I have a 1993 Baja islander that came with a 4.3 mercruiser . This boat has the option of getting a 5.0 l mercruiser. I am looking to convert to a. 5.0 l however my mechanic says it won’t exactly fit with current configuration . It’s about 3/4 inches to long and hits the bench seat. It appears we will need to move the bench forward and then customize the engine cover to make it a little longer . Does anyone know anything about this and if the Baja 180 islander with the 5.0 had the bench seat up more than with the 4.3.

Thank you both for your ideas. My mechanic had a new 5.0 he just pulled from a boat that literally has only 20 hours . That owner wasn’t happy with performance and wanted the 5.7.
so I can get this block super reasonable.
prochadger would be great too!
Struggling to put 7k plus into the boat when it’s really only worlth maybe 7 to 8 k !!

7k for a 5.0 is pretty steep. Any pics of current set up, they had a few variations over the years.