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drbarbara

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Ferm wrote in my previous thread "The next thing I would look for is a marine distributor to fit your engine as automotive distributors do not have flame arrestors in them to prevent sparks from igniting any fuel vapors". Besides the marine distributor what else do I need to look at?
-Alternator
-Starter.

This is starting to sound very painful. In the mean time can I just leave the vaccum line open?

Thanks.
 
Marine Distributor

I have been trying to find the marine distributor on the net. Most of the ones I am finding have electronic ignition. My current one is mechanical. Are they interchangeable?
 
I can't make out everything from your pictures, but I can tell it doesn't have a marine style cooling system in it. This can cause serious problems with engine heat from the manifolds as the set-up you have now won't allow water to flow into the manifolds until the T-stat opens. A marine style cooling sytem is meant to constantly circulate the water through the block and always allow a steady flow of water through the exhaust manifolds. When the engine gets up to temp it will then allow the cool water coming in to be routed through the engine and then through the manifolds. The engine mounted pump is meant to constantly circulate water, and then the remote belt driven is meant to feed the manifolds and supply cool water for when the T-stat opens.

I couldn't find a good picture of your alternator to see if it was a DELCO marine or not, or to see if your starter is amarine style. Also make sure to keep the rust on the engine under control and to keep them constatnly painted. Marine oil pans, valve covers and timing covers are normally a slightly different alloy to help resist rusting. Or they have extra painting steps taken to properly seal the metals from the salty enviroment. Marine engines also have different camshaft profiles to them and a different timing profile in the distributo designed to work with the different engine loads and constant high RPM's. And I couldn't see if your fuel pump had the fuel drain tube on it to prevent fuel leakage to the bilge.

I personally wouldn't worry about the camshaft, but would get a marine distributor(electronic ignition will be fine and more reliable than points for the most part). Just make sure to run the right coil and such to match the distributor as some use an external ignition module to fire the coil(PERTRONIX is the preffered conversion kit). As for the metal components , make sure they are clean and painted. OSPHO, a wire brush, ZINC CHROMATE primer, and good heavy duty enamel are your friends here. If rust shows up, make sure to clean it good and then treat with OSPHO to kill the rust. Then prime it and paint it with a few coats to protect it from future damage.

It's a bummer you got stuck with a poor conversion, if done semi-correctly a truck engine works just fine in marine useage. Finding another engine that is blown, but complete is normally your cheapest way to get all of the pieces to properly convert one over.
 
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I said it once I will say it again!! Bracket and outboard!!

By what everyone is saying the last owner didn't do you any favors by just droping everything auto in there, you going to spend a ton getting it all right!!
 
So Let's Plan

The way I am understanding I either need to change about 1000 dlls worth of marine parts into the engine I currently got or I need to pull out the engine and the outdrive, fiberglass the transom, buy a 300 dll bracket and a 1500 dll 200 hp engine. I guess it is true when you buy a boat you buy a hole in the water to put money into.

How hard is to do the conversion yourself. Remember I am a complete newbie, never worked with glass before.
 
I think a bracket and outboard will be cheaper in the end. I think with the help of people on this site you could handle the conversion yourself.
 
I have had bad experience's with I/O's and will never own another!!

That said if you had a I/O working and ready to go I would say stay with it till its time to re-power.

When you re-power the choice is yours! I/O or O/B depends what you are looking for?

IMO

Outboard, easy to replace, made to be on the water with less problems then I/O

But use more gas, in most cases nosier, and more to replace, if going new.

I/O cheaper on gas, quite, cheaper to replace.

But IMO they were never meant to be in a boat!! you are always working on them for one thing or the other! and I rather be fishing then working.

If you were to go new, the newer OB are much quieter, great on gas!! They are just as good if not better then a I/O.


Conversion is pretty easy if you decided to go that route.
First you have remove all the old parts, and don't throw any of it away!! Its worth its weight in Gold to the right people!! I sold all my IO parts for $1000

After that you need to plug the hole left behind. For that you go on the inside of the boat and you cut the inside liner and the plywood square (do not cut the out side glass!!!!) Now you want to cut just the first layer of ply only (3/4") about 1 or 2 inches bigger then the second layer.
Now take a new piece of ply the size of the first hole and coat with resin and cloth (make the cloth 2" bigger then the ply) paint the bare glass in the ole with resin and then put the ply in the hole, using the extra glass to glue to the wider cut ply.
Now take you 2nd ply and do the same thing and glue to the first ply you just put in the hole, again over lapping the glass by 3" to the inside liner.
Now cover the whole thing with glass till you are the same thickness as the inside liner.

Now go on the out side of the boat and fill the hole with matt and resin till its the same level as the outside glass. Sand smooth and gel coat or marine tex over the glass again sand.

Hole is now fixed and ready for you to install the bracket.

Go with a 25" shaft Out board and nothing less!! On the bracket go with the shortest set back that you can and still get the motor to tilt up off the ground.

Install bracket and motor and you are good to go!!

Theres more to it, and if you decided to do it we could get into it in more detail. but this gives you a general idea.
I never did it before and I had it done in 2 days!

Its up to you what you want to do!! But no matter what I believe you should start fresh with a outboard or new marine Motor.
 
And a 150 HP is all you need for a V20! Some here have got away with 115!!
200's are to heavy, and to much of a gas hog for these days!
 
macojoe said:
And a 150 HP is all you need for a V20! Some here have got away with 115!!
200's are to heavy, and to much of a gas hog for these days!
Click to expand...

There's one or two here who are running a 90 on there V-20's. They would be considered underpowered though. Like MJ said, each set-up does have it's merits. The I/O wins in the economy department compared to old school 2 stroke outboards. Outboards tend to take alot less maintence to keep running. I/o's do take more maintence, and old iron tends to keep you busy keeping up with it. Check CRAIGSLIST and see if you can't find a 302 or 351 that is blown to get most all of the parts you need off of to convert it. I/O's are nice in the fact that quite a few of the parts are cheaper as you can use some automotive parts. Outboard parts are pretty pricey for the most part. A rebuilt powerhead on an outboard will set you back at least $3000(this is why alot of people buy used running engines and part out the old one), where as an I/O's engine rebuilt can normally be had for $1500 since an auto can be substituted with a different cam in many cases.

If it was mine I would evaluate the whole I/O package and go from there. If the old VOLVO outdrive is going to need some work soon, then a bracket and outboard would be cheaper. I haven't worked on a VOLVO outdrive before, but I know on a MERCRUISER you need some special tools to replace the bellows and re-align and service them. Most side shops charge almost $1K just to replace the bellows in a MERCRUISER, and most of them charge ungodly fees when you mention the word VOLVO. Evaluate everything you have, and then decide how much you plan to use the boat. Then go from there.
 
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