I am going to be switching from using the water pump in my sterndrive to running one from the crank.

From what I can see, there are two different types of pickups I can use. Either the clamshell type that goes into the bottom of the hull or one the goes into the transom and protrudes down into the water a bit.

I am not big on drilling into the transom, but find it hard to believe that it is ok just to drill a large hole into the bottom of my boat to install the clamshell type.

I see from my research that there are a million of each type installed and never really read any problems about either.

Can anybody on here talk about the pros and cons of each type?

If everything else is equal, I would choose to drill through the bottom of the hull if that does not have any bad side effects. Just seems counter intuative......I mean, heck, I wax the bottom of my boat hoping to go faster and now I am going to install one of those ugly brass things down there? Yes, I am over thinking this a little.

Thanks for the advice.

Performance boats use transom mounted pick ups. You can adjust the depth as needed.