Merc 5L Alpha upper failure

[gmacrae]

Hey fellas, happy new year!

My first time venturing into the sterndrive forum is for a buddy of mine who's Alpha 1 Gen 2 upper lunched itself the other day (Bayliner 5L Merc). Would really appreciate a bit of advice if anyone could chime in. It's 24t/24t upper and 1.6x:1 lower. Lower seems otherwise in good shape other than maybe ingesting some filings from the upper - freshwater boat.

Options are:

1) get a new (SEI?) aftermarket upper for about $2400NZ (I see they're more like $1300NZ on Ebay, but problem is getting it here, shipping and border tax etc)

2) get a complete secondhand Merc sterndrive (off a 4cyl boat) locally for about $1300NZ (will pop the top off to make sure the upper is in good shape and is also 24/24 tooth first). And sell the 2:1 lower to recoup some costs. If this upper is 24/24tooth, is it safe to assume it's otherwise identical to the stock v8 upper?

Would appreciate any input from those of you in here that really know these drives - coz we don't!

Cheers

Gene