Tom,
The Vetus motor mounts do have the same hole spacing as the OEM mounts, but one hole on each of the mounts need to be elongated to allow for adjustment. There are a number of discussions about this topic on the old message board:
[url]http://catalina36.org/eve/forums?a=search&reqWords=motor+mounts[/url]
You may be able to get away with dripping some epoxy down the stripped holes, but a better option (and more work) would be to lift the engine up, fill the holes with thickened epoxy, and re-drill them. I've never heard of any way to drill new holes with the engine in place. Hope this helps.

Tom is right about lifting the engine up and working on it that way. If your on the hard you can use the boom to lift it as I have in the past. But you need a brace from the boom to the cockpit floor. If your good at doing such things and able to do fiberglass work. I have thought about cutting into the bed and inserting a threaded stainless steel plate then glassing back over it. Making it so it would never fail again. Just my point of view. Randy

Randy - When I installed the Vetus K-75's on my C34, I had to re-drill about three holes. The diesel mechanic gave me a tip to fill the old holes with a dowel & epoxy. We aligned the engine, marked the new hole positions, then I spun the mounts 90 degrees and drilled with a Ryobi 90 degree drill. It just cleared the engine. You probably have a lot better access on a C36.

The Vetus mounts don't have a lot of side to side adjustment, but they're worth the effort to install.

re: Ryobi drill, no project is worth doing if you can't justify a new tool. A 90 degree drill is just about a must-have for a boat owner.

Craig

Tom, if I understand you correctly, I think your idea could be described as an "adapter plate", that transfers the mount-to-engine-bed load to lag screws that are biting at a new location into fresh wood. Seems to me like it would work.

The weight of the engine holds the mounts down. The prop shaft and couplers keep the engine from mvoing fore and aft. The lag bolts are essentially in shear. What we did recently was to remove the loose lag bolts (3 of 8), and insert a stack of toothpicks into the hole followed with silicone sealant. We let it set for a half hour and then replaced the lag bolts. They haven't moved since. It's a bear to move the engine and is unnecessary. The 90 degree tools are pretty expensive. We had the silicone on board already and the lag bolts were there, too.:)

Stu

The old toothpick repair (indian trick #47) I have used this technique on occasion with stripped screws in wood. What you have done may very well solve your problem if the lag bolt was over torqued and stripped the wood in the engine log. If the log has deteriorated due to water damage your fix could be quite temporary.

As for gravity holding the engine in place, with the engine not running and the boat level. With the engine running this is not true. The torque of the engine tends to lift the engine off of one side or the other depending on forward or reverse is selected. Also if you take a hard knock down I doubt you would want the engine to be flying about loose in the galley and ripping the shaft out of the boat, gravity works a bit differnt when you are lying on your side.

If the engine log has suffered some rot, you would be better off drilling out the damaged wood and filling it with epoxy. I did this on my last boat and actually epoxied stainless nuts in the holes using a mold release agent on the bolt threads and shank so it could be removed after the epoxy sets. I made sure I got to dry wood, augered out the hole so the plug would be larger at the bottom than the top so it would not pull out.

An easy way to lift the engine if deemed necessary is to place a 4x4 across the companionway above the engine and put a chain around it. Hook a comealong onto the chain and away you go, in the water or on the hard.
You can lift the engine high enough to easily change the engine mounts.
Been there, done that.
Same problem occoured on our boat mk2 1437 1995.
Wilf

Tom

Unless you have a solid boom vang I would tell Santa to save his money on the come along and bring you the new mounts.

I took off my boom vang, attached it to the boom, attached my mainsail halyard to that and tightened it.
The boom vang worked great to reinstall my engine, the jamb cleat worked well when I wanted to stop the progress. I would tie off the sheet end and not trust the jamb cleat if you are going to work under the engine.