The Sinking Of The OutBoard Marine Corporation -

**Muskoka2** · 05-31-2021, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by FUJIMO

My

My buddy & I had matching RK 32 H.P. Snow Cruisers in 1970-remember doing 40 m.p.h. into a 40 m.p.h. N. wind @ -20 with a cut down windshield=-100 wind chill!

**FUJIMO** · 07-21-2021, 11:25 AM

...4-rotor wankel rotary by omc on a dyno dated febuary 23 1973. no h.p. ratings were ever published by omc. was never produced for public consumption. extreme high cost of production, the high cost of marketing & the publics acceptability, unproven reliability, the early 70's gas crisis & this engines larger fuel consumption, too large of an engine for the early 70's recreational consumer interest, etc., all came into play determining its experimental demise...

**H2OPERF** · 07-21-2021, 09:58 PM

I heard it made 265hp/7k at the crank, not sure if that was a dyno grenade motor or if that's what the race motors were making. The single rotor in the later snowmobile was around 45hp, pretty good for a dinky single barrel carb.

**RevmanII** · 07-27-2021, 10:25 PM

I'm an old school OMC fan. I grew up with a 60 something Lonestar with a 75hp V4 Evinrude on the back. Dad got a 15' or 16' Glastron tri-hull around 72-73 with the 3 Cyl. 70hp Evinrude. I swamped that in the Hudson eventually. From there I've had several "go-fast" boats with OMC V6's. A 21' Checkmate with walk through bow and a 235 Evinrude. A 20' Baja with walk through bow. Bought with a 115 Evinrude on it that I never put in the water with that motor. Found a used 175 Johnson I dropped on it. A couple years later I found a 21' Checkmate with a blown up Yamaha. Put the 175 on it the first year, then found a built 200 Venom to put on it the next year. A couple of years later I went to a big 27' inboard Baja for 2 years, then bought my current boat with some sort of V6 OMC on the back. The tag comes back to an '87 Johnson GT-200. It still runs strong.

My '73 OMC/Johnson Reveler snowmobile. I sold it last fall, but had it for many years and had a lot of fun with it.

**johnboy 88 vegas** · 07-27-2021, 10:54 PM

It's a dam shame that OMC died the way it did. They made the best saltwater outboard on the face of the earth. Only if they would have went to four stroke and could have an electrical system like Yamaha they would still be on top today.

**powerabout** · 07-27-2021, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by johnboy 88 vegas

It's a dam shame that OMC died the way it did. They made the best saltwater outboard on the face of the earth. Only if they would have went to four stroke and could have an electrical system like Yamaha they would still be on top today.

The silly part during the BRP ownership is they not only made e-tec sled engines at huge HP/ci and revs but have rotax that can make high tec 4 slugs?

**johnboy 88 vegas** · 07-27-2021, 11:29 PM

If they could have put the same principle into outboards with reliability they could be on top of the world. The reality of it is everyone wants four stroke for pleasure boating just b/c they are quiet. Took me a long time to understand this and I used to hate four strokes but they are the motor of the future whether we like it or not.

**powerabout** · 07-27-2021, 11:51 PM

Originally Posted by johnboy 88 vegas

If they could have put the same principle into outboards with reliability they could be on top of the world. The reality of it is everyone wants four stroke for pleasure boating just b/c they are quiet. Took me a long time to understand this and I used to hate four strokes but they are the motor of the future whether we like it or not.

I would say you cant tell if its an e-tec or 4 stroke they are both silent at the dock.
I know some dealers have e-tecs running in their showrooms and the customers cannot tell there is an engine running.
You can tell a 4 stoke by the super rich stink so you will eventually die if a 4 stroke is running in your showroom...lol

The e-tecs are way in front emission wise as well especially as the CO is not a large part of the marine regs as basically all 4 strokes need cat cons, somebody should of told Al Gore.
The Japs conned everyone as they didnt have any DFI technology so Merc competing on their terms now making multi cam engines.

