Phantman:
From my experience, it's the drive trains that give most of the
problems. Not the engines.

On Thu, 29 Nov 07, Tim wrote:
I didn't have any problems with my alph1 on the boat with the 3.0,
that is, until I hit a stump.

I've had only one pair (twins) of Mercruisers and I can't recall
specifically now what all went wrong (although I prolly still have the
file here somewhere). But it just seems there was always some seal or
boot or some such going bad which allowed salt water where it wasn't
supposed to be and that's when things would go to hell in a hand
basket. These were 4 cyl engines, 120hp each if I recall. They got
great mileage. But when those drive units aged, it was always
something.

Anyhow, on the Mercruisers, I would suppose due to popularity, they're
are quality after market parts on the market, so even if a person had
to replace the whole leg, it's still not a real kick in the wallet.

Yup. Point well taken.

Rick