Hi Adam,
Well I just got off the phone with Doug Russell Marine Parts.
The parts guy told me that the manifolds are now available again. $1000 for a set. but NO riser elbows (his words)
The coupler, "maybe, but not now and didn't know when". He said BRP is going to have a source "eventually". He also said "most" of the parts are available for the drive (EXCEPT GEARS)
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It slipped out of gear right at the end of his trip(split gear opened up on the driveshaft spline)
This happened because the lower shift cable was either defective or out of adjustment. A VERY common problem for all dog-clutch Cobras.
When they get out of adjustment it takes VERY little time to break the "dog-clutch" and by the time you figure it out it's broke.
Read the following
http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/Quote:
but I can't imagine that that 460/OMC King Cobra are all terrible.
Well probably not.....Mine went nearly 20 years with little problems.
But, go to iBoats into the I/O forum .....Or to Offshoreonly.com and pose the same question. iBoats has a large amount of professional mechanics that work on stern drives for a living......try to ignore their sarcasm (sorry) and you'll get the most accurate responses from their point of view. Most of them will tell you that they don't want to work on any Dog-clutch Cobra or any Pre-Volvo Penta Cobra.
The 460 is not a bad engine but with some parts being not easily available, it makes it a real problem.
Case in point, I sold my OMC 460 aluminum flywheel cover to a shop in SOCAL recently. His customer has a 88 26ft Bayliner with an OMC 460KC in it.
On the way back from Catalina Island, the coupler literally exploded. It destroyed the flywheel housing and damaged the transom plate and gimbal mount.
He told me that the transom plates are available used on ebay etc, as are fair condition, gimbal mounts...... The flywheel cover is not available from anyone period anywhere except from another salvaged boat. Without the flywheel cover the boat is done. Being an 88 it was not worth repowering with a new Merc/Volvo bigblock sterndrive. The insurance company refused to cover it because they said the coupler failure was a maintenance issue.
Another example,
I sold the exhaust Y-pipe to a guy in FL. His customer (actually his friend that had his boat at a shop) was told that his 88 460 KC y-pipe was so corroded that it started leaking. (A leaking Y-pipe will SINK THE BOAT!!)
He was told by the shop that they could not find one at all (maybe they didn't look very hard) ....... again his only source for a Y-pipe would be from another used boat. If it was a salt water boat, the replacement might be worse. (Mine was a fresh water Y-pipe with no corrosion as well as the transom plate and gimbal mount.....he bought it all from me)
Again another show-stopper part.
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Can I throw a Bravo III on that 460 motor if its still strong?
In a word, NO. There's no transom shield for any Mercruiser to bolt to a 460.
And you wouldn't want to . NO ONE uses Ford marine engines anymore in stern drives. Zip, Zero, NADA.
I suppose you could put together a "Franken Boat" with a LOT of money and exotic machine work.....but it simply wouldn't be worth it.
There so many 454/502/496 engines out there that will bolt directly to Mercruisers and Volvos that it's just simpler to do it that way.
I paid my brother $5000 for my Lib. I was able to remove the OMC "Boat Anchor" and replace it with the Merc engine/drive for about $6000.
So far I have gotten about $1500 for all the 460/KC stuff. I still have the vertical drive, trim cyls, pump, power steering stuff, good manifolds and risers to sell....
I paid $3-5K less for the Merc engine/drive than I would have gotten it from a local dealer and because I did all the work myself I saved another $2-3K.
It was a fun project....But with so many boats out there for sale in this economy that have Volvo/Merc engine-drives in them that are much newer.....
I think if I had to do it again, I would find a much newer boat with a more modern engine/drive in it.
If I found a 241 (and I really do like the 241!) with a 460/KC in it, I don't think I would offer more than about $3000 for it.....Then I would get a new/old-stock 496/Bravo III to go in it....(but only after I checked for transom/stringer/floor rot)
Good luck......
Rick