Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

[sterritt]

Have never seen or dealt with sea drives before.. everything I've heard about them is very negative though.<br /><br />I found a boat I really love, thing happens to have two '89 140 HP OMC sea drives. One of them has a slightly scored cylinder.<br /><br />Was under the impression that the sea drives were regular envinrude V4 140's on a funny bracket.. figured I'd just build the powerhead, using the readily available parts I can get for the V4 140 ouboards. <br /><br />Was just informed, and it seems by some searching, that the powerheads between these two engines are not identical.<br /><br />Is this true? What is different, and is there an avenue for parts for these engines? Could someone please set me straight on this - I don't even know where to find sea drive info.<br /><br />Buying the boat cheap or not at all either way, but was figuring I could at least run the engines installed on it for a while and later repower if I hated the sea drives. If they are not fixable it makes a huge difference. If parts availability aside from the bracket assembly is in question, will have to consider the boat in a much differnt light.<br /><br />Thanks in advance.<br /><br />Jon

 

[sterritt]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

bump

 

[BrianTindall]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

I'm not real sure, but I believe the V4 Seadrives are the same basic unit as the outboard. I have an '84 2.6L and an '88 3.0L units. The '88 is much more like a regular outboard than the '84 is. The '84 had the control cable and fuel/oil inlets at the top of the cowl. The block and most other major components should be the same. Go to the powerhead replacement section here on iBoats and cross the powerheads. See what comes up.

 

[Solittle]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Jon - I have a pair of 1987 1.6L SeaDrives that I've had for 10 yrs. When I bought it one of the motors was frozen. The motor itself is just like any other OMC powerhead. I don't know the 89s but the 87s were rated at 110 hp per OMC (hp ratings for these are not well known) - and yes mine are the bubblebacks like the 140s have. I run them on a 1988 23' Wellcraft CC.<br /><br />I have had no problems at all with the SeaDrives and hope I never do as they are fairly complex. The powerheads are the same.<br /><br />I do suggest that you get the OMC shop & parts manuals for those motors specific for 1989 if you buy it.

 

[Bradster941]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

I re built mine a couple years ago. Had no problem getting parts. ( Bearings, Pistons, Gasket kits, water pump, etc. ) Even electrical, (power packs, rec/regs., staters, etc ), cross and are avalible. I even found the tilt trim motor is avalible and one of the cheaper priced ones on the market.<br /><br />To date I haven't found any parts I need as being un availble.<br /><br />Take this for what it's worth. <br />Hope it helps.... Bradster

 

[sterritt]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Ok..<br /><br />Well - I explained to the seller that the engines were worthless. I then figured the price I'd pay for the boat without the engines and offered it to the guy. He took it.<br /><br />So, I got the boat pretty cheap for what it is... was planning on just dumping the sea drives (sell them for what I can get) and re-powering, but jeeze - if the blocks are the same and parts are available, may as well run them for a season and hunt for a good used yami 250 for replacement.<br /><br />My question is, what should I pick up for parts? I don't have a listing for sea drives in my catologs - should I order the parts as if it was an '89 140 HP V4 outboard? The engine is a V4 122 CID 2.0 liter from what I have gathered - which is a 140 HP.<br /><br />I'll need a gasket set, a piston, and rings. Might actually end up being standard sized, very slight score on one cylinder of one engine (70 psi), but hard to tell until I measure it after getting the score out.<br /><br />Jon

 

[sterritt]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

bump

 

[BrianTindall]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Any OMC dealer can do the parts. If you want after market pistons, they (piston mfg) should be able to cross it for you as well. If you're tearing it down to do one cylinder, why not do all 4? Even only if you re-ring the others. You can convert these to a "Standard" outboard if you like and then mount them on a bracket.

 

[sterritt]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Brian -<br /><br />Trouble is I order parts aftermarket and through a distributer - it's cheap (very cheap), and fast (next day if I want) but you get absolutely no service through them.<br /><br />They just want to know which one of their part #'s you want and they don't list sea drives - powerheads/year model is what's in the catalog and I don't know which one this has got. <br /><br />If it's identical to the 140 HP outboard of the same year, then I've got it figured out, but I haven't been able to get that info yet.<br /><br />As far as only rebuilding 1 cylinder. The entire powerhead is a proffesional reman. with very few hours on it.<br /><br />Compression in the others is tip top, so it's only a question of trying to figure out what went wrong. <br /><br />Score is a slight score on one side of the cylinder, and a small blob sort of outcropping on the other. Looks like possibly overheating, probably a bad VRO, timing, clogged carb, or possible water pump issue. <br /><br />Planning to go through the listed peripheral items, disconnect both VRO's and hopefully if I don't "see" the problem, at least I'll correct it.<br /><br />Obviously though if I see something that went wrong in there will be correcting it, but my guess is I'm gonna find all other parts to be tip top.<br /><br />Jon

 

[Solittle]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Jon - Been there - done that with mine in most every respect. One of mine was frozen when I bought my rig 10 yrs ago. I had it rebuilt and it is still runnin. The other one ran fine until last year. One of the water hoses on the back of the motor came off of the tee by the pisser at 4500 rpm. It acted like a little fire hose spitting salt water directly into the motor. When it let go I considered trashing both and getting a Yammy 200. I shopped around and got a quote of $15K ($10K for the motor + bracket + controls + guages + rigging). I didn't pay much more than that for our first home. For me the decision was easy. I had a factory authorized rebuilt powerhead mounted on that SeaDrive and now I'm ready for the next 10 years.<br /><br />On the parts - OMC manuals are still available for these motors. Get both the service & parts amnuals which have part numbers & parts explosion diagrams. I got mine here:<br /><br /> http://www.theoutboardwizard.bizhosting.com/parts_service_and_owners_manuals.html

 

[BrianTindall]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Jon, Did the scoring happen on the exhaust port side of the cylinder? If so, you may have a carb causing a lean condition. If anyone needs any Seadrive parts for '84 or '88 V6's, let me know. I'd rather help someone out for cheap if I can.

 

[DJ]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

sterritt,<br /><br />I can say this with absolute authority. The oil injection system DID NOT cause this issue. The oil is injected BEFORE the carbs. It CANNOT be cylinder selective.

 

[sterritt]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

DJ,<br /><br />I know it can't select a cylinder, but couldn't it just have been that cylinder that was damaged first?<br /><br />I have noticed on the other engine too, the port side has slightly lower compression, still OK, but seems the port side on these things is what wears.<br /><br />Either way, still scratching my head about what to do. At the moment the pair is up in the want adds and my plan is to scrape up what I can for them and find a good used yami 250.<br /><br />Thinking about it, and it seems, if I'm gonna rebuild one of these things, might as well pick up even a blown yami and do the same. That won't run me a hell of alot if I buy a blown one and I'll have the type of power I want when I'm done.<br /><br />Priced out brackets - under 1K, not bad.<br /><br />Looking at this boat, boat is pretty mint - just needs some minor tinkering. Trailer is new. I think I could really spend 20K for a repower and it'd be justified... not that I'd do that, but am considering some of the refurbed/demo/late model used engine possibilities too. <br /><br />Jon

 

[BrianTindall]

Re: Help - OMC sea drives - need tech. info

Stainless Marine in Florida makes nice brackets. Mine was under $800 delivered. I bought mine through a company on eBay. If you're interested let me know and I'll email you some pics.