Review on SAEJ1171 Replacement Starter for 1996-2007 Mercruiser & Volvo Penta V6 V8 Engines - OEM Delco Mando 863007A1 50-863007A1 Arco 30433 ARC30433 57-30433 3660566-3 3857747 3860566 3860566-3 3885317 30460 by Derick Carpenter

I have a 1998 boat with a V8 5.0L Mercruiser I/O with carburetor. My existing starter has a bottom bracket with a staggered bolt pattern. This replacement starter is much smaller than the one I took out. However, the hole pattern matches and measurements from the bolt mounting flange and the front mating surface of the block show that the pinion and sprocket are in the correct position - as is the larger starter I took out. The only thing that doesn't match is the length of the bolt housings - they're about 5/16 shorter on this new starter - meaning I was concerned the mounting bolts would be too long and not hold the starter securely. So I bought a bolt-on spacer (a couple of washers would work too, but the stock collar from the hardware store worked fine, was about 1/4" thick and solid - you could have bought shorter bolts, but stock bolts). very durable so I wanted to use them). I called the local boat dealer and the one they had in stock was a $257 Mercruiser. So I installed this one and it seemed to work fine. I can most likely restore my old one in place so I have a larger one available in case something goes wrong. The 3 stars actually mean it was the size of the diff and I had to take a few extra steps to make it work. The workmanship was excellent, made in China by the piece. Fast shipping from seller