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1979 Wellcraft 250 XL

Old 10-04-2025 | 09:48 AM
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That is some impressive work
love the older boats
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Old 10-04-2025 | 10:52 AM
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Originally Posted by powerboatr
That is some impressive work
love the older boats
Thank you! I agree, nothing beats the lines of these older boats
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Old 11-08-2025 | 07:02 AM
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Got 2 layers of glass down on the other half of the bottom and got the transom wood in. For that I first laid up 4 layers of glass on the boat, then mixed up some resin with cabosil to thicken it up and applied that to the wood. Then squished/clamped/screwed it together everywhere I could.







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Old 11-18-2025 | 04:28 AM
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Transom is glassed in! Also glassed the hull to deck joint together in the back.


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Old 12-31-2025 | 03:44 AM
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Drive holes cut and drilled, engine stinger grid made up, and engines set down!






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Old 01-02-2026 | 03:53 AM
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These were originally volvo penta engines and I have been having a bit if a hard time getting them set up for the pre alpha mercruiser drives. I had 1 pre alpha and 1 gen 1 alpha 1 bellhousing that I thought were the same so I installed both, turns out the mounting holes to the transom assembly are different. Got another pre alpha bellhousing to fix that issue. Then I ordered an alpha 1 gen 1 coupler because the pre alpha couplers that I had bolt directly to the crankshaft bolt pattern did not line up. Turns out volvo Penta used the smaller 12 3/4" flywheel vs. The 14" mercruiser uses. Out of frustration i cut and redrilled the gen 1 coupler to fit the volvo penta flywheel only to find the bellhousing has 2 dimples in it that hit the coupler. Angle grinder fixed that issue, will probably weld some patch plates in when i pull the motors to glass the stringers in. I have now found that mercruiser used the 12 3/4" flywheel on some 4 cylinder engines so plan on ordering a coupler made for that.



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Old 01-04-2026 | 04:08 AM
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Made some battery trays and got most of the wiring done on the port motor. It turns over with the key and guages are functioning.



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Old 01-04-2026 | 10:47 AM
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I am not a Merc guy but I noticed you have the Volvo crank mounted water pump are you going to use them ? Don’t the Merc legs have water pump impellers in them, normally vp legs don’t have those, probably ok to use both?
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Old 01-04-2026 | 10:52 AM
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Really nice work, I am doing a 1977 30ft scarab, did transome and stringers(kinda), switched from trs and merc2 to Volvo dp drives. Mine came with Sbc too, doing 383, I am super impressed with how quickly you have done all this work, I am on year 5 but first motor is ready and second going to machine shop in February.
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Old 01-04-2026 | 11:03 AM
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Originally Posted by 496blower
I am not a Merc guy but I noticed you have the Volvo crank mounted water pump are you going to use them ? Don’t the Merc legs have water pump impellers in them, normally vp legs don’t have those, probably ok to use both?
I actually plan on using the volvo crank mounted pumps and removing the impellers from the alpha drives. Not exactly sure how that is going to work, but as of now that is my plan. I figure I'll save some strain on the drives and make impeller change much easier.
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