OMC??

[Leedo Lanes]

So can someone explain to me what OMC makes and are they out of business?? Is Johnson OMC? Is OMC compatible with Mercury?? Please explain the differences...

[Leedo Lanes]

So can someone explain to me what OMC makes and are they out of business?? Is Johnson OMC? Is OMC compatible with Mercury?? Please explain the differences...

[sonoma]

johnson and evinrude are omc and where bought out by volvo penta , the diference between omc and brunswick marine is like ford and general motors some sware by them others hate them , brunswick makes mariners,force and mercury engines . I am shure other people on the group here will have a mutch biger knowleg on the subject especialy performance wise... this should make for a good discussion lol.. http://checkmate-boats.com/6/ws/,s,8626072361/Graemlins/lol.gif

[Eriktheviking]

The only thing compatable between OMC and Merc. would sometimes be the power plants that were used in the I/O's.OMC's were mostly Ford engines while Merc. was General Motors.None of the outdrive stuff is interchangable.OMC no longer makes I/O's as far as I know.I heard the outboard division was purchased by Bombadier Corp.(Ski-Doo) I did have a Cobra drive on a 1987 Starfire and it performed well for the year I had it.

[Chris]

OMC went bankrupt. They used to make Lawnboy, Johnson and Evinrude. The also used to make boats and a bunch of other recreation products. When they filed for bankruptcy Bombardier bought the outboard products division. Some of the other division were pieced off to other companies. Just recently bombardier sold the Johnson and Evinrude lines to the founding family of Bombardier.

[Brian]

sonoma,OMC did not get bought by Volvo, they went bankrupt like chris said, and Bombardier bought them,they then sold the recreational product division, to another part of the company, so now OMC products are now BMC products.

[Chris E]

Just to further clarify, OMC went into partnership with Volvo Penta in the early 90's to build stern drives using OMC uppers and volvo lowers (duoprop). Called SX and DPX drives. Only difference between the two(other than paint) was the number of splines on the propshaft (this was intentional - so each company could have a share of the prop business). This lasted for a couple of years then volvo bought OMC out and that was the last of the OMC sterndrive (probably a good thing). Chris has the outboard end nailed. Just as an aside - OMC had to sell lawnboy to pay for a little sterndrive delima involving shift cables and gear sets in 89 (every cobra drive ever built to that date - OOOOOPS).

[sonoma]

I remember having shift cable problem on my starfire it had a omc drive on it , if i remember right i replaced it 3 times but other than that the drive was pretty reliable