New member here,not new to boats but never had to know the info I need now back then like I do now...LOL.

[1989Carver268]

Hello All. Glad to be a member here amongst the boating community. I hail from Long Island NY and have lived here more than half a century..

I recently acquired a freebie 89 Carver 268 Pleasure boat w/twin 220hp 4.3 V6's.

Boat is pretty clean inside and practically everything electrical works too plus old owner upgraded all bilge pumps also even added LED lighting in the engine compartment and thats a plus.

The old owner said they knew practically nothing about the boat and that it may have port side engine issues as it smoked heavily...First thing I noticed is there was an LB4 V6 on the starboard side and an L35 on the port side.

Those arent my issues though as Im mechanically inclined and can change out the port side engine in a jiffy to another LB4....

Heres the issue where Im stuck and need the esteemed members of the forums help..

As I go through the boat little things I havent noticed started popping up. Like the outdrives...

First thing I noticed was although theyre both Alpha1 Gen1 outdrives theyre both slightly different and both spin the same way so if both were good I would become a victim to heavy chining but fate steers the ship into the right direction because somehow theres a pretty substantial sized window punched through the lower unit so thats my window of opportunity to get another outdrive but the right one that spins in reverse or even just a proper lower unit from the Marine consignment shop if thats possible...

Heres a picture and on the port side by the tilt strut on the right side of the portside outdrive you can see the window.....



The outdrive thats defunctulated has a serial number of OD339994.

The outdrive Im going to use for the starboard side has a serial number of 6682434

My question is what ratios are both outdrives?..

Another question is what would be the proper reverse rotation outdrive or even just a lower unit that Im going to need for the port side engine that will work with the Alpha1 Gen1 outdrive serial number 6682434?

In my research I nailed down both to be between 1983 and 1990 but when I inquire further about the ratios thats where I get deadlocked...

One time I was doing research there were different revision numbers like Alpha1 Gen1 1.2 and Alpha1 Gen1 1.6 I believe and if someone can clarify the differences in revisions and gear ratios that would be paramount to know at this juncture aswell as knowing.

Thank you all for indulging me and "Thanks" in advance to any and all who contribute with the info I seek as there are still plenty of days here on LI to get it in the water to do a lil fishing...

 

[airshot]

Beforevyou get involved in the engines, I would do a very thorough inspection of the sub structure. Things like transom, stringers and any other wood sub structure that may contain rotted wood. Due to the boats age and appearance of poor care, there is a high probability of sub structure issues. No sense investing time, money and effort if the construction of the boat does not warrant all that effort. Welcome aboard.....

 

[Scott Danforth]

Get your hull surveyed. Carvers of that vintage are not the greatest build quality. You will likely find moisture

Motors and drives are the easy part

 

[tpenfield]

Greetings and welcome. It seems like you wrote a complete sentence as your thread title. I bought my current boat on Long Island (Port Washington/Manor Haven). It seems like a boating Mecca, so you are in a good place.

Free boats are often the most expensive kind. I agree with the others, check the structure for signs of moisture/rot before you dive too deep into the mechanical aspects.

Speaking of expensive, do you have a budget in mind for the restoration? (you should). That way you can plan things out from task, time, $$$ perspectives.

Looking forward to your progress updates.

 

[mr 88]

Twin I/O s of that vintage were not counter rotating . The expense to convert is stupid . I had 2 straight 6s and just adjusted with trim tabs and raising the port drive more than the starboard side . Hull will list/ torque to port side , put as much weight , batteries ,holding tanks ,anchors etc on the starboard side . Mine worked fine like that . Don't overthink it .

 

[1989Carver268]

Boat is good plus all places of issue have been looked at before I even decided to take ownership...Especially the gimble bearing housings...

Like I stated I'm not new to boats and when I got the boat it was floating in the water with a current registration and I pulled it out and drydocked it.... The main bilge is very clean and also very dry in both forward and rear bilges plus there's zero mildew smell anywhere....The people before the people I got it from owned a cleaning company franchise location called ServPro and boat was professionally maintained yearly as I have two file folder boxes filled with seasonal maintenance receipts and very little repair bills..That's why I chose to take the boat and only costed me $300 to transport it to my house to work on.

I've lived on the water all my days growing up as a kid til a teenager on the lugano canal in lindy to and owned numerous boats albeit they were rowboats and hydrostreans they were boats plus also to mention I used to Captain an 80ft commercial clamming dredger ship for the family of a pretty well known entity in the NasCar world , Martin Truex Jr and did it until 2013 when commercial clamming really dried up by cutting back quota on Long Island ..lol

It was just recent I decided to grab a freebie boat to tinker with then do a lil fishing with it and do it in the cheap...I'm not green to auto mechanics either as I built close to 30 hotrods I'm my days and just got done blowing $23 grand rebuilding a 32year old pickup truck from the ground up and that's doing the work myself..

I located the info i was looking for and have a proper counter rotation outdrive on the way...$1759.00 shipped to my shop...I'll be seeing in in 5-7 days....

If anyone is interested the drive number is SEI 106-162

Tomorrow I'll be using a small excavator from a friend to remove and replace the port side engine seeings the boat is now like 8ft high on the blocks....Bought a new 4.3 longblock For $1600.00 from the local marina and should be delivered soon.

Im hoping to have it back in the water in a couple weeks if the stars stay aligned...lol ......

Thanks to all for the suggestions and seeings a lil while ago I just acquired a freebie 1998 24ft Rinker so I may be back with questions about that one too seeings the old owner says there's water in the oil reservoir bottle for the Bravo2 outdrive but to me the fluid still looks blue/green in color but right now one project at a time...

Not like these two playtoys I built during the pandemic along with doing the truck rebuild...Things got pretty crazy for sure and tools got spread thin.....lol


I have a feeling I'll be replacing the outdrive in that one as the old owner also stated the boat will run at 1/4 throttle but any more and it loses propulsion..Hopefully the boat transport dude can bring it today and not the Monday they say may have to happen. But not the end of the world.

Take care all

 

[1989Carver268]

Twin I/O s of that vintage were not counter rotating . The expense to convert is stupid . I had 2 straight 6s and just adjusted with trim tabs and raising the port drive more than the starboard side . Hull will list/ torque to port side , put as much weight , batteries ,holding tanks ,anchors etc on the starboard side . Mine worked fine like that . Don't overthink it .

Oh I'm not overthinking it docking 10klbs in high wind can get crazy for even boats set up properly as chining tskes away manauverability and can throw you off badly when docking in a place like here where I have a lifetime slip for free due to being part of the family..lol



The guy on the phone at Stern drive replacement said counter rotating outdrives were available starting 1983 but the unit he sells works for boats with outdrives from 1967-1990 ...All you need to do is give him the boats info and serial number off the back of the engine block and he gets you the unit with the correct ratio ...

He also said alot of the early single engine 80s Bayliners built between 1983 to 1990 with V8 Mercruisers were built with counter rotating outdrives too but finding a used one now will be next to impossible or not as cheap as the SEI-106-162 he sold me ....lol

Take care

 

[airshot]

Well, this could get interesting !!!