280 short and long shaft units

[acsnowrider]

HI New member here, but old mariner. Running a dual engine commercial drift boat, with 280/AQ260 chevy power plants. Wanted to pick up a spare outdrive, and found one online that looks, in the pics, as if its shorter than mine in the leg length. Did they make a "short and long" shaft version?? and also, what is the correct ratio ant the bottom for V-8 application. I was told once it was 1:61, but person wasn't positive. Thanks acsnowrider

[tuantom]

Standard gear ratio for a V8 is 1.61. I'm pretty sure that all 280 drives with this ratio were the long shaft version - maybe the 1.89:1 drives were as well; but I have definetly seen 2.15:1 280's with a short shaft.
Volvo's prop selection guide states that V8 applications should use long hub props - It stands to reason that their drives would make this possible.

After reading your post again, I think you may be asking if different legs were long or short (I was refering to propeller shaft length above). They were'nt; however Volvo did have extensions that could bolt between the intermediate housing and the lower gearcase effectively doing the same thing.