Repower with longer shaft Motor?

[SBH2OMan]

This motor has run great for 1,000 hours, but I'm looking at a very good price on a brand new Honda 250 that happens to be a 30" shaft (excess dealer inventory). Dealer says he can put an adapter plate so that the prop would be in the same spot, but the power head would be up 5" which honestly seems like a good idea based on where this thing rides because of the bracket.

Am I over-looking some issue that would be caused by using a 30" shaft engine on a bracket designed for a 25" shaft? One of the problems we have with the current setup is that when at rest with the engine off, swell can and will splash up into the exhaust ports, so we always try to remember to tilt the motor up when drift fishing or at anchor.

The other thing is that when stopping suddenly, water will wash up onto the back of the engine cowl. You can also see that until she's completely up on plane, there is a lot of water around the powerhead.

Thoughts?

 

[SBH2OMan]

I should add that part of the plan may (likely) include a new Armstrong bracket with more flotation. The idea being that we'd have the bracket designed for a 30" shaft motor which would maintain the prop in the correct position but bring the powerhead up out of the water while underway at sub-planing speeds.

Very curious if anyone has experience with trying to fit a 30" shaft motor to an older style Parker with the Stainless Marine engine bracket like the one we have,..

 

[Brent]

I would ask Armstrong, too

 

[SBH2OMan]

Armstrong wasn't very helpful - they just sent me a spec sheet to fill out with all the measurements and told me they'd talk to me once I did that.