My personal Catalina 27, a 1982 model, had a Universal M5411, 11 horsepower diesel engine installed at the factory. This is the only diesel engine that Universal made with raw water cooling. As a result, the engine rotted from the inside out, and was removed from the boat when I bought her.

Installation of a new Beta 14 was straightforward. The engine was ordered with "standard" engine mount brackets, so it fit the engine bed from port to starb'd. As seen in the picture, hardwood shims about 1.5" in thickness were placed on the bed, with the engine mounted on top of them. Lag screws were used to secure the engine and shims to the engine bed. This placed the engine in the ballpark" in relation to aligning with the prop shaft.

The final alignment was done by using the flexible mount's vertical adjustment. Just rotate the adjustment nuts until final alignment is achieved. This was a very successful repower, and we used the boat every weekend during the season, for 3 years. The Beta 14 provided PLENTY of power to drive the boat, and to maintain boat speed when fighting wind and wave. The "secret" to this performance was a 2 blade, 12" diameter x 8 pitch, 2 blade prop, with large blade area. This prop allowed the engine to put all it's power to the water. It proved to be an excellent compromise between a regular 2 blade prop, with minimal drag under sail, while providing most of the thrust of a regular 3 blade prop.