Carver Owners Forum

So it turns out that our starboard engine requires a new transmission. We have a 1982 Carver Mariner 3396 with two Crusader 350 engines. The ballpark quote for replacing with a rebuilt tranny is $10K. Reasonable???? Next question would be can they be re-engined with smaller engine as we don't ever go on plane and most of our anchorages are within 2 - 3 hours of cruising time from dock??? If so what might you consider????? We are hoping to boat for another 10 - 20 years, love the layout of our boat, but concerned about the cost. Should we repair, reengine or replace. Replacing would mean selling ours at a "fire" sell price and purchase something 15 - 20 years newer. Hope that I made sense here|

Here is a link to to a fuel flow calculator for some different engines, give you some comparison info. In my opinion if you underpower the boat with too small an engine for fuel considerations , it may become hard to sell if that were to come up, sometimes life interferes and plans change.

http://www.boat-fuel-economy.com/fuel-c ... calculator

If the transmission is bad, you have to replace that either way.
The only thing you could really do is drop to 305's (5.0 liters). If you do that you would need to change props also. If you use the same props with lower output motors, you will "lug" them and use more fuel than with your 350's. If you go with fuel injected 305's you would most likely be about the same out put as your 350's so you could keep the same props.
So do you replace a transmission for 6-10k, or replace two engines one transmission for around 30k?

If your engines are fine, find someone to rebuild the trans. 4-5k.

Here's my observation on fuel burn: Three boats, all in the neighborhood of 20,000lbs.
1989 4207 w/330hp mercs
1987 3696 w/350hp Crusaders
46' Cougar, total 2700hp.

St Joe to Chicago, putz around, maybe go in the locks, and back to St Joe:
4207 - 6 hours, 180 gal of fuel
3696 - 4 hours, 160 gal of fuel
Cougar - 1 hour, 180 gal of fuel.

To move 20,000 lbs of boat 80 miles takes about the same amount of fuel burn. Hull and engine efficiency play a roll, but not much. The work done is 1,600,000 mile pounds. I know, no such measurement exists, call it Fred'sTheorum, but my point is x to x uses x amount of fuel, more or less, at cruise speed

Just one is way more fun, load, and fast.

Wow, 10K for a rebuilt transmission seems like a lot. Maybe prices in Canada are much more than here. I had my port transmission rebuilt last year for a little over $2300.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm not a big fan of commenting on costs site unseen as there are way too many variables affecting the outcome, however, $10k does seem steep. What does this include? Are they removing the engine, haul out block and launch? What are they charging you for the transmission?

I'm assuming you have v-drives, if so, what kind, are they separate from the engine? Or do you have a straight shaft out application?

Get the numbers off the transmission, there should be a plaque on it. Write down your engine serial number too, and call Anthony Keates Marine in Wheatly Ontario. You can have the marina remove the transmission, you ship it to Keates yourself and have them assess, rebuild or replace. Where in Manitoba are you? There may be opportunities/suppliers across the boarder worth exploring too if you're close and can pick up yourself. In other words, you supply the marina with the replacement so you're not paying their full markup.

http://www.anthonykeatsmarine.com/

I should also add that when I had my transmission rebuilt they had to pull the engine to get to the transmission so I think that in my case the cost of the repair was very reasonable.

The price that I received for my Baja transmission was $900 to rebuild, $1,500 to R&R, $2,400 total. Pretty close to RGrew's price. There is a bit of a hike from the exchange rate, but I would tend to think you should still be under $5k. Haul out, mooring, launch, etc. could add to the cost, I didn't have to worry about that, I was rack stored. Never had to do the trans, but got prices before I bought the boat. It was 20+ years old, and had almost 1,000 hours on it when I bought it.