Converting a Classic 18 from 351 Ford/Volvo

[BOSTONCAMARO]

Ok, so I have a line on a boat, it has both a problem with the 351 in it and the Volvo 250 Outdrive needs to be gone through.

My dad and I are pretty heavy into cars, we have also done a few boats. I am curious aside from ex manifolds, mounts etc, how much work would it be to convert the boat over to a Chevy / Mercruiser drive.

I have a couple built motors now, but also have other motors so I could through together a nice 350 / 350hp motor.

I appreciate the advice. Just we are diehard Chevy guys and if I am going to go through the work of a swap, I would like to change gears and go with a Chevy.

Thanks, Tim

[mattyboy]

the 250 don't care what's spinning it , I have been told all you need is the flex plate that attaches to the fly wheel to go from a ford to a chevy if you want to keep the volvo .

as far as the transom you can buy an adapter plate for the new volvo and merc. but this usually depends on how solid the transom is. If you are going to have a strong motor in front of it might as well re-glass and beef up what's there including the stringers. and while you are at it might want to visit the X dim and maybe a bravo shortie

[mattyboy]

let me re-phrase that depending on what type of intermediate input shaft you have the short one or the long one.
the short one that is part of the bell housing you would need that bell housing,with shaft and the flexplate or if it is the long input shaft and housing just the chevy bell housing and flex plate


do an advanced search on the site for titles "ford to chevy " you should see a few good threads one from maddad who did the switch.

[BOSTONCAMARO]

sounds good, pretty easy swap

what about mount locations? I will search for threads now!

[mattyboy]

well mount locations really depend on what you do with the x dim, and the drive train. again you will probably want to address the stringers and addt'l supports for them.

If you use the adapter plate you will basically hook the back end up and find the front mount locations. you'll have to lay out the motor and exhaust as well to make sure you don't have clearance issues. The merc setup is a little more sensitive to alignment than the volvo getting one of the merc alignment tools and transom jig will help if you are going the re-glass route.

[BOSTONCAMARO]

thanks, need to see what we will do, the boat might be at a price where buying it, doing all the work ourselves and swapping in a nice SBC that we already have, might bring us to a price where we could simply buy one together and running....thanks for the info for sure!