Capt. Chaos wrote:
Just finished my first weekend of boating. Woo hoo. Lots of fun.
Maneuvering around the marina is a lot harder than it looks though. I
don't think the brakes on my boat work.
I need to change the oil in both the motor and outdrive. The previous
owner said he used synthetic. I've always run conventional oil in all my
machines, mostly cars and motorcycles with the practice of changing the
oil frequently. This practice has never failed. With the cost of
synthetic, I'd rather stick with conventional.
The motor is a 350. I was planning on using 10-40. Any problems with
this? Any other recommendations?
OMC Cobra outdrive. I have no idea what oil to use in this or how much?
Any problems either with the motor or outdrive going from synthetic back
to conventional?
The only problem I've experienced with the boat is that shifting between
foward, neutral, and reverse is a little bit harsh. I'm not sure if that
is normal since I've never driven any other boat before and have nothing
to compare it too. It goes into gear okay, but you have to use a fair
amount of force to do so. Boat is an '89 Dynasty runabout.
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Something else you need to lubricate every 50 hours or so. The Cobra
and Merc outdrives have grease zerks on the universal joints that need
to be greased every year. With the OMC its a 3 man job unless you
have a means of supporting the lower unit. 2 to hold it up and the
third to push it back into the splines.

Welcome to carefree boating....Norm