It's unlikely that the Chrysler flywheel bolt pattern will match the Ford's.
You might be able to take the Chrysler and Ford flywheels to a machine shop, to have them drill & tap matching holes.
Forget the Chryslers, marine parts for them are extinct. Some bellhousings have a dual bolt pattern and take either a Ford or Chev
engine. What transmissions do you have? Borg-Warner Velvet Drives?
'nutcase
I have a 1982 Carver mariner 33. It has ford 351's with v-drives. I need to repower and I was wondering, can I repower with mercruiser or chrysler engines? I have two chryslers available. will they bolt up?
You can forget Fords as well. They've been out of the marine engine business since 1996 so parts are going to be getting scarce, and with that expensive. But, still plentyful today. Go with GM based engines. All car type V8 marine engines are GM now. Mercruiser, Volvo, Crusader.
Parts for the 351's are plentiful, the only items that would matter in his application are exhaust manifolds, which are still available readily. It's not the same as owning an OMC-powered boat, the inboard trannies don't suffer from a lot of Ford-specific parts. I'd just go back with the 351's unless you want the expense of buying a 350.
They most likely won't just bolt up, but where theres a will theres a way. You can custom fabricate parts to make them fit up. The trannys themselves have an SAE number relating to the size and bolt pattern of the bellhousing. What drives are they? If you can find out the SAE # you can find out a lot more information about parts for sale that will couple the two together.
