Transom Pod

I could use a little advice from anyone who has gone this route…Here are the details.

I have an ’87 Malibu 18.5 hard-top with a 4-cy Volvo I/O engine. The boat has spent much of its life on a trailer, wasn’t bottom coated until 5 years ago when I bought it, and so I believe the hull is sound. The interior of the vessel is ok, could use some TLC but that is do-able. The engine runs well but, and here is the problem, I don’t really trust it to go any real distance away from moorage.

I have a 9.9, 4-stroke long shaft OMC as a kicker mounted on a ‘Spar’ bracket just in case I need to limp home. Mega-torque on that bracket if the sea is choppy!

This is what I’m considering. I’d like to remove the I/O engine and leg, fill the hole and have a grid pod attached to the transom and then re-engine with a new 150 Yamaha and a 9.9 Yamaha kicker. All with new controls, instruments, tabs etc. I think I’m looking at about $25,000 CAD before the kicker. About $4m of the total is filling the hole and adding the grid, the rest is engine and taxes. The mod would add about 2 feet to the vessel length and the 150 Yammy and kicker would put a lot of weight well aft of the existing hull. I think I would need a skookum pod and flotation to carry it. I’m told that a local shipwright has done similar modifications.

I realize that I’ll still have a 20 year-old boat but with a new engine. An alternative would be a new boat and engine, about $60m++ or a second-hand boat and a new engine (I’ve already got the boat!). The new engine is a must.

Anyone gone this re-build route on a similar vessel? Has it worked out? What sort of pod was installed? What did it cost?

Thanks, Tom

 

Why not either rebuild or replace the existing engine with a rebuilt? They aren't nearly as expensive as what you propose.

Steve

 

Well, your current sterndrive is almost 20 years old. I'd be tempted to repower not with an outboard, but with a new or rebuilt 3.0 or 4.3 with an Alpha or Volvo-SX leg. Either choice would give you a reliable, fairly efficient engine/drive unit at about half the cost you estimate for the new Yammie and bracket. And you'd know the balance and trim are already fine without hull mods. Even after adding new gauges, tabs, controls etc, there's a lot of savings to be had by not having to do any major structural work. Big outboards tend to be awfully pricey compared to their inboard counterparts; I don't see dropping $25k on a 20-year-old boat being economical but $12-$14k seems a lot more reasonable.

 

http://marine.cummins.com/

http://www.liquidmetalmarine.com/motor-mounts.html

http://www.sgpower.com/marine/outboards/


I think a 150 is a little over kill.

 

Malibu as in the ski boat?

If so, it's a mid engine. Here in the states a Chevy 350 crate motor is about $3500 and easy to work on. You should easily get 1000+ hours out of it with way more torque than an outboard.