1997 Mercruiser 3.0 LX - breaking belts and leaking oil

[CPro]

I have a 97 3.0 LX in a 19' Sea Pro walkaround and over the last 6 months or so I've had a couple of problems that seemed to develop concurrently. My v belts are wearing out very quickly (within a couple outings) and I am also getting a good bit of oil that is leaking from somewhere into the bilge. I don't see any visible leaks on the exposed portions of the engine. The belts are stretching out (prompting retensioning), wearing, and snapping way more quickly than they should. Since the problems developed in parallel I'm thinking there is a relationship. Thx in advance for any thoughts you all might have as to the cause of this. Fishing is getting better as we speak....!

 

[hemi rt]

First thing to check for the belts - are all the pulleys lined up with each other? is there a pulley that is cocked off? are you over tightening the belts? After running a new belt it may have to be readjusted as they do stretch a little but make sure you don't over tighten it. The oil leak is going to have to be a search and hunt. The belts are getting oil on them are they?

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... The belt issue sounds like rusty, rough pulleys are chewin' 'em up,....

The oil leak, ya just gotta LOOK for it,....
Camera, flashlight, mirror, whatever it takes to find it,....

 

[Jmunk]

3.0L are prone to the timing covers rusting out inside a lip by the oil pan. 1st place I'd look.

 

[Scott Danforth]

oil pans are prone to rust out

clean the bilge, then look for the first oil drop.

regarding your pulleys/belts, either their rusty like Bondo indicated, or something is out of alignment like Hemi indicated

use a straight edge and look at pulley allignment.