OMC inboard sail drive

fido5407 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009

need some tips and comments on a 1978 omc sail drive is this a good inboard system or a nightmare, this system is in a 1978 25 foot o,day comments good or bad please

Faster · #2 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009

Unfortunately these drive systems are closer to nightmare than otherwise. Most boats originally supplied with them have long turned to outboards - and many of them are still dragging the "leg" around rather than do a proper job of removal and refairing!

Cooling issues, difficulty in keeping seawater out of the engine internals, corrosion, troublesome ignition systems head the list of historical problems. Given all that and the fact that they are gasoline engines generally affects value considerably.

Sorry to be negative, but we had several boats in our club with that engine and all of them experienced problems to the degree that those boats have switched to outboards on the transom.

fido5407 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-22-2009

thank you faster I have been looking at two boats with this drive, I will be cautious in the feature with boats that are powered with this system.

Steve

mikehoyt · #4 (**permalink**) 11-25-2009

I realize this thread is 4 weeks old. I am posting tihs for anyone else looking for info on OMC Saildrive.

However there is a yahoo group dedicated to the OMC Saildrive. Currently 493 members most of whom have boats with this engine. It was an OK engine and if you are mechanically inclined and the lower unit is not corroded and pitted you may be ok with it. The good news is that most boats with OMC saildrive are small enough that they can easily be converted to an outboard motor if the saildrive dies.

The link to the site is saildriveowners : Saildrive Owners Group for any readers out there interested. There are a lot of people on the email list associated with that site that can answer typical maintenance questions.

Am I affiliated. Yes. My slipmate had an OMC saildrive back in 2002 and was basically on his own doing maintenance. I said to him one day that there should be a web site or owners group so I created the Yahoo group and it took on a life of its own.

It is amazing how many of these are still in service. They are however old and a lot of work to maintain ...

Mike

Faster · #5 (**permalink**) 11-25-2009

That's good information, Mike.. thanks.

atk260lq · #6 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

I owned an 8.0 S2 with OMC saildrive. It ran like a top, was easy to maintain and winterize, and started easily all the time. It did use a lot of fuel. The prop never came up out of the water, it wasn't too noisy, and came with a big tank. It think this system with an updated 4 stroke head would be ideal. I did treat the gas prior to storage every year and would put extended hours of those windless cruise E to W on Lake Erie.

Faster · #7 (**permalink**) 06-01-2010

Perhaps there's a salt water vs fresh water factor in the success of these drives.