1973 Aluminum Houseboat Repower

This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 5 months ago by Tony Athens.

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December 3, 2023 at 6:18 pm #156951

Jamie Alberts
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Vessel Name: Destiny
Country: USA

Hello All! I’ve been preparing this post for about 2 years now. I have a 50 foot 1973 Pluckebaum Houseboat. I am repowering from the current twin Marine Power 454s (Late 70’s) mated to Velvet Drive V-drives with 3.14 reduction. This specific vdrive model have been out of production for a long time. As you see from the photos of the boat, it is an all aluminum hull and superstructure. It is s single level and has decent head clearance in the engine room.

I am repowering Deere 6068tfm01 220 HP motors. I have twin ZF 63IV 2.5 gears that I want to install in a remote mounted style (Thanks to Tony Athens for the inspiration).

So why the post… Well I have some questions about what components to use and the design is based of a lot of the repowers Tony has performed on this page.

Engine Mounts: SMX Purple with 65 Durometer (4 per motor). Is this the correct mount and durometer for my configuration?

Transmission Mounts: Based on the other SBMAR installs I’ve reviewed I believe it is best to have 4 mounts per vdrive. Which mounts would I go with for this remote vdrive setup?

Flywheel Torsional Coupler: As the driveshaft will sit between the flywheel and the vdrive, is there a specific torsional coupler I should use for my application? The Flywheel is an SAE 11.5.

Vdrive Input Shaft Driveshaft Coupler: This has been the most confusing part for me on the design. Is there a specific coupler that is used to attached the driveshaft to the input spline on the Vdrive? Do you use the slip yoke of a u-joint?

Driveshaft: From the tip of the vdrive input spline to the edge of the flywheel housing there is 24.5″ of clearance. If I need more clearance I believe I can slide my engines further aft at least 6 inches more if I adjust my steering setup.

Attached are photos of the boat, the engine bay, and my attempt at a scaled drawing. I am an IT guy by trade so please forgive the crap quality of the schematic. Also, the engine bay photos are of when I took ownership a few years ago and are full of junk. It has since been cleaned out of that junk and replaced with my own…
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December 4, 2023 at 5:03 pm #156991

Tony Athens
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Vessel Name: Local Banks
Engines: QSB 6.7 550 HP
Location: Oxnard, CA
Country: USA

Jamie,

This is way too complicated to do this way—You definitely do not want 302IV’s——————–Lets try 15 minutes or so on the phone–Drop me a note at [email protected]–your time zone is?

December 4, 2023 at 11:15 am #156973

Jamie Alberts
Participant
Vessel Name: Destiny
Country: USA

Quick Edit

Although I searched ZF’s solution tool, I see that you have a ZF 302IV that is a 15*. My only concern with that drive is that the width shows 20 inches and my stringers have 19-7/8″ of clearance. However off initial eyeballing, the v-drive mounts would possibly clear the top of the stringers.

December 4, 2023 at 8:54 am #156965
Jamie Alberts
Participant
Vessel Name: Destiny
Country: USA
Tony,

I appreciate the quick response. I’ve been studying those the two posts, “All About Marine Transmission Vdrives” and “Why V-drives, and then again, WHY Remote?” for over a year now. I have studied your repower photos and the photos contained within those posts.

One of the reasons that I have started to look at the remote drive is the shaft angle of the boat. Currently it is a 15* shaft angle and the current Velvet Drives have this exact degree. I haven’t been able to find anything other than a very oversized Twin Disc MG-5075IV that is 15* or a ZF 286IV that is 14*. My concern is that the install angle for anything other than a 15* Vdrive would require the front of the engine to be angled down. Within the Deere manual it states that the motor should not be installed with the front below 0*. I did read a post you had where you remote mounted the heat exchanger for a 6BT I believe to accommodate with a front down angle scenario, but I am not sure that is possible or feasible with the Deere 6068 as the heat exchanger is built into the exhaust manifold.

The current velvet drives are a 1005-000-007 3.14:1 ratio. There are two issues I believe:
1. The transmission is only rated for 185hp at 2800 RPM
2. Both transmissions are gear driven and currently my one 454 is counter rotating. The parts are not available to convert this to a chain driven as the drive was rendered obsolete a long time ago.
So am I against going with directly connected V-drive? Not at all. I assumed I was going to have some fabrication work required of either and I thought the remote solution better suited me.

I will say though, you are the expert on this and I will take all the information you wish to push down to me. I always say you only learn how something works when it breaks or you ask someone else who knows.
December 4, 2023 at 7:15 am #156963

Tony Athens
Moderator
Vessel Name: Local Banks
Engines: QSB 6.7 550 HP
Location: Oxnard, CA
Country: USA

Remote Mounted ZF63/68IV V-drives

Jamie, I must commend you on taking on a project like this, but are you 100% sure you want to “remote mount” the drives?

A job like this in not for the faint of heart or one that does not want to spend not less than an additional $4000 -$5000 on just the equipment needed, plus many many hours custom fabrication work in a shop that knows what they are doing.

In the end, if all is done right, then you will get the advantages a “remote” gear can offer, but you have to balance it all.. Major cost Cost & major time. You have fully studied the two main articles on this web site on v-drives, RIGHT?
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