**David** · 07-28-2021, 08:10 AM

We used to have a 115 HO Etec and it was super quiet. Our current 150 HO Etec is louder.

**powerabout** · 07-28-2021, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by David

We used to have a 115 HO Etec and it was super quiet. Our current 150 HO Etec is louder.

v4 to a 3?

**David** · 07-28-2021, 09:22 AM

150 is 6 cyl, 115 was 4 cyl, both Gen 1 Etec, both great motors

Much easier to winterize then my 200XS ROS or I imagine any 4 stroke

**Capt.Insane-o** · 07-30-2021, 08:00 PM

The v4 etecs were amazing. sweethearts of a motor.

**bigbore** · 07-30-2021, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by H2OPERF

Many things sent this company down, here are a few of my may be wrong but you never know opinions. First, off we will leave the dependable as hell sub 50hp 2cyl motors out of this that they had sold millions of all over the world, prob what kept them cash fat for all the rest of the things did. Moving on to bigger hp, they had the market by the ass in the early to mid-'70s making v4s and looper twin and triples that just like the video says were amazing designs with that are still standing today... MERC had nothing on them at that time and the proof is here today when you go to the ramp and still see early looper 2/3s and tons of v4s still running i haven't seen a tower of power on the water in years... Sorry, I think they're cool too. OMC had really good reliable cdi electronics after 1972 and it's basically the same system used today. Now the good/bad from absolutely stupid decisions... Move to 1976, Lets build a V6 200hp and take the market by storm, amazingly good idea for OMC and with the racing engines they were testing at the time, yeah OMC had badass 2 and 3Litre loopers running in the 70s on the racecourse, COULD have set them on a course for a long path of greater things .. Why didn't it happen, probably board members/bean counters worried about bonuses, who knows..but the unbelievable happened and they took the easy route and put 2 cylinders on top of the old school v4 crossflow, a good design but one of which no one in any industry would even think of using at the time for a new high horsepower design. Granted the x-flow 200v6 ran good, was reliable, and had a good low-end grunt for large boats probably more so than the first 2l v6 mercs that came out at the same time but personally I think this set the course for many things that slowly killed them... The merc 2l v6 was a good little motor but nothing to storm the market with, if OMC had built their v6 a 2.4 or 3l looper at that time everything would have been different... Then just like with the auto industry the japanese hit the scene and have it easy, they just copy it and improve on what's shown to be a problem fix it and your king. The really SAD part is Yamaha v6 was pretty much a clone except it was loop charged, a technology OMC had good experience with and already in production motors, WTF... Many will say they did well in that era and sold tons of crossflows but the fact is it set them up to fail in the future, just like a bad retirement plan,yea all is good now but later when the shizit hits the fan and competition comes a-knockin you better have the resources to keep up. Move to 1987 way too late to bring a new looper out now your already way-waaay behind the curve. They probably could have pulled the rabbit out of the proverbial hat then if their new looper had been fuel injected with modern electronics but NO, so the rest is history at this point, my friends.

I agree with that quote/omc had allotta good things going with the looper switch/but they waited to long to do it/the cross flows were pretty descent in some ways to but they were ready for the looper upgrade 5-10yrs. Before they actually pulled the trigger on it.

**powerabout** · 07-31-2021, 05:32 AM

Agreed
They should of left the xflows as work engines and done the loopers as Evinrudes and make some EFI performance ones as well.
They should of had the japs make the small engines, lesson from Lee Iaccocca there he flagged that with Ford and they laughed, do Ford make any cars any more or just Pickups and the Mustang?

They missed the chance to make a 3 cyl looper from the 45ci 2cyl looper and left a hole in the market at 90HP, in steps Yam.
They ignored the overseas markets as typical of US marketers and that just left the USA for the Japs to work on and now see how the pie is sliced.
IMHO is was just a pile of bad decisions and missed opportunity. Both Merc and OMC guilty here.
Reminds me of a buddy that worked at Motorola back in the day when they owned the phone market, once they got to the top they put their feet up and said, ok tick it off we are there, he was amazed at the attitude, left and went to Nokia.