Just to give some background, I have an 02 Sea Ray BR185 with Mercruiser 4.3L engine w/alpha outdrive. Engine only had 103 hours on meter. Just purchased her this summer after selling my 88 Sea Ray 180BR with 4.3L engine alpha 1. Anyway, in August, only my 2nd day out with her, in fresh water, had outdrive a bit to low and sucked up a lot of bottom sediment. When I got in to deeper water I reversed it to remove anything that may have been on the water intake. Proceed down the lake, a few minutes later passengers sitting in the stern said they smelled something burning, I finally smell it too and immediately shut her down. Smoke was coming from the exhaust fan and it smelled like burning rubber. Looked at my temp gauge, it was pegged over 220, I never received an audible alarm. I let her cool down for about 45mins or so and started her back up, she sounded fine and water temp was in norm range 165-170. Because of the overheating and water that I found coming in at the transom I took it out of the water and headed to a local marina. The leak was just the shift cable bellow not seated right, all bellows and shift cables were replaced year before by the previous owner. Marina had to replace the rubber exhaust connections and flappers, they lake tested it and it ran fine. I am getting to the issue. Next time I used her was in Sept and I had no issues, ran good and no overheating. Took her out for the season and was going to have it winterized. She had been sitting out of the water for several weeks before I was taking her to my local marina. While checking around the boat before heading out I noticed oil on rear of the lower drive by 2 weep holes,also saw it on the ground just below. The marina replaced all upper drive seals, the water pump, and all fluids. They pressure tested it for 3 days and it held pressure. However, the mechanic told me that while he was servicing it he found pieces of the flappers in the exhaust bellow as well as brownish oil, not gear lube. He thought it was unusual and really didn't know why It would be in there. He advised me to check all my fluids every time I go out in it. Anyone ever heard of this or experienced the same thing? Is it something that may have happened due to the overheat? I'm the 3rd owner of this boat, the first owner bought it new and lived in NJ so I suspect it was in some type of brackish/salt water since there was a fresh water inlet added at the hoses in the engine compartment. Sorry for being so long winded but thought as much info as possible would help. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.
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