Mercruiser 350 and Alpha One Gen 1 - maintenance recommendations?

[todhunter]

I'm rebuilding a 1987 Power Play XLT-185 that has a Mercruiser 350 (260 hp) with SN 0B651656 and an Alpha One Gen 1 drive with SN 0B612075. The hours meter on the boat says 260 and I have old registration cards from 1995 - 2014. This is my first boat with an engine. Before I pulled the engine, it fired up and ran just fine on muffs, though it didn't like to idle until it was warmed up. Compression is good on all cylinders (178-185 psi), and there was no water in the drive's gear lube. The exhaust risers, elbows, and manifolds look good inside, but I'm still going to leak test the manifolds.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the hull restoration, so I've started picking up maintenance items for the engine and drive based on all the lurking I've done on this forum for the past 5 months. I'm not looking for a "brand new" engine and drive setup, but I don't want to have to pull the engine back out shortly after getting it together to replace something I should have thought of before putting it back in the boat. The drive, engine, transom assembly, etc. are all currently out of the boat. My main question is - what all you folks' recommendation on what to inspect/replace while it's apart this far?

Here's the parts I've gathered so far (mostly mercruiser/quicksilver):

• Impeller kit
• Drain/vent plugs and washers for the drive
• Gear lube for the drive
• Transom repair kit with bellows, gaskets, gimbal bearing, etc.
• Oil filter
• Fuel/water separating filter
• Distributor cap/rotor
• The soft rubber seal between the transom and gimbal housing
• Exhaust manifold gaskets and elbow/riser gaskets
• Lower shift cable
• New A1 fuel hose for fuel fill hose, vent hose, and tank to engine hose
• Recommended greases, sealants, adhesives, etc.
• Flappers for the thru-hull exhaust pipes (yet to buy)
• Steering cable (yet to buy)

Other things I'm considering, but may wait on due to somewhat easy access with the engine in the boat:

• Plugs/wires
• Carb rebuild (one of the Cliff's kits)
• Starter rebuild
• Belts and hoses

Parts I have questions on:

• Power trim senders. I heard these are easy to replace while it's apart, but mine seem to be working fine. Am I good to save the $ on these?
• Coupler - should I pull the cover and inspect it, and what should I look for?
• Anodes - they're all there and other than being chalky, they look fine. Leave them as-is?
• Trim pump / rams - anything I should look for or do besides an oil change?

Anything else I've missed?

 

[Scott06]

Thats a good list but i would add this - Pressure test the drive. This will tell if any seals are leaking

id do the plugs, check the wires, also check cap and rotor.
carb rebuild id look at the fuel for any contamination if clean see how it runs, rebuild if you have stumble or other running issues

questions you had.
you can skip the senders if you like. They aren’t mission critical.

coupler definitely inspect look for rubber separation of the hub and look at the splines inside the coupler and the drive inout shaft, they get pointed when worn they should have flat tops if they were greased properly

anodes replace when half consumed sounds like yours is fresh water use the6 should be ok

trim rams look for leaks and corrosion . I changed my fluid by sucking reservoir dry , refilling it, run the outdrive up and down a couple times, repeat until fluid is fresh.