I SWEAR!!! I'm not touching anything else on that boat until I've done at LEAST 40 more hours of reading on here... Looking through old posts about cutting the transom down for an outboard application has led me to believe that I may be keel hauled at the very least for the transgression!
http://www.dhcampingandfishingsupply.com/61012.html
Thanks for the low cost, high adaptability option. Having not owned an outboard before or had much experience with them I figured the splash well option would be best, but the word on here is keep that baby's behind in tact! Now off the research how much epoxy/cloth/etc. I will need for the transom rebuild.