Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

[old islander]

Re: Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

run run run...

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

Really? That's opposite of the normal RUN RUN RUN posts I see regarding the ford EFI setup.

But, it does look super nice, no idea how many hours on it yet. No real reason the EFI would go out anytime soon anyway right?

Nope. I wouldn't shy away from it at all. If it is indeed the SX cone clutch drive and you are mechanically inclined, you could switch it over to a carb easy. May also have to change distributors too. Just get it low enough to cover those future expenses and you should be fine.

The only other possible future issues is exhaust manifold availability but that is way less of an issue than the EFI.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

Nope. I wouldn't shy away from it at all. If it is indeed the SX cone clutch drive and you are mechanically inclined, you could switch it over to a carb easy. May also have to change distributors too.

I would agree with that.

If it's a 5.8L Ford and the water pump is on the back of the drive, I would consider running unless the seller understands that BOTH the engine (because of the EFI & Electronic IGN) AND the "interim" drive are BIG negatives and you can get it pretty "cheap".........

Cheap means that it's basically a boat with a "part-out" engine and drive.

If it's an SX, then absolutely run it until the EFI dies.........(all the while you're locating a good intake manifold, carb and marine dist)

You could also locate a good 5.7L engine, (EX) manifolds and flywheel housing and have it ready to go for when the Ford finally dies then switch it all over........THEN you would have a currently supported engine AND drive.

 

[Mullin]

Re: Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

I went and looked at the boat, no deal though. I decided to walk at this point.

It was in fact a 1995 Ford 5.0 EFI. I took down the ecm number and it is not available anywhere. Injectors run $270 a piece if you can find them. I priced out conversion parts (manifold, carb, fuel pump, dist.) to $950 and that doesn't even include linkage or flame arrestor or other little bits, not to mention the headache of doing it and getting it to work right.

The good news was the outdrive was a cobra/volvo sx outdrive. Bad news is that he obviously hit something, all four blades were damaged.

Overall the boat was in worse condition than I had expected, the exterior looked great, interior looked good for being 20 years old but not as nice as I thought it looked in the pics. The motor wasn't as advertised and the outdrive could have possibly been damaged. Not a tough choice to walk on this one.

Thanks for the help.

 

[tazrig]

Re: Looking at buying a boat with an OMC, ok?

You definitely made the smart move! :thumb: