Just got back from 7 days of boating on the Upper Chesapeake. However, through the week of boating I had to add a total of 4 ounces of drive oil. I did notice a couple of times small amount of oil floating on the water when I was anchored, and once the boat was back on the trailer I pulled the boat plug and more oil was present there as well. I have since drained the drive oil and it did NOT contain any water or did it look milky.

Any ideal on where the oil is leaking from?
Should I have the drive pressure tested?

I just found a bad propshaft seal on my boat. I was losing a very small amount of drive oil every time going out and finally found it when I was running the boat in gear on the muffs. Shut it off and went to pull the muffs and noticed some lube on the prop. Pulled the prop and sure enough there was a small amount of oil outside the seal. On my drive there is a seal that keeps the oil in and another that keeps the water out(so I was told)

Sad thing is it's lost a little bit every time since I had the drive rebuilt and the dealer that rebuilt it won't help me at all! Even though I brought it to his attention twice before i found it on my own.

I would check the propshaft seals and get it pressure tested.

thanks for the info...

That may or may not explain the very little oil I see in the water but not the oil that's in the bulge.

If you have oil in your bilge that could be a seal where your u-joint is. I have no idea what the name of the seal is. But when it goes you'll get oil in your boot and into the bilge.

If you're loosing gear lube, have gear lube in the bilge and don't have water in the outdrive, its the monitor, hose or conection on the transom. Usually it's where the hose connects to the transom on the fitting. Remove the water intake hose from the transom and you can get to the gear lube fitting. Some are plastic and break easily.

I tried to get to the fitting your talking about put did not have and luck. Looks like I need seven foot arms and three elbows. I'll try again tomorrow night. Maybe I need to drink one or two beers first...sometimes that makes it easier to stand on your head.

Yeah, it's about impossible to get at! I'd get a prssure test on the drive anyway, better safe than sorry. You can lose drive oil from seals and not get water in the drive!

I have compressor, gauges and many fitting that will allow me to pressurize the drive.

What is involved in a pressure test? How much pressure 5-10 psi? For how long? Should I drain all the oil? etc...

After having the drive worked on I had a similar problem, had to add fluid and when anchored there was a smell of gear lube. When we pulled the boat, the idiots forgot to put the O-ring on the upper fill screw. Luckily it did not let any water in.

i had oil in bilge due to leaky drive bottles they have a tendency to crack