460 Commanders to a Bravo drive?
 

Anyone ever heard of Commander Marine Engines? I know of a pair of 460's for sale that I might buy for a project. The motors have Velvet drives on them as they came out of an inboard cruiser. What are the chances that I could remove the Velvet drives, add bellhousings and mate them to a Mercrusier bravo drive transom assembly?

Thoughts other than I'm crazy are appreciated.

omc used ford 460s with their king cobra outdrives.if you got the coupler they used it should bolt up to their ford flywheel,then get a bravo bellhousing and you should be golden.

Yes Commander was installed in alot of inboard ski boats more so than cruiser apps thru out the 80's and very early 90's. What I remember the most was about the 5.8 having warped heads and exhaust manifolds flange area alot. But alot of that basically was from owners not keeping up with their cooling systems.

if they are in fact 460 fords, they work better on the other end of the boat...

The Ford to Bravo Bellhousing is going to be the tough part. I know a guy that redrills Chevy bellhousings for big block Mopars, but not Fords.

murfman,you are correct.maybe the omc bell housing could be altered to work.i think it will work if he uses a omc inner transom plate,i am pretty sure the bolt holes are the same as a bravo transom assembly.

Just adding info on top of - OMC cobra transom assembly will not cross over / install conversion over to a Mercruiser Bravo transom assembly. The cutout is different

Unless the 460's are free you will probably be ahead of the game if you just look for and buy a Chevy engine.. Don't buy the 460's to couple to a Bravo unless you are a glutton for punishment ...my opinion

BBF and SBF the same bellhousing?? The merc188 was popular centuries ago, its a 302 ford

I don't know or care much about difference between bellhousings on big and small ford.But..I am pretty sure back when Merc did use fords (I think 76 or so was last year)the bellhousing to transom plate mounts had a different spacing than any of the newer stuff

john,are you sure.i was thinking the king cobra was like a bravo.

Like was said before, unless you are a glutton for punishment, run away fast and don't look back. If you could get them for free, turn them around to a car guy that likes BBF's. There are a lot of jet boat guys that run the 460's. Just a thought.

If they are later flat top forged piston 460s , they have some value. 8to1 base motors ,not sure i would take them for free. Even if i had the room . And the base 460s wont have the nads on the top end a base 454 will have .
Even if you get it in there i want to see you obtain 2 raw pump assemblies that you can live with.

I say go for it! I'm building 2 small block Mopars myself, dare to be different. As for raw water pumps. I made adapters to use crank mounted pumps. It just takes a little ingenuity.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...pshileqxb2.jpg

Actually TCI makes a BBF to Chevy trans adapter that should work

http://news.compperformance.com/Instructions/529700.pdf

Dont know diddly about the commanders, but have been through 460's
the forged piaton 460s with a real carb are suprising.and can be had cheaper than a 454 mag.
The diahed piston 460 is going to deliver about the same top speed as a decent vortec 5.7. And those are really cheap. And bolt right up to a bravo.

The old elusive volvo penta high compression 460s with pcm style risers and the holley 750 vac secondary carb were actually quite impressive . But im just flat out not big on the ford thing

Mike I do know 4 sure about the Cobra but not sure about the King Cobra crossing over to a Bravo. I will have to look that one up. I hate to be stumped but will find out 100 %.

Nope totally different bolt patterns.

they are cheaper for a reason...

Since most of you here don't like Fords then I wont go into detail here as to why, but im a huge BBF guy here and having just went through a 20,000 dollar BBC build for my boat just made me realize how many advantages the 460 has over the 454.. Oh well it is what it is. The only thing left of my build that is a GM part is the 502 block I started with.. to bad I was limited to about 540 inches... a Stock Ford block would have been good for over 600

Once you get past the cost of the rotating assy and supporting aftermarket heads,the bbf does indeed make a worthy stroker. And they are a little lighter and more compact.
It was the only way to get 540 inches in a cps20. But the headers cost 7k.
dont see all that happening for the op, i think he is trying to find a way to put 600hp or so into a couple of bravos on the cheap.

trying to figure out what you are saying ..Sounds like you are saying you put Ford internals in and heads on a 502 GM???Please elaborate. And Why?.

No fe is just stating that to build a solid BBC you have to replace everything. I feel the same way but prefer Mopar engines.

If it was not a clearance issue , and a jet boat app the 650 horse from the stroker ford motor would of been about 15k less. Thats real money. Its just because there is more availible for the most popular ,most embraced marine app. Everybody else has tried it but only one big block got it done consistantly

Sunday afternoon cocktails and I missed the bbc part .I thought he was saying bbf......But the drinks were good..QUOTE=murfman;4394677]No fe is just stating that to build a solid BBC you have to replace everything. I feel the same way but prefer Mopar engines.[/QUOTE]