Cutting the engine room liner.

I made a template of my motor with the mounts attached so I could use that to see how high or low I needed to raise the engine bed. (You know the part that the engine bolts to. Patty B. that was for you!)

You can see the engine mounts under the wood and the wooden dowel is the center line of the transmission. That is where the propeller shaft and the engine need to line up. The engine and the propeller shaft need to be within thousands of an inch to be done correctly. This will keep the engine vibrations down to a minimum. (I want smooooth sailing, uh ok motoring also.)

I took it to the boat and give it a try figuring the difference would not be to much.

Yeah, no. I will have to move the engine forward and down about two inches. The engine mounts are at the bottom of their travel so they will not go any lower.Mmmmm what to do? I figure I will try and cut out just the sides to see if that would at least give me more room to move the engine back to line up with the shaft. It can't hurt I have to lower the engine somehow.

 

No luck, you can see I still have a ways to go down.

What's next...major surgery of course! I measure how low I need to go and then add some to that just in case. I made a ton of fiberglass dust cutting the fiberglass with a 4" grinder and a sawsall. I had on a good respirator and a long sleeve shirt and a hat to keep the "pricklies" down to a minimum. After the dust settled this is what I have left of the pan. Why, you ask, don't I just cut out the whole pan? Well I really want a pan to catch any oil drips from the engine. That way it keeps it out of the bilge and out of the ocean. ($$$ in fines!) I thought you would see it my way.
Here is what was left.

Sorry the picture is a little "cloudy". I guess the air had not yet cleared.

I then proceed to make new "beds" for the mounts to mount on. Here is what they look like.

I still need to cut off the fiberglass that is on the sides in the lower part of the picture. I will take the new beds home and fiberglass them with cloth. I'll bring them back and then fiberglass then to the boat and to the pan. I used 3/4" plywood for these beds. The ones I cut out were 1/2" plywood. I think this would be better plus the new engine weights about 100 pounds less than the old one. So I should be good.

Here is the engine mock up sitting on the "new" pan tops. They have not been glassed in yet. Still just test fitting.  I still do not like the finial location of the engine as it is really close to the forward bulkhead. But you can see the shafts lined up nice! I still have some tweaking to do to get it in it's final location. That will have to wait for next weekend.