Re: OMC motor??
I owned 2 with seadrives and a fishing friend had one also.They were first introduced in early 80's with crossflow engines ,which are good reliable engines but not as fuel efficiant as the newer looper used in later 80's to early 90's.Four and six cylinders and all were under the OMC name,opposed to evinrude or johnson we are more familiar with.Problems are,first ,there were different configurations,cable or hydraulic steering,the hydraulic used a seadrive only unit which causes problems when the ram goes bad,I found the seal that is used for outboard trim and tilt rams work,the low riding problem causes flooding of the cowl,OMC used a venturi type waterpickup from the tell tale as a means to remove water,that caused many different probklems,one being ,often the tell tals plugged and the water filled the cowl ,water that was from the pump,the fact it is low,the seawater would constantly flood the bottom of the crankshaft and driveshaft meeting areas,the crank is plain steel,therefore ,over time ,if not constantly greased,the splines in the crank rust/strip,engine will run great but wont turn driveshaft=no gears or waterpump,the trim and tilt is unique to the seadrive as wellsame prob with the steering,no parts or if found,big money,matter of fact the parts were always big money.I have seen on ebay ,dealers selling new in box old stock parts,but ,when u need it ,likely not.Should you buy one with a great running powerhead and nice lower,it wont take much to convert to a regular outboard by getting the correct midsection at a salvage yard,then putting a bracket on your hull after glassing in the couple holes that were needed for the seadrive.I did 2 boats like that and it was easy.All controls will continue to work
