Omc cobra water in the drive

[chad eppig]

Hello everyone. I have just now finished other things and have time to pull the boat in and fix some issues. I have a 1988 reinell with the cobra drive. last summer i did the vortec heads and intake and man it woke it up. anways one day i went to fire it up to adjust the timing and made the biggest mistake an I/O owner can make.... yep i forgot to turn the water on. It ran for about 3-5 minutes before i noticed the manifolds felt a little warm. At this point i just wanted to die i was so mad. i shut it off right way and went to check the impeller and sure enough it was melted and mutilated. i replaced it and the next trip out i had water in the gear oil. Does anyone know what other damage to any seals could have happened in my dumb a#$ massacre? :facepalm:

 

[bruceb58]

My guess it is not related. Pull the drive to make sure you don't have water in your bellows. You should be doing this every year anyway.

You then want to drain the oil and pressure test the drive to see what seal is leaking.

 

[chad eppig]

Ok thanks for the reply. I had planned to pull it. I had just did the gimble bearing and bellows last spring I hope that isn't the case unless something wasn't right initially

 

[bruceb58]

When you change your gear oil, do you replace the gaskets or o-rings on all plugs?

 

[chad eppig]

I did not change them. The only one i changed was the top dip stick one however it probable isnt near as important as the lower two. I guess i didnt really think that those screws would leak water in that easily. But after looking through similar posts it seems i was way wrong in that thought

 

[chad eppig]

I am really just trying to make this drive last until I can afford the bravo 1 swap which i would have done already if i had the funds and most likey a 7.4 depending on clearance.