I'm looking at a boat right now that has a 1980's OMC 120 stern drive in it. I"m just curious is this a good engine to start with in this boat? Also what should I inspect when looking at an inboard, I've only got outboard experience. Thanks alot.
There were two types of OMC stern drives in the 80's so you need to find out the year. <br /><br />The Cobra drive that came out in 85 was the better of the two but suffered from lower gear failures caused my incorrectly adjusted and faulty shift cables.<br /><br />The drive previous to that was the stringer mount OMC identifiable by a big black rubber boot around the drive intermediate housing on the transom.<br /><br />If it were me, and I have owned both a stringer mount, a Cobra, and now a Volvo, I would not buy a boat with an OMC. Main reason is parts availability and who would service it unless you can do your own work.<br /><br />Here are a couple interesting links for you:<br /><br /> http://www.hastings.org/~stuart/cobra/index.html <br /><br /> http://www.glmmarine.com/30yearsomc.html
