Changing From Gas To Diesel

[Muscongus]

I'm going to be replacing an Atomic 4 with a Yanmar 8HP diesel motor this winter.

I've got everything from the boat the yanmar came out of and intend to install it on my Catalina 27. I've just received the Catalina and the A4 needs to be replaced. the previous owner started that it had pulled in sea water and that he let it sit for a few years....

The yanmar was rebuilt in 2011 and had about 100 hours on it. It came out of a Hunter 27.

So my questions are many. I've never done this before, though I'm fairly mechanically inclined, and I want to not miss any steps not do I want to not do something that should be done during this process.

I'm thinking of sound proofing, shaft angle, mounting the motor, vibration issues - you know - all that stuff.

I'm certain there are a thousand things that should be considered. I'm also sure that there are methods and things I should look out for.

Basically, I'm looking for advice from people that have done this type of thing.

Thanks,

Dan

[rocksculpter]

Since the Yanmar is smaller you should have plenty of room to work with. One thing I would reccomend is to center the shaft in the cutless and secure it there. You can do that by pulling up, down and side to side and find center of the movement. With any luck you should be able to center the mounts on the engine and put in the engine in place and manuever (shim) to align so you know where your mounts need to be. I found that trying to do this by calculation doesn't translate to reality.
Consider a flex joint on the transmission like come standard on the Beta. The Yanmars move around a lot. Personally I went to a two piece driveline but that's a whole big subject in itself. Another suggestion would be to go to a dripless seal like Lasdrop or PSS because they are more forgiving to alignment problems. Hopefully the length of the shaft you have will work out with where you mount the engine.
I believe you may be able to google the mounting patterns for your conversion. I've seen some that are able to use the existing mounting bed by modifying the engine mount to reach there.
Big project, good luck.