habbi wrote:
I have a 2001 250 Johnson XXL which was new in May 2003. I just took it out
and drained the gearcase. It was full of water, not milky oil, I mean pure
water, the end had about a tablespoon of milky oil. I am 100 % sure it was
full of new clean oil when I put it in the water back in May. There are 200
hours on the engine. I know I should have checked/changed it sooner but it
is a 31' work boat and hard to remove from water. I pressure checked it and
no leaks but I have not vacuum tested it as I do not have the pump and
gauge. Anyway dealer is going to cover it under warrantee. Should the
warrantee cover a complete rebuild as the internals are probably corroded?
Or will they just change the seals?
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I resisted as long as I could hoping someone; just about anyone
else; would state the bleeding obvious, which is;
(i) This is just more of the same bad design from OMC & when the
Bills bleat "they all do it" I don't feel any better as you won't when
you find out how much this piece of crap will cost you to "fix" but even
then it won't be "fixed".
(ii) The problem with these OB legs is the very fact that they are
sealed!!!;
(a) In use they get hot because the drive elements (gears
bearings etc) are all deliberately under designed (go through the books
& for the HP etc they shouldn't even work at all, the fact they do for
the short time they do is a miracle)
(b) The main reason they do work is the case is alloy & can
dump the massive heat made by the undersized parts straight into the
water, however the transport to the case for that heat is mostly the via
oil.
(c) The case is tight (small) that there is lots of
expansion so they deliberately leave a tiny bubble of air in the top to
allow for it, the idea being, this re-expands when you shut down & the
leg very very quickly cools so contracting the oil level inside.
(d) The OMC BS ideas about positive & negative pressure
testing re just more of the same from this bunch of idiots, because the
only time the leg sees positive pressure is as it heats up & expands but
at this time the totally unsupport from the powerhead input shaft is
thrashing around like a rubber band (again get off your arses & have a
look in the books, the shaft is way too small for the HP in any premises
& even if it were the "right" size it's unsupported (bearing in the
middle) over too great a length not the flex around (the fact it's soft
SS is just a side curse:-))
(e) So now the leg is heating, oil & alloy expanding, the
input shaft is flexing all over the place & the bubble of air in the top
is "supposed" to just compress?? In a brand new setup it might for a
while but after that it just escapes out the top seal under the water pump.
(f) You shut down the leg cools as it contracts, where is no
air bubble left to expand so the leg sucks water back in, end of story
the design sucks, literally.
(g) Next time you use it the same happens but with a twist
(little in house joke there don't fell bad if you missed it:-)), this
time there is NO AIR BUBBLE to absorb the expansion!! So the leg
pressure goes sky high, in so doing it crushes the seals tighter &
tighter trying to contain it, but with all the other things, vibrating
prop (see how tight they want it & then think about why??), input shaft
flexing around at 5000rpm etc etc & they soon give up, letting a little
of that now water oil mix out, till you shut down again & it cools, now
it's even easier to suck more water in.
I know you're not really interested in anything but throwing money
at brain dead dealers Habbi but................ there is a "fix" to
mitigate against the effects of yet another OMC design defect:-)
(somewhat ungracious I freely admit, however I can assure you it does
work:-)
(i) Put new seals in it, as it heats the extreme pressure
mentioned above makes the lip seals push harder cutting into the soft SS
shafts, (again more poor OMC design) so replace all the seals, yes your
shafts are already damaged, but they're not worth replacing, sorry 'bout
that chief.
(ii) If you think the first part of this post bothers you Habbi
try to stay really calm now on:-) You need to;
(a) Put a small copper tube into the leg, some here bore a
hole in the top filler plug & silver solder the tube in there or you can
get all creative & thread a fitting into the top (roof) of the gearcase
so the modification stays totally inside & out of sight.
(b) However you choose (we always give free choice:-) you
then run the tube up the leg (inside if keen, clever & cunning or
outside if you want to get lots of queries from onlookers at the
wharf:-) into the engine cowl.
(c) Up in the engine cowl you put an oil reservoir. There is
room it just doesn't look like it:-). People here use all sorts of
things from an upturned sauce bottle with an air bleed in what was the
bottom, to a snazzy looking auto bottle (those early coolant recycle
bottles with the hose going into the bottom are popular) Again exercise
some free choice here!!!
(iii) So what happens now is;
(a) There is no air bubble in the top of the leg, any left
gets squeezed out within the first few hours of use:-)
(b) As the leg gets hot the oil expands but meets little
resistance & just goes back up the tube into the oil reservoir.
(c) As the leg quickly cools it never shows a pressure less
than the outside water because the reservoir is well above it so the leg
will always suck oil down rather than suck sea water in. Yes even on
your damaged shafts:-).
(d) The seals & shafts will last many times longer because
they never see high leg pressures.
If you want to get a better understanding of what I'm talking about
you're always welcome to come down here & I'll have the blokes show you
over a proper Taipan OB to see how it should really be done, although
prepare yourself, the transmission(s) is actually "designed" so the
major elements are 6" in diam!!! & that's just for 80 HP @ 4000rpm!! OR
if that is too much for you:-) Maybe try having a good quiet look at any
Mercruiser IB/OB drive & you'll see that this is exactly how they do it.
No no honestly you're welcome; it's no trouble at all; no no please
Habbi it's my pleasure to be able to help; yes I know it's christmas but
surely you must have got some other presents??; Oh stop it Habbi I'm
blushing now; honestly all I really want is a simple thanks for the info.
K