He should do what I did when, long story short, my '5.0 Mercruiser engine had an issue in my 22' Sea Ray. I tried to have my local performance engine shop do some machine work on it and that wasn't going to happen until the boating season was over. He said "Mike I was just down at Summit Racing and sitting there for $2300 was a BRAND NEW GM Goodwrench 5.7/350 crate motor and for a few more bucks for a Melling new camshaft and some brass freeze plugs you will have a NEW motor. Plus there no telling what you get when you buy a used block or motor especially if it's out of another old boat. Go to Summit and buy a new GM Goodwrench 350 crate motor and change the cam and freeze plugs and use the boat intake manifold, fuel pump (I bought a new marine fuel pump) and use all of the other boat specific components. I picked up 65 hp too going to the 5.7.
Mike
I was the Crownline factory local dealership for years. In my humble opinion, a 5.0 is just a little too small for most 22 footers. Might be okay in some models and in some applications, but in most cases like the 102" beam 225 Crownline, a 305 wasn't enough. But I have seen Crownline 225 Cuddies with 4 cylinders in them. I was shocked the first time I seen one going down the line and asked them what on earth they were thinking selling that combo. They were going to Germany where the boats just idle along in the canals. In that application, 140HP was enough.
I sold several 225 Crownlines with Merc's 502 Mag EFI. Lost a few camshafts and has to replace the engines. Typical GM big block crap. But when they had all 16 lobes on the cam, they were FUN!
And I ordered 6 182s with the OMC Cobra Ford 5.0 EFI. Basically the Mustang engine. I had to order 6 for Crownline to mess with the USCG certification. Those were fun little boats. After that initial batch, I always kept one or two V-8 182s on hand and I suggested that anyone wanting to load the 182 with friends and family or were going to pull skiers and toys to go with the V-8. With the right prop, they would come out of the hole hard enough that they felt like they bounced when the bow hit the water. And that V-8 was much, much smoother than that 4.3 V-6 GM. The 182 Crownline with the Cobra 5.0 EFI is hands down my favorite bow rider EVER!
And that Ford was far more durable than the big block shivvies. The only Fords I ever changed were due to freeze damage. I don't remember a single internal failure. Unlike the shivvies.
