lhousman

I am having second thoughts about maiting my Alpha II drive to a 454 based on everyones input..Thanks......Seems I got some ill advise at the St. Louis boat show...{OK I looked like a easy sale @ the repower booth w/ my checkbook hanging out of my pocket}

I guess if I am to continue on with this desire to upgrade from a 4.3 to a BBC I also need to look @ outdrives as well...A dealer called me today and said he had a 454 complete paired up with a Volvo Penta duo prop outdrive...My gut says stay the heck away...But heck I was the same guy that was going to hull out a Alpha drive with a 454 so what do I know. Need some advice.....The more questions I ask the more I think I need to jack up my bow light and put a new boat under it. Ha Ha

The price for the Volvo setup installed is $5,500 w/ 218 hrs. Is this what I need to do or hold out for a Bravo set up????

puder

5500 bucks for the entire outdrive and engine setup? That is a pretty good price.

Converting from an alpha to a volvo might ebtough though.But don't hold me to that. I know the cutout for a bravo is pretty much teh same as for and alpha. You have to add two holes aparently ( i am going to find out real soon).

The cutout for eth volvo might be different. In addition the engien location might have to be moved for the volvo. With a bravo its the same spot.

Back to cutouts. Lats say the alpa cut out is smaller. No Majorly big deal. Break out your sawzall!!! widen her up. (have a professional do it)

BUT lets say your alpha cut out is bigger than the volvo. UH OH!! you would need to have a glass guy eithe rcover up part of the tansom hole and jerry rige it. Or cover up the entire holes and recut for the volvo. BIG$$$$ if you can't do it yourself.

If you are goign to convert i woudl say go with a bravo. You can for sure use your existing steering, cutout, and engine location.

Or simplest of all you can just bolt up a 1.32 alpha in place of your current alpha, no cutting or re rigging involved , 10 bolts a couple globs of lube and your ready to roll

excaleagle42

i did a complete conversion from a dana model 81 drive and a velvet drive to a bravo. i had no choice because there are no parts left for a model 81 and i blew the upper gears. i had to remove the engine and drive and transmission, cut a bigger hole on the outside and inside about 3/4 in. deep on the transome, tapered the edges with a grinder, laid some fiberglass, put in some plywood, laid a lot more glass on both sides. then you have to figure your x dimension, get a template if your switching to the volvo, (most pros have a template that screws to the transome so you can't screw up drilling crooked or cutting too much) and drill your holes and go through about ten sawsall blades because my transome is 2.5" thick. then you mount your assemble, inner transome plate, drop in your new engine, check alignments, mount your drive, hook up your wires and fuel lines, cables and go. realistically, it took weeks. grinding fiberglass sucks!!
if i knew i would spend two weeks of vacation on that big fun i would have thought a little harder. this is just my opinion but i would drop in the 454, beef up your alpha the best you can by changing gears or shafts or whatever, and take it easy on your holeshot. if your not pulling skiiers with your pontoon boat and you prop for top end that alpha may last a long time if your careful. Fran

Posey

Do yourself a favor, stay with mercruiser! 454/Bravo 1

timewarp

From your other thread I am assuming this is going on a pontoon boat?
If so I would go for the Volvo setup if you trust the place to install it correctly and there is some sort of warranty that the engine will run, 218 hours may not be many hours but without knowing how old it is and what shape it's in I would want some kind of a warranty if they are doing the install, $5500 seems very reasonable, the duo props propellors will be the only down fall to that combination but you weren't trying to go that fast so you should be able to find what you need.
The duoprop will help with the handling of the boat over the Bravo especially when you are definitally adding more power than the boat was designed for.
Now if you were talking about realy pumping the power to it(much over the stock 454) I would say to go with the Bravo as there are more heavy duty parts available for it but in stock form the Volvos are a very dependable drive.
Just my $.04
Good luck, sounds like a fun project,
Caleb

lhousman

Caleb,

Thanks for the reply,,,,I thought I had talked about the unmentionable sin on a performance WEB Page by mentionaing "Volvo" (not too many replys).. I do have some reservations about this project and a Volvo drive but it's like you say I'm just trying to break into the 50 mph... I had talked myslf out of the this package, but then over the weekend went back to it..I decided that this wasn't a high end performance boat, or even a classic performance boat it's a pontoon that I am wanting to up the sperm count on... Memory serving correctly it is a 98' model w/218 hours he will warranty it for 60 days after install..Any other thoughts I would appreciate.....

Thanks

Larry

BigGrizzly

The Bravo will fit in the Alpha spot easly. With a 454 and a pontoon boat the Alpha will come apart, even a gen II if you have more than 320HP ad go over 4800 rpms. he Volvo depends weather it is a SX or the 290 version. The SX share a imilat pattern of the Bravo. Me I would just put in a 350 and call it a day.

Randy