I have an 1990 four winns with a 3.0l OMC cobra outdrive.<br /><br />Quick history from this year.<br />Everything was working perfect the first couple of times out this year. I was showing my dad how to work the boat and he/we hit something hard with the prop. It really bent up the propsomething fierce so you can imagine how hard we hit.<br /><br />Next time out I notice a little bit of water comming in behind the motor right at the bottom of the metal ring in the transom. Looked to be leafking about 1/4 gallon an hour. The leak looked similar to last year prior to replacing the bellows. I kept an eye on it for the day and only at the end of the 6 hours on the water was there enough water for the pump to pick up.<br /><br />Rather than wait for it to get worse, I decided to take it in to the shop to have them look at it. We first pulled the drive off and looked at the bellows and gimble bearing which I was told looked in perfect shape. No water was getting in there.<br /><br />Then we looked in the engine compartment to find what looked like mud color in the bilge. The mechanic pulled the dipstick and you could see obviouse signs of oil in the water.<br /><br />Mechanic said that the seal around the transom mount was probably leaking and the water got high enough to go in the engine via the rear main and I should pay $850 to have the motor pulled, drive pulled and have rear transom mount resealed.<br /><br />The mechanic drained the oil and changed the filter and ran the boat for 3 hours. Looked in oil and no water. One thing that was discovered is one impeller blade busted off and was stuck in the spring of the thermostat so the boat seldom came up to temp. Pulled that out and engine comes up to 150 and stayes perfectly. <br /><br />I did have to run the boat for about 15 min at slightly above 1500 rpm to get it back to the boat launch with that bad prop causing the entire boat to shake for that ride. Is it possible the transome mounth bolts shook loose a little bit.<br /><br />Also I don't see how the water got up above the rear main because I was checking it all day and there was very little accumulated water. At the end of the day I did have to put the boat in reverse and lean on the throttle a little bit. The Mechanic said I probably pulled the transom mount away from the boat and flooded it then. Shortly after this is when I kicked on the pump and it pumped water for about 15 seconds.<br /><br />I'll answer any more questions the best I can. Thanks for your help guys.<br /><br /><br />Mike
<br /><br />tommays