I too have and 40yo downeast boat and engine. In the 35 years i have run this boat, I have broken down 3 times.
1) transmission oil cooler: bypassed it, drained water from trans, refilled limped to port.
2) drive plate: towed to port
3) " " " " "
Experience tells me:
Eng & trans oil coolers can be bypassed but you must drain or pump the water out & have enough new oil to refill and make it home.
Drive plates can fail w/o warning and you are dead in the water. Get one with a get home feature like PIY sells. A spare is NG as it can't be changed without tools unlikely to be onboard.
I would mention also, you can't do much about a seized freshwater circulator pump and even if you convert to salt water cooling, as I once did 70mi offshore, you can't run anything else that was on the same belt.
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