ok, so i have a boat inwhich i have a 4.3/ merc engine and matching alpha 1 drive...

however the boat is not fitting the bill as of late (namely i just moved to a new home on a new lake and id have to have a dock about 100 feet long to accomidate my boat as my draft is too deep.
(by the way the boat is a 1990 conquest 20 foot cuddy cabin)...

now i have found a hull in the personals that better suites my needs and that i happen to like alot. it is a 1992 wellcraft excell 20 sx.. its in decent shape and i am more than capable of doing the few minor repairs it needs... however this boat used to have a 4.3 volvo penta setup...

my question is, can i put my power unit in this boat. i dont have much experience with vovlo penta, and my concearn is that the outdrive cannot be bolted to the transome... however i figured id ask cause i didnt know if the hole in the transom was universal to both merc and penta transom plates...

thanks in advance...

That would make life way to easy .

Keep the penta. It's a better drive unless you need trim then it's an issue.
Then it depends on the cut out for you drive but your not putting a merc in place of a penta without a transom rework or a very expensive transom plate adapter.

id keep the penta set up if it were there lol.... and i love wakeboarding so trim is an issue...

my father owns a welding and fab shop, so if its just a plate then i can probably get it done... if anyone has any input on how the plate needs to be made and applied that would be much appreciated...

like i said, i have a boat that i dont mind taking the "guts out of" andi found a boat that both astetically and price range pleases me lol, i was just wondering if it were impossible, and if not how much effort time and money would be needed...

the input so far is great thanks...

It will bolt right in. I use the same transom jig when cutting for volvo sx, alpha, and bravo. The older 280-290 drives had a big tansom cut out and Volvo makes a bolt in conversion kit to adapt a newer SX or Merc drive. As a side note all the later 280/290 models had hydraulic trim which works quite well.

Just keep the Volvo drive- the engines (4.3 v6 ?) are pretty much identical. Volvo drives are good stuff and parts are plentifull.