Wood rotted,new boat

[sockpatty]

The wood for my motor mounts rotted. Bought the boat last year around this time. It has a 1976 120 mercruiser in it. The engine is out and I was looking on Craigslist for boats with blown engines when I came across a beautiful four wins with a cracked block. I don't know much about engine swapping but do u think I could put my engine and stern drive in the four wins. Would it be that easy. I know my engine is good and I just put a new engine coupler on.

 

[ondarvr]

People here would need much more info to answer the question, what outdrive do you have, what year and model of Four Wins is it, what motor and outdrive does it have. Then, it may be in no better shape than what you have now, most older boats have rotten wood that needs to be replaced.

 

[Scott Danforth]

with a 1976, your looking at 40 year old.

99% of 40 year old boats have rotten wood somewhere

 

[CrazyFinn]

with a 1976, your looking at 40 year old.

99% of 40 year old boats have rotten wood somewhere

His existing boat is a '76. No mention of the age of the Four Winns with the blown engine. That being said, it's probably an older boat that could also have rot.

If both boats have a Mercruiser, at least the cutout in the transom should be fine. Engine mount locations are a whole different story... so, it depends, it might be simple, or not quite so simple. Depending on what is in there now, your level of experience with doing mechanical work, the tools you have available, etc.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Depends. The 76 is an MC drive. Alpha and Alpha-gen 2 holes are slightly different

 

[sockpatty]

The boat I'm looking at is a 1991four winns freedom 170 with a omc cobra 304. Mine is a mercruiser 120 2.1 and I believe I have alpha drive 1.

 

[ondarvr]

I would expect a Four Winns of that age to have a significant amount of rotten wood.

 

[gm280]

Without knowing the true condition of both hulls, you could be swapping one PITN with another. If your present boat has nothing more then some rotted engine mounts, that would seem the easier of the two to fix. But you really need to look your hull over really well before making that decision. JMHO

 

[sockpatty]

Your right. Thanks guys. I'm gonna take a look at that four wins in the next couple of days.

 

[CrazyFinn]

Swapping a Mercruiser into a boat that currently has an OMC is not a simple direct swap. Engine mounts, transom cutout, are all different. Probably easier to just fix the engine mounts in your current boat if that is truly all you need. The '91 Four Winns probably has some rot happening in it too.