Starting the boat journey-

[Ginger&Pickles]

Hello Wellcraftians.
A few friends and family encouraged me to make the (dubious) jump into buying my first non-paddled boat. Well, I say that hoping that I don't have to paddle this thing.
The boat itself is making sense to me so far, I understand the Wellcraft love, but I need engine advice, or direction toward relevant resources. It came with a heavily corroded Mercruiser 470 in it, as well as a nice, only-slightly-corroded MCM 3.7 LX. I'm pretty sure I need to fix up the newer engine, lift out the old one, clean it up and put the newer one back in. Then it will be ready to go!
I could also use ideas about how to keep the wife and kids (5 and 7 years old) involved. So far we're having a blast, but I know there's a lifestyle of maintenance required for this stuff, and I don't have a fantastic history of that.
Thanks for hosting the forum, all the knowledge and sharing is inspiring and exciting to see out there.