rsigillito
New member
"I am new to sterndrives and t
"I am new to sterndrives and to this forum. I always had smaller boats with outboards before. I appreciate any help you can give me.
I am repowering a 24 ft aluminum flat bottom shrimp boat to use for leisure fishing. It previously had an old early 1970's era 351 windsor mercruiser engine; drive was long gone.
I found a 2005 5.0 mpi that a person had (partially)installed in a four winns with an old m/r drive that he said he ran once but the drive was knocking so he never put it back in the water, engine was never broken in. I don't think the engine was ever properly installed (merc support line rep said a 2005 5.0 MPI could not be run with an old MR drive)
I also found a 2004 bravo 3 (2.2 ratio) that was on a boat that the owner blew his 5.7 ltr engine. The drive had such little use that the paper barcode/price stickers are still on it. I pulled the drive (with props), gimbal housing, inside transom mount/ steering components (except the hydraulic pump which was already taken) off of the boat over the weekend.
I called mercruiser support today to get some information about drive compatability, & what I would need to get started. The rep told me I would need to buy a new computer for the engine that would be compatible with the bravo drive, and that the engine would need "a laundry list of parts" to make it compatable.
Is this correct? Are there really different computers for 5.0 MPI engines using alpha vs bravo drives? Or can a computer be "reprogrammed" for a different drive? Can I tell from the engine serial # what type of computer / drive it was set up to be used with? Prices on both the engine and drive were very reasonable}, so I can afford (I hope) to remedy the problem and still come out ahead - I just need to know if I should be looking to reprogram; or instead for a different computer to run with the B3; or if I need to leave the engine as is and find an alpha drive.
I appreciate your help with this. I have a mechanic installing the engine & drive - his opinion is that we should put the engine/drive together on a test stand and see how it runs, then address any problems we encounter."
"I am new to sterndrives and to this forum. I always had smaller boats with outboards before. I appreciate any help you can give me.
I am repowering a 24 ft aluminum flat bottom shrimp boat to use for leisure fishing. It previously had an old early 1970's era 351 windsor mercruiser engine; drive was long gone.
I found a 2005 5.0 mpi that a person had (partially)installed in a four winns with an old m/r drive that he said he ran once but the drive was knocking so he never put it back in the water, engine was never broken in. I don't think the engine was ever properly installed (merc support line rep said a 2005 5.0 MPI could not be run with an old MR drive)
I also found a 2004 bravo 3 (2.2 ratio) that was on a boat that the owner blew his 5.7 ltr engine. The drive had such little use that the paper barcode/price stickers are still on it. I pulled the drive (with props), gimbal housing, inside transom mount/ steering components (except the hydraulic pump which was already taken) off of the boat over the weekend.
I called mercruiser support today to get some information about drive compatability, & what I would need to get started. The rep told me I would need to buy a new computer for the engine that would be compatible with the bravo drive, and that the engine would need "a laundry list of parts" to make it compatable.
Is this correct? Are there really different computers for 5.0 MPI engines using alpha vs bravo drives? Or can a computer be "reprogrammed" for a different drive? Can I tell from the engine serial # what type of computer / drive it was set up to be used with? Prices on both the engine and drive were very reasonable}, so I can afford (I hope) to remedy the problem and still come out ahead - I just need to know if I should be looking to reprogram; or instead for a different computer to run with the B3; or if I need to leave the engine as is and find an alpha drive.
I appreciate your help with this. I have a mechanic installing the engine & drive - his opinion is that we should put the engine/drive together on a test stand and see how it runs, then address any problems we encounter."