Carver Owners Forum

Hey everyone

First post here.

This is my second carver. I inherited a 91 355 Aft Cabin from my brother in law who passed away a year ago.

Short version, a belt snapped when he was underway and didn’t catch it until too late and overheated and blew the port engine.

He used to build race engines, so he bought a complete replacement engine to install himself. We removed the old engine and I have an engine to install. Problem is, I don’t have his skills or talent, so I need someone to do this for me.

Any ballpark on how much this would cost?

This is not helpful for you I know, but I know we probably all would love you to chronicle it with pics or video. It’s going to be really interesting for whoever does it.

YES, VicB is bang on. Jasonm71 please take photos on how this is done. I was told by the current owner of a 355 you take the side windows out? Of course take all the fittings, manifolds etc off the engine. Pull the window? Have the boat hauled? crane through the window... remove and replace... back in the water and put it all back together.
Sounds like FUN? How much is a rebuilt 454? I see Mercruiser has about $7000 us on their site. So about 10 grand Canadian. There must be better choices than this. I am from around the Vancouver area. (go Canucks)

I have done this on our boat. I completely stripped the engine down to the bare block but left the intake manifold on while the engine was in its mounts. After that, we had a small crane come through the side window to lift it out of the compartment and set it on the salon floor, directly in front of the main cabin door. I then removed the main cabin door and the Crain came in from the stern and lifted the block out through the main cabin entrance. There was about 1/2” clearance on both sides, very snug fit. I brought the Crusader block to my local engine remanufacturer and had them remanufacture my block for $3,500 U.S.

Good luck!

Do a YouTube search on carver engine replace. You will find 4 or more videos from a guy that has done it and shows how. Its not a easy or fun job but it can be done. If you dont have the skill or comfort level to do it yourself then you have no choice but to hire it done and thats going to cost you... You may get lucky and find someone locally that will do it for a bargain price but remember that most of the time "you get what you pay for". Ask around locally and maybe you can find that "old retired mechanic guy" that will do it during the off-season and not charge you a arm and leg?