Winger Ed.
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2004
- Messages
- 649
I've been carrying this around for awhile. I wasn't sure if it should go here, or on 'Stupid Human Tricks'.<br /><br />I used to have a early-mid 70's 23' (tupperware)daycruiser with a Mercruiser behind a 351 Ford V-8. As it aged, the engine mounts under the block turned to mush. The engine settled downward & ate the gimble bearing.<br /><br />I scrounged up a Oak beam approx. the same size as the 2 'glassed over boards mounted in the hull under the engine. This thing was huge, a rough cut 6 x 8 or so, and about 10' long that I intended to cut & fit in as replacement eng. mounts. <br /><br />To do this:<br />I figured I could just put a beam across the gunwales, and use it to hold the weight of the engine up a inch or two after I levered the block up and tied it with a rope. Then, I could cut out the old mounts, put in the new board, 'glass it over like the original, then just lower the engine back down a few inches and live happily ever after.<br /><br /><br />The plan worked great. I got the weight of the engine up a bit, tied it off, and started to remove the old mush engine mount...... Then I noticed, the engine was hanging from my new mounting beam/boards.<br /><br />So, in desperation, I cut the top off the stringer looking old motor mounts. They were 2 beams about 6 x 8, and ran 3 feet or so from the transom board up to a bulkhead that ran across in front of the engine mounts, and held up the back end of the floor.<br /><br />I scooped & cleaned the rotted, wet sawdust out of the fiberglass 'mold' that used to cover them. <br /><br />I then got a bag of cement, mixed it up & poured it into the fiberglass shell that used to incapsilate the engine mounts. I pushed about 4-5 re-bar rods down into the wet concrete, and let it set up.<br /><br />------<br /><br />Now, before the pureists start pounding thier pitchforks, gathering firewood, and lighting thier torches in preperation to come after me like they did the Frankenstien monster.....<br /><br />I gotta say it worked great.<br /><br />The cement probably weighed 25 pounds more than wood does for that size & length. On a 4,000 pound boat--- that's no big deal. <br /><br />All those mounts needed to do was hold the engine up at the correct level in relation to the Gimble bearing & outdrive's drive shaft without crushing or breaking in half and folding up.... which the concrete could do quite easily, especially since it had several re-bar rods inside it.<br /><br />Plus, transfer the forces of fwd. thrust to the hull from the outdrive on the outside of the transom board. Being poured in the old fiberglass 'mold' that was left from the original wooden mounts,, it did that real well too with no pressure points due to the solidified mount not 'fitting' just right (as a board might) in relation to irregularities in the bottom of the hull where they sat up against the center section of the inside of the transom.<br /><br />A added feature was that my new mounts would never rot out like replacement wooden ones eventually would have. <br /><br /><br />I'd never recomend this engine mount replacement method to others, but I just had to tell the tale never-the-less.
