79 sea ray has a ford 351?

[jobofly]

Hey Guys, i found a 79 sea ray with a ford 351 and a omc outboard. what do you guys think of that pairing and should i be concerned?

Thanks

 

[KayKook]

Ford paired many of their motors with OMC stern drives. I assume you meant sterndrive rather than outboard.

 

[keokie]

Stay away from that OMC, or you will be sorry.

 

[gredmer]

Stay away from that OMC, or you will be sorry.

My '77 SRV240 had that combo and while the engine was fine the outdrive had lots of problems. Trim motor constantly leaked. Gears had to be replaced at 300 hours. :smt009

 

[jobofly]

yea i heard alot of bad things about omc, can i replace it with a different one?

 

[gredmer]

Yes it can. The Mercruiser has a different hole pattern for the transom but the transom can be redone and mercruiser installed. My slipmate back in the day did it to his 240 weekender.

 

[bobnlee2007]

I have a 1977 SRV240 with a OMC235, aka Ford 351, that I am slowly upgrading. I've been looking at replacing the OMC electric-shift I/O with a Mercruiser unit. There are some posts from other owners about the same topic. The replacement can be done.
Various techniques are used based on the type of Mercruiser units, ie: Alphas, Bravos,
Cobras, etc... All them require a major rework of the transom.
Look at this one post: http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10480