omc conversion

Just picked up a 1989 17' vip for free that need a new outdrive. I have heard there is a conversion kit to allow me to put a mercruiser outdrive on. (Hoping to save some money down the road for parts.)
Has anybody done this before? And what outdrive and conversion do i need to specifically look for?

 

They use to market an aluminum plate to fit the round hole and had the cutout for the newer drives. The old OMC are so rare that I don't think anyone is making those any more. However, you can cut a flat plate and make it work. There has to be a filler piece in the center for the narrower new drive. That can be built with two layers of 3/4" plywood. A plate of 1/2" aluminum should be adequate.

 

If money is a major concern, how about the sterndrive engineering omc cobra conversion kit which lets you put an alpha drive on the cobra transom assembly -- if the transom assembly in serviceable shape and only the gears / outdrive leg are bad...
http://www.sterndrive.cc/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9D-116&Category_Code=Cobra
http://www.sterndrive.cc/pdfs/conversion.pdf

 

Mercruiser cheap - you pay for what you get though.

If you're looking to save money in the future you're better to head for a volvo unit. Mercruisers seem to be built too light and of too many alloys (go through zincs like stink and then fall to bits if you fail to notice). Yes Volvo's can be more expensive but in the long run tend to be a lot more reliable and seem to take more knocks without shattering or twisting driveshafts or popping gear-teeth.

 

Is this boat even going to spend its life in the water, or will it be trailer kept? The original poster lists his location as toledo, oh so that should be fresh water - much, much easier on the drive than salt.
I don't like advocating a cheap fix that lacks aesthetics, but I'm not sure about putting $6,000 into a boat that will likely not be worth that much even with the new volvo drive (as the original poster stated he got it for free). How many hours do you expect to put on this boat per season? Do you really like the boat enough to "pay now" or pay later? OK, I'll stop advocating taking the cheap path now - this is a boat design site so I should probably be advocating doing everything the very best you can no matter what the cost!

 

Good advice and probably why it was free.

People generally convert these sort of boats to car engines for a bit of fun.