Engine Mounts

[zsuprausa]

I have been looking at all the stringer posts and started looking more closely at my boat (91 Marauder). I am the second owner and the original owner said the boat was all original. I was checking the stringers and floors and they seem fine. My boat has about 350 hours on it and had been stored inside. However, there is a thick rectangular piece of fiberglass that sits on top of the stringer on each side that is roughly the same length as the motor. The motor mounts attach to these for the vertical screws and into the side of the stringer on the horizontal screws. My boat has the PCM 454. My guess is this is a spacer that is there for alignment or was a fix for the stringers (hope not). I am curious since I have not seen these pieces in anyones rebuild pictures. Boat runs great. No vibrations or odd wear on any of the running gear. Can anyone confirm what these pieces are.

[jet]

You have some pictures?

[Okie Boarder]

Yeah, post some pictures. It may have been to shim up the engine or give it more support. It could also be something the PO did...ya never know.

[zsuprausa]

Next time I take the boat out I will take a picture. I am leaning towards it came that way from the factory. If someone had tried to reinforce the stringer after the fact their would be 2 empty holes for the horizantal bolts since the mounts sit on top of the piece which would have moved the lower horizantal bolts up by the depth of the fiberglass piece.

[sybrmike]

My 89 Saltare originallyt had 1/2" plywood pads glassed in under the front engine (454) mounts from the factory. Figured they were there to add more angle to the engine, so put em back in during the rebuild.

[sybrmike]

Here's a pic. You can see the pads on the front mounts only.

[Okie Boarder]

It looks like they were always that way, but it's hard to say for sure. I'd document where they are dimensionally and then try to figure out if they were like that from factory when you take the stringers out. You might just consider making the stringers match where the mounts were sitting for proper alignment or at least get it close and fine tune it with your mount adjusters.

[riveredge]

My stringers (89 Bravura) look like they have "pads" there, too, in the front only. Definitely factory, underneath the factory fiberglass and paint. I know the only other owner of my boat and he never did anything like shimming the front motor mounts. Must have been some weird thing they did in the factory, it's amazing the crap you find when you start taking boats apart. I found a 3" sheetrock screw sticking 2" out of the bottom of an aluminum floor panel on a 2003 Mastercraft last summer. WTF?!