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to hot? and oil changing penta 270

J

justboughtaboat

Member
I finally took my new-to-me boat out today. I have an 84 volvo AQ125 with penta 270. While running around at 2000 rpm(max rpm it will reach at the moment) I felt the top of the outdrive. Upper gear housing cover I guess is what it is. It seemed really hot. Couldn't touch it for longer then a second or two. Is this normal? Also I have searched everywhere, including the seloc manual I have, for the oil change steps for my penta 270. What kind of oil, how much and how to refill the drive. Any suggestions will help. Thanks in advance.
 
No, it is not normal. You may want to drain the oil and check for filings, but you may also want to check that there is enough raw water cooling the exhaust manifold. Have you checked if the manifold is hot?

The instructions for draining the oil from the outdrive are in the operator's manual. Try downloading it from here

http://vppneuapps.volvo.com/ww/PIE/...T403&d=OwnersPublication&s=5258293&lang=en-GB

or from here

http://www.volvopenta.com/volvopent...lication_search/Pages/publication_search.aspx

The instructions to replace the oil are in pages 9 and 10. The oil grade is the same as the one you use in your engine (yes, believe it or not) and the quantity is just over 2 liters.
 
Thank you for the quick reply. No I didn't think to check the manifold. I did drain the oil tonight soon as I got home. No iron filings thank god. Smelled like gear oil though.
 
Gear oil is not the most adequate for your drive unless it is a duoprop. For single prop, stick to engine oil. This has been discussed here before, do a search in the forum.
 
Yeah I am going with what you say on the oil. I was just saying it smelled like gear oil haha. I do not have muffs, but plan on getting some. Running it in a big tub is a pain in the butt! I thought about the impeller but, the engine sits at 175 degrees all day long. I am going to do some looking around at the water lines and what not. Flush the manifold. As soon as I felt how hot the top of the outdrive was, I shut it down to just an idle and it cooled off right away. Put it on the trailer and came home. Thank you so much for the suggestions!
 
justboughtaboat said:
I finally took my new-to-me boat out today. I have an 84 volvo AQ125 with penta 270. While running around at 2000 rpm(max rpm it will reach at the moment) I felt the top of the outdrive. Upper gear housing cover I guess is what it is. It seemed really hot. Couldn't touch it for longer then a second or two. Is this normal? Also I have searched everywhere, including the seloc manual I have, for the oil change steps for my penta 270. What kind of oil, how much and how to refill the drive. Any suggestions will help. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

justboughtaboat said:
Thank you for the quick reply. No I didn't think to check the manifold. I did drain the oil tonight soon as I got home. No iron filings thank god. Smelled like gear oil though.
Click to expand...
This drive, or any AQ series single prop drive, uses a slinger pump in the lower unit. This is nothing more than a die cast aluminum impeller pump..... centrifugal, BTW.

If/when gear oil is used (instead of the corrrect Engine Oil), the slinger pump drive pins can become sheared off (gear oil viscosity is too great for the slinger pump).
When we loose slinger pump action, we no longer have the cooler oil from the lower unit being pumped up to "Cool" the transmission.

Since you've had gear oil in the drive, don't be surprised if you lost the slinger pump drive pins.
I can't tell you exactly how many I've replaced over the years, but I've replaced enough to warrent this warning for you.
If not corrected, you may damage your transmission!

You'll want to remove the prop shaft bearing carrier.
(my tool works for either the s/p or Duo Prop carrier..... Duo Prop being shown)


With the carrier removed, look at the slinger pump impeller connection to the "driven" gear.
If you can spin the aluminum impeller separately from the driven gear, your pins are gone, and you have ZERO oil being pumped to the transmission.
This would explain the excessive heat!

While repairing this, it's is a great oportunity to re-seal the lower unit.


Side notes:

Your WOT RPM of 2,000 is dangersouly low!

If you install the Pertronix kit in your 28 year old ignition distributor, at least have it checked by a shop who owns a distributor machine.
Re-bush the housing....... and/or re-calibrate the curve and limit as required.




.
 
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o.k. today I only filled my water tub to just below the exhaust port so I could see the amount of water exiting. Good flow in and out. I even removed the heat exchanger cap just to see for sure. Good flow! I ran the engine up to 2000 rpm for several minutes and the exhaust manny barely even got warm. Mind you, this was with no load on the engine. The top of the leg once again got pretty hot so I shut it all down and dumped the oil again. Yanked the prop shaft. The oil pump is not loose from the shaft. Not torn up or used up looking. While looking it over, it appears this pump pushes the oil up through an oil galley. I wonder, is it possible for this oil galley to be plugged off, even just partially? Can I run a wire up through this to see if it's gunked up? If not how would I go about making sure it's not plugged off?
 
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