The motor looks crooked

[f_inscreenname]

I am in the process of installing a 454 to my Volvo 280T in place of my Mopar 360 that was in the boat before. I am having a issue getting the thing lined up. When I first tried to install the 454 motor I found out that I needed to raise the motor mounts blocks (what the 454 mounts sit on in the boat) by almost 2” to match the height of the Mopar. I did that and now the (with a little adjustment of the big motor mount bolts) bell housing fits perfectly in the transom shield. With that done it was time to line up the front of the motor. I did that buy checking the tabs on the bell housing to the transom shield. They are almost perfect in space apart on all sides but the motor looks crooked. If you look in the picture you can see the motor sits closer to the right stringer then it does to the left side. Is that normal or is there another way of doing it?

 

[Don S]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Don't forget, you are aligning the engine to the transom shield, not to the stringers. Who knows, maybe the transom isn't square with the stringers which will throw things off.
Having said that. Are those "INBOARD" motor mounts on the front of the 454? If so, they look to me like they are on rods and those rods can move the engine inside the mounts for adjusting side to side on prop shaft alignment.. Which means you can put the pads anywere on that shaft you want and make them look the same.
From your picture, and it's really hard to tell for sure, the engine look fairly square with the stingers, but the motor mounts are way off.
Just a thought.

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

They are inboard mounts and you are right they do slide side to side if needed. The only issue is I have them both all the way in to sit on the center of the “pads“ (it’s a tight fit, the boat was originally designed for a inboard but the motor is facing the wrong way with a I/O). I will have to double check everything again tomorrow and if its right its right. Wont sleep good tonight. This is some critical BS and if I don’t get it right ….Oh hell I don’t even want to think about if I don’t get it right.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: The motor looks crooked

FWIW I have rigged a few bare hull boats in the past. When doing the initial lay out we took great pains to insure the drive and engine were aligned directly on the centered line of the hulls. Every thing else flowed from there. Not sure how critical it actually is but we never had any handling or tracking issues when we were done.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: The motor looks crooked

For what it's worth there's 3/4 or 1/2 inch of spacing there in the red and it is skewed i agree

 

[Don S]

Re: The motor looks crooked

For what it's worth there's 3/4 or 1/2 inch of spacing there in the red and it is scewed i agree

No one is saying it's not scewed to the stringers, Stingers are seldom perfect in any boat. The engine has to be aligned to the transom shield, not the stringers.
If a Volvo drive like his is not aligned to the transom shield, then sever vibration, ujoint wear, intermediate bearing wear is going to be a real problem.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: The motor looks crooked

.........
If a Volvo drive like his is not aligned to the transom shield, then sever vibration, ujoint wear, intermediate bearing wear is going to be a real problem.

Agreed, the point I failed to make is the alignment STARTS with the placement of the transom shield in the transom. If thats off center, or not lined up following the CL, everything that lines up to it will be off center. If the shield is mounted at an angle to the CL the farther away from the mounting point you get the further "off" things will appear. I would review the problem STARING with the transom shield placement.
And as Don pointed out the stringers may be off. One of the boats we did had one of the stringers off the CL 3/4 of an inch more than the other. The end result was the engine/drive "appeared" off center to the stringers but was actually centered in the craft.

 

[QC]

Re: The motor looks crooked

I'm with LT and Don on this. Although it'll make you crazy, it doesn't matter. All you can do is align to the shield and splash her. It's not like you're gonna remove and reinstall the shield a 1/2 inch to port, or straighten the stringers, or the transom . . .

Plus think of it this way. Being scewed slightly to starboard helps with prop torque compensation 8)

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

I'm with LT and Don on this. Although it'll make you crazy, it doesn't matter. All you can do is align to the shield and splash her. It's not like you're gonna remove and reinstall the shield a 1/2 inch to port, or straighten the stringers, or the transom . . .

Plus think of it this way. Being scewed slightly to starboard helps with prop torque compensation 8)

Now you say that ……When I was doing my research on this boat and building SuperNova19.com I did come up with a couple references of racer in the 60’s and 70’s would off set the motor for torque. Now being Allan Brown was a racer and a boat builder second (like they all were, most of the biggest and most known boat companies today started out as “tax dodges” to them) I could see that happening. But then Allmand took over and changed everything so who knows. I am going to double check everything now that it has sat for a day and make any final adjustments or “just set it and forget it.” If not I will drive myself nuts over this stuff. I will find out soon enough. That’s what test drives are for.
Thanks everyone.

 

[Bondo]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Ayuh,.......

I've been in the Bilges of Lots of boats,.......

And,........ I've Never seen 1 that was totally Symmetrical,.....

Everything is built from the point where the Keel Line,+ the Transom come together.......
Once the Transom Assembley is Set,......
That becomes the Benchmark Reference Point.........
Nothing Else really Matters............


Btw,........
If you went to I/O motor mounts,....
You couldn't see them,+ it would lessen the visual impact...........d

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Seems to me he's fitting her with a DP set up there QC......................unless I'm wrong..............which would be a first........or maybe second...........but it sounded good QC

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Seems to me he's fitting her with a DP set up there QC......................unless I'm wrong..............which would be a first........or maybe second...........but it sounded good QC

Not quite but close. When I bought the boat it had a spent H/M Chrysler 318 with a Volvo 270 outdrive. It has since had a Chrysler 360 (best I could build with multiple rebuilds over 5 years) with a Volvo 270 drive and last spring with another addition it had a Chrysler 360 with a Volvo 280T transom shield (added trim to a Volvo Penta) and a 270 outdrive. With this motor officially bolted in (well the main part is anyway) it now has a MerCruiser MIE340 (454ci with some extra tricks added to it over the winter) a 280T transom shield and a 270 outdrive.
With half the trim system being MerCruiser also I affectionately call it my “VolCruiser”. 8)
All this for a 35 year old boat.

 

[QC]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Yeah LT, I remembered something about a duo-prop too, but then I saw the 270 note, so I was pretty sure. I was just trying to make him feel good anyway . . . 8)

 

[vrod02]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Right on Mark good progress! What kinda Horseys we talkin? I know you squeezed it. H/M and Chrystler? Never happen bro!
Strickly Ford.d

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

If you all are talking about me?
Enough with the DP BS. As much as I would like one “just because” I don’t have a grand + to buy one at the moment. Second for the little performance upgrade it will give me its really not worth it to me to replace a perfectly good working, proven time and again, major part like the drive (original to the boat). I’m a “top end” type. Not really worried about “hole shot” and even less now that I have 350Hp+ pushing around a 19’ boat. You don’t really take long cruises in a open boat so the cruising upgrade would be lost on me also. Last the DP didn’t come out until long after my boat was built. As many upgrades and changes I have made, when it comes to the exterior I have done nothing but try to get it back to original as much as possible or at least what could have been bought off the showroom floor in 1972. I’m not saying there isn’t one in my future but it will probably get installed the same time the new motor that runs on water is installed. So I’m not worried about it and if I was I would install the MerCruiser set up that’s 20 feet from me now and be done with it all.
So please let it go and if you were not talking about me……..Sorry.

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

Right on Mark good progress! What kinda Horseys we talkin? I know you squeezed it. H/M and Chrystler? Never happen bro!
Strickly Ford.d

Your right. I forgot about that. Another one of the Nova mysteries on how that got on there.

 

[vrod02]

Re: The motor looks crooked

I'll start lookin in the junkyard for a volvo chevy emblem! LOL's. Hope ya get your bow lift.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: The motor looks crooked

For what it's worth there's 3/4 or 1/2 inch of spacing there in the red and it is scewed i agree

No one is saying it's not scewed to the stringers, Stingers are seldom perfect in any boat. The engine has to be aligned to the transom shield, not the stringers.
If a Volvo drive like his is not aligned to the transom shield, then sever vibration, ujoint wear, intermediate bearing wear is going to be a real problem.

As one of my son's would say "Well ill be a schizzel on the snizzle" don't ask hell i dunno.

MY boating
experience is limited, and for the past year or so it has been ........illuminating shall we say.

Skewing a engine to offset tourqe, damm intresting,seem's black magic is here, and could very well be, i just wish i had the fund's to blow and see what is real and what is not.

But this is a new one, that water powering down a carb worked, thank you bondo now as to skewing a power train Ummm i am still truly a noobie....

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: The motor looks crooked

It must be right, now that I think of it. The Mopar's exhaust was always a little tighter (shorter distance to the transom) to install on one side then the other and thats with 3 different exhaust systems so I think it must have always been like it is (crooked). Very strange never noticed it before.