any omc io owners ?

[minneman]

Ive been looking at a boat for the fam. lately and found a 78 starcraft, 22' 350 chev. omc drive any thoughts on $ or reliability?

[Guest]

The older omc drives have an extremely poor
reliability rating. It is the outdrive that
goes, not the motor. I have a friend that put
3 drives in his before he was forced to dump
it. And another who put 2 drives in.

They fixed the problem but it was long after
the motor that you're looking at was mfg.

If you are going with something from that
vintage, go with the Merc.

[tommyp]

hello I have a 1990 omc cobra drive and had problems with the bearings going out on it. Was told by the mechanic that they were faulty bearings. I would buy merc if I were you.

[Valv]

I would buy outboard, especially on an older boat like that. If you have problems, you can always replace or sell motor and still get some money out of it. But it might be tough to find a 22' with it.

[minneman]

Tom Walker, Did your freinds have any problem finding drives? and what broke on them? As far as finding another boat like this in the condition its in w/outboard are nill, Ive searched long and hard, to no avail, this boat looks like its less than 10 years old, and worth more than the sellers asking price, book value is 1680.00 he wants 6000.00,trailer inc.
I know what your thinking,