[m&mmariah]

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself as the happy, new owner of member WSSB11's 1996 Shabah 180. I'm in the process of winterizing it this month. I'll fill up the gas tank, add fuel stabilizer, fog the motor, insatll new spark plugs, plug wires, distirbutor cap, drain exhaust manifolds (4.3 mercruiser),drain block, and change oil, oil filter and fuel filter. As far as the out drive goes, I gusee I'll have to have the oil changed on that, as I don't know how to do it myself. I'll also have the boat shop lube the throttle & shift cables, too.

I'm planning to use Mobil 15W-40 heavy duty engine oil for the change, as that's what I use in my diesel pick-up. Does that sound ok? I really want to use syntehtic oil, but the enigne has about 350 hours on it, so I'm a little afraid to switch.

Oh, almost forgot. When we took it out for a test drive, there was a little bit of water in the bilge, maybe 1/2 quart over a period of about 2 hours. I'm guessing it seeped in through the bellows. Can the boat shop inspect the bellows during the out-drive service? (impeller replaced Jan '09, so it shoud still be ok for the upcoming season, right?)

Oh, one more quesiton.....there are plastic caps over the bearing buddies on the trailer. Do the caps just pull off to access the grease fitting?

Thanks for the the advice, and we're looking forward to both boating and being club members.

Mark & May (m&mmariah), first-time boat owners

[WetWilly]

Ahoy Mark & May, welcome to the forum, I musty say, for first time boat owners, you're sure organized with the winterizing!

As a Silver member, you can access our library to educate yourself on how to change the outdrive oil and it's really easy
(Click here, then on the second PDF file, it will also show you where to lube just about everything, good luck).

Since you're going to winterize every year, and that includes changing the oil and unless you plan on running your Mariah really hard, Dino oil is just fine, but if you still want to, Mobil One will work just fine too. Click