OMC Outdrive Oil Fill Procedure

[95yj]

Buddy of mine bought a new "to him" boat with a 5.7L and an OMC outdrive. He's getting ready to winterize it.

One question: After you drain oil from the outdrive, do you refill it from the bottom like an Alpha or can you add the oil from the top?

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: OMC Outdrive Oil Fill Procedure

With the top dipstick screw just setting in the hole and the middle vent screw out start filling slowly from the bottom.When it reaches the middle vent screw plug the bottom hole and continue to fill from center until it reads full on the dipstick.Let it set with the dipstick loose for a while for any trapped air to escape.Run the drive and check level. It should hold at least 64 ounces of lube.Some of the V-8 drives held more than that.

 

[95yj]

Re: OMC Outdrive Oil Fill Procedure

Thanks for the info. I figured you would need to fill it from the bottom for the same reasons.

 

[marunr]

Re: OMC Outdrive Oil Fill Procedure

If it's a cobra, the manual says to fill it from the middle screw. You could do like Gary says as long as you don't skip the part where he says to move to the middle vent screw, but it seems like an unecessary and messy step to me since you have to pull your pump out of one hle and move it to the other. If you just start from the middle you'll have no problem. If you fill from the bottom only, you'll have big problems.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: OMC Outdrive Oil Fill Procedure

Howdy,



Just so you know.

The OEM OMC service manual #507605 (1987 Cobra manual) says to:

"Fill vertical drive with OMC Hi-Vis gearcase lubricant through the oil fill plug location.
The vertical drive is properly filled when the oil level appears at the mark on the oil dipstick. Check oil level with the dipstick cap resting on the hole."


It goes on:

"NOTE: When completely changing the lubricant in the vertical drive, the oil level must be checked with the dipstick cap resting on top of the hole. This will provide a slight overfill to allow for an oil level drop caused by trapped air being purged when running the drive. All subsequent checks are made with the dipstick fully threaded into hole."


According to the service manual:


The dipstick is at the top, the drain is at the bottom and the oil fill hole is the middle one.



I would do it precisely the way the manual says to do it. Doing it wrong will destroy the drive pretty quickly.

Filling the "lower" thru the drain plug up to the fill hole probably works.

It's probably much more important to fill the rest of the drive thru the fill hole.

But doing it IAW the service manual works every time.


If yours is a much newer model get a CORRECT manual and follow the procedure if it changed.

btw, I'm gonna sell all the OMC cobra stuff I have sitting on the floor. When I do I'll include the manual to whomever buys it. When I do I'll stop quoting the manual here!!! I don't have a scanner and I'm a lousy typist!!


Regards,



Rick