Hi Mitch, I owned a similar boat a 23' Bell Boy with a bad 302 ford I/O and the old electrical shifted OMC sterndrive. After looking into different converting options like outboard or change to an Alpha One leg and the considerable amount of money and work (rebuild transom) I decided to replace the engine one to one. I was able to buy another boat (lake use only) with an excellent engine/drive for cheap ($1500). Buy the time I was finished it cost me around $2000 incl. new batteries and so on. Ron's friend spend 20k to repower with an outboard, well that is a lot of money and the only real advantage is the room you gain from an empty engine compartment. If you sterndrive is still in a good shape and you are mechanical talented a rebuild of a 350 will prob. cost you around $4000-$5000 depending on how many parts you're able to reuse. If you don't have an enclosed cooling system (exhaust manifolds cooled by the antifreeze) I suggest to upgrade the setup, saves a lot of headaches and maintenance in the long run. If you got a big budget 20k or so you might look into a repower with a diesel engine, expensive in the first place but fuel savings and resale value might work out for you. Realistically you have to put on a lot of hours per year to make the ROI (return of investment) work. If you still want to convert to an outboard, on the engine size you will need more hp on an outboard lets say if your 350 is rated @ 225 HP a 250 HP outboard should work nicely, aahh by the way if you ad the weight from the mount and the outboard together, well it's usually around the same weight as the inboard setup, but by doing so you shift the weight to the back which might effect the angle on cruising speed.
Well, reading this myself I guess I'm not a friend of converting to an outboard setup which actually doesn't mean that I don't like the result. I seriously considered to buy a 24' converted twin 140HP outboard, I just wouldn't convert myself because the ROI doesn't work out. Anyway keep us posted on your project as it is always interesting to see the result and learn from the trouble which comes up always no matter what. Good luck, Oliver ------------------------------------------------------------- > I just got a 23 Sport Fisherman hardtop, it has a bad motor. The motor is a > 350 chev I/O. I would like to convert to a outboard. Has anyone done this, > if so please help me with all the information you can. Like what size motor, > transom mod and so on. > > Thank you > Mitch --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/UnifliteWorld?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
