Need a separate res. when tieing the pumps together. Mine have a fitting installed to the pump cap, then the cap is welded to he pump housing. A hose goes from each pump cap to a tee at the remote res.
May be a lot of work/hassle just for the occassional time when the motor that happens to have the PS pump goes dead. I don't know of any other benefit from having both pumps used, other than always have power steering. Just another item that 'could' fail.
You can see both hoses to pumps if you look close.

You are right seems like a lot of work.Any thought on why steering gets hard while docking once in a while.Very short,maybe2 sec. but enough to throw you off.

Just figured out how to upload pictures.Here are a few from today and yesterday.You can see the hose for the power steering just looped back to the return line.Fittings are very rusty and thats why I want to remove the pump since it is not being used.I think I will put it on the starboard side since this is new and the other pump has been in service for 14 years now.

Full hyd steering or add on?
Both drives move freely with the tie bar and rams unhooked?
Rams good and straight?

Other than that, no idea if it is a hyd. issue. Falcon from here is a wizbang on this hyd. stuff.

That hose really looks rusty. Off the older motor?
BTW, nice looking boat.

Both drives and rams move fine.Full hyd. from factory.I'm thinking dirty filter or bad pump.And yes those hoses are from the port side power steering pump.They are just looped together.

Ok next question,

My engine builder says he can build me a 550 to 600 horse set of engines and I dont need to upgrade my stock fuel pumps or stock ignition system.Does this sound right.I use to bracket race on weekends and the first mods we did on the new motors were MSD boxes with soft touch rev. control and 140 gph electric pump with 1/2 hose from inside tank to carb.I also was taught "better to have enough and not need it at the carb then run lean at W.O.T."Please let me know what your thoughts are because it may be better for me to not run such horse power.I'm trying to keep reliablity and cost as simple as possible.

Holy crap!! You do have alot of questions. First,the steering is a
full hydaulic Imco unit. Thats why your pumps are hooked that way.
The reason for the steering getting hard when docking is air in the
system. It will need to be bled out. With the full hyd. system the
air wont come out on its own by turnin the wheel because the lines
are so long going up to the steering unit. Not enough flow to move
that much fluid. Have to bleed the rams. Its tricky. Pm me when you
get the motors back in. The gen 5 has a fuel pump mounted in the
sea water pump,its a differant pump than the mark IV. Trust me,
you would over heat in 2 seconds if it wasnt right. As far as your
name goes,how about YO Tony!!
Big horspower ?? Not for me,unless its says mercruiser on it.
Everybody I know who has a local builder do their engines has
nothing but headaches. The season is short here in the northeast,
I wanna turn the keys & go. Good luck on your project!!
especially those transoms!!

ttt

Just an update on my winter project.Today we removed all accessories from both engines and delivered them out to Roccard Marine Engines in P.A. The plan is to do a tear down and inspection of all internal parts and come up with a game plan for the build up.I'm still undecided if I want to just do a basic rebuild with larger cam,stock carb and intake and try to get around 500 hp out of it.Or go with Holly carb,aluminum intake,full head port job and bump compression and get around 600 to 650 hp.I'm trying to stay conservative so as to not grenade my out drives and be deeper into this project.Any suggestions?

Holidays are now over,kids are back to being brats,and its time for me to hide in the shop.So today I media blasted and completely rebuild the four drive lift cylinders.What a mess they were on the inside.They should work much better now and when painted look much better also.I took off my skeg guards and found that half the skeg is missing.I guess I'll have to reinstall these after I paint the drives.I was hoping they were in salvagable shape so I could do with out the guards,but I guess not.Still waiting to hear from the motor shop about progress on and condition of dissasembly.