Thanks for that... I do believe donor boat is all analog... he just has a small round digital SC gauge installed where his tach used to be. As for steering, do you think there may be an adapter to allow me to plug that pump into my steering valve? Maybe I can have something made. Just hoping no nightmares here. Really looking forward to making this swap.

Thanks for help.

The 496 p/s pump is nothing special, I was able to swap the bypass valve from my 496 pump directly to the Saginaw style pump supplied with my 540s. No other changes made. So no reason to believe you can't do the opposite.

And if 496 has the 14 Pin connector,merc offers an adapter to run 14 pin engines on an 10 pins harness in boat! All your gauges will work then!
If the 496 has smartcraft,you need only the blue smartcraftcable from engine to the Gauge you like to mount!
Be shur eto get the blue cable with terminators on both side if you will go direct from engine to the gauge!
Hope it heps a bit!?
Michael

I replaced a 454 MAG MPI with a 496HO. No issues, all analog guages worked fine.

When newer 496 is,it has 14 pin input and you need an adaptor from merc to connect in boat with 10 pin harness!
Smartcarft gauge needs extra cable! Michael

All very helpful info guys thank you very much... I am going to help the guy to pull the new motor out of his boat (luckily I found one 5 min from my home) so that should help to see how everything is set up. He also has a sea strainer set up with a remote flush which my boat does not have and I would like to install.

Thanks again for all posts... I will follow up with results and some pics once this freeze starts to let up.