Help with 55hp older motor +/- 1967

[snowman65]

Just bought our first boat. 14 foot fishing boat with a 55hp chrysler outboard. When I bought the boat, water was not pumping throught the engine. Bought a service manual, figured it was an impeller problem, tore it apart and fixed it. The roll pin on the shaft was broken off, not allowing the impeller to spin. Put it back together, started it, and water started leaking out the exhaust cover. Noticed 1 of the bolts was either stripped or broken. So I figured I would remove cover and replace gaskets. Broke 4 out of the 9 cover bolts. Can't get cover off ( I think non threaded part of bolt is rusted to cover). Next step is to remove power head and try to gently pry apart. Does anyone have any other ideas? Is there someone in SE lower Michigan that might want to tackle this job if I can't compete it? Thanks in advance for the assistance.

[Frank Acampora]

Yep! That's a miserable, time consuming, nasty job. And the outcome may not be desireable. You can try heating the cover at the bolts but with that much corrosion it most likely won't work. The option of using penetrating oil will be useless too.

Your most likely option will be to drill the bolts and that requires removing the block or the lower cowl to access all the bolts. The drilling needs to be very accurate so as to not damage the block or cover beyond use.

All in all, you might want to consider parting out the engine and getting another--depends upon how much challenge you like.