Engine's; gas, diesel & other exotic thoughts.....

greetings flush deck, and trunk cabin owner, alike! i of late, have been reading with much interest; every inch of print, and perusing every picture (tips ball-hat to Capt. Michael D.), on this re-powering issue. i you see, have only an outboard well in the "BB 54". and though as i have posted recently to this fine group; i had a 4 banger marine kubota diesel virtually fall into my lap for embarrassingly nothing a month ago. i do have a problem with the thing that has given me much pause; very much pause. Oh, it's not the installation of an engine where there was none before. marine engine's are not a problem in and of themselves to me; the last one i owned (in company with my Brother) weighed in at just over 35,000 Lb's. at least the last diesel i owned. no, the problem as i see it is just exactly where i should put the thing? to start with, i wasn't even looking for a diesel as i knew my money would never stretch that far. i was just fine with a small gas engine; a modern fuel-injected 3 or 4 cylinder job. or if i couldn't get one of those, one of the "Honda" water cooled two cylinder engines they are using for their new line of 5 & 6 KW gen-sets. it was me feeling that one those could be easily set in a re-designed lazerat that used a 6" hi performance automotive radiator fan on a electronic speed-control for air flow. and a closed system heat-exchanger for block cooling. a bank of 4 standard 140 amp 12-volt self-reg alternators for all the electrical power one could possibly need (one per battery). direct-coupled to the engine would be a hydraulic pump using veggy oil. and cooled with sea-water. the prop would be driven with a hydraulic pump/motor. the reverse gear is simply a valve-block. i could even put the motor and prop in the blade of the rudder should i wish to. the Honda gas engine does not bother me, especially if placed in the lazerat where it can be isolated from the rest of the boat and well ventilated. but that location is also a good place as i look at the profile of a Cal-28; for my kubota diesel. it's only 26" long with reverse gear by 24" high & 16" wide. and weighs in at less than 200 Lb's. but too, there is another option, how about up under the "V" birth where the suck-ass fiberglass water-tank is? that damn thing just has to come out anyway, and it weighs more than the kubota. and when the engine is running and everyone is out on deck, the engine is at the other end of the boat under a thick hunk of foam..... can anyone say "quite". the other thing i think i have discovered is that "Kubota" doesn't make a "Marine" diesel. other people like "Bata" take Kubota diesel's and add marine manifolds to them and a second pump for saltwater, and a reverse gear.. and now you got a marine diesel. there are several people doing this to Kubota's i find. it's a very good diesel in the way that it's combustion chamber is built. more power in a smaller space. then the is the sound isolation mounts, and rubber coupling. no matter where i mount my kubota; i will have room for a jack shaft. that is a shaft with a couplings at both ends. and both of those couplings will be "Dodge Para-Flex" with "taper-locks". of course that means that the prop-shaft will need it's own thrust-bearing, but when one is dealing with such small HP and torque requirements, these bearing can be had over the counter for cheap. and the sound deadening is more than worth it. especially when i can go down to my local marine surplus and by a "like-new" 3/4" or 1" SS shaft and wheel of my chose for a "C" note or so to fit my boat. and the jack shaft just needs to be cold-rolled steel shafting that i can paint. anyway, these are a few of my thoughts on engines and placement there-of. for what it's worth. should anyone want to see what is commonly know as a "Dodge coupling catalog", or even download the same. it is a wealth of engineering information, and an industry bible for decades. it was big city phone-book size before computers. just e-mail me privately...... fiver, Master of The "BB-54" one of the famous Cal-28 flush-decks, out of Sierra-5, Papa Hotel (in days gone by) now resting outside my shop, Federal Way, Wa. (built like a Battleship; sails like a Sub......)