As many of you will know from previous threads, I picked up a Suzuki 200HP EFI at a very good price, and have spent some time converting the transom on my Ocean 6.25 to accept an ultra long, rather than long shaft engine.
This is of course on top of the usual re-wiring etc that goes with swapping from one engine to another, particularly when changing manufacturers.
The main point of this thread is to thank everyone who has helped with technical advice and recommendations along the way, and particularly Mark Halliday for the loan of his engine crane.
Without this valuable source of reference the swap would still be going on.
Ignoring some unexpected family commitments along the way, there have been some problems to overcome.
For example, when the old outboard was removed my heart sank at the state of the transom underneath.
At some point the boat must have hit something at speed and the engine been literally been ripped off. The top surface had two lumps out of it where the tangs on the saddle had gouged their way through it, and four bolt holes were filled and re-drilled where the nuts had been ripped through the transom. I had always thought the vastly oversize ali plates on the inside were just good engineering to spread the load! I had no idea what they were hiding.
Suffice to say I've now built it like the proverbial iron bridge,
and I’m looking forward to spending as much time as possible out on the water this year with my kids.
All I need to do now is clean up the tubes to smarten it up a bit, and find time around my current family commitments to get it in the water for a shakedown run.
When I manage to arrange this I’ll probably be posting a thread asking for some company, in the form of a cover boat in case it all goes wrong out in the Solent.
So thanks again one and all.
Nasher
