In the water engine swap 1998 370 Sundancer

370Dancer

Well-Known Member
Oct 2, 2006
2,472
Suncoast of Florida
Boat Info
1998 370 Sundancer
Engines
380hp MAG MPI Gen VI with V drives
I have procured a pair of drop in replacement motors for my 370 Sundancer that has 5000 V drive transmissions.
What I would like to do, is disconnect the engines from the transmissions in the boat, slide the engines forward enough to disengage the drive shafts, and lift them out without disturbing the transmission, v drive, and prop shaft. Is this possible, and has anyone done it?
I find lots of info on removing the transmission without the engine, but not the other way around.

I anticipate removing the motor mount bolts to the engine brackets to slide the motor forward.

Fire away!
 
I just did it on my 300 in my canal behind my house. Worked like a charm. Just think of everything that can go wrong first and be ready for it!
 
If you look at my profile pic you can see the hoist I made from sched 40 steel pipe 4" for base and top swivel and 3.5" for mast and boom with a chain fall and come alongs to trees for support
 
Not to sound ignorant but why do you want to do this job in the water? Wouldn't it be easier to haul out for a few days, wash the bottom and have a proper crane or forklift to lift the engines out? Sounds like a small cost in comparison to a pair of engines. I had to haul mine as I have outdrives and had to pull them to get engines out. But it was a relatively straight forward job on the hard, had the crane come up and pick the engines out and set them on skids and put in my truck. Put new engines in boat and I finished up the reconnection of systems.
 
Leaning towards using a yard to do it all, as it's also time for a bottom job. I am my most trusted mechanic, but I don't have 8 straight days to devote to this ignoring all other stuff.

We'll see how it develops.
 
Yes it can be done .... I did it over the winter on land but once your seacock is closed your good disconnect the fuel water electric motor mounts six or eight bell housing bolts and the flywheel inspection plate it's should lift right out
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Just for closure on this, I did go ahead and have it hauled and done in a local yard. 8 days turned into a couple of months thanks to back to back Irma and Maria, but at least I was on the hard. The swap left the V-drives in place, and I benched the 7.0 BCG during the swap out. All in all, it's working out just fine. Total bill was about 6 boat bucks. Sold the direct drive transmissions for half of that, and parts off the old engines to turn that into 2 boat bucks.
 
Sounds like a pretty good deal all said and done. What motors did you drop in?
 
Exact same engines except 1999 instead of 1998. MEFI 3 instead of MEFI 1, all else 100% compatible. LA fire boat decommissioned engines. Total E-Bay score. I did have to tweak the replacements. They had sat for years. I still won in the long run.
 
My motors in my 98 370 were replaced under warranty by sea Ray for water ingestion but I don't know what year. Is there a way to determine what year the motors are?
 

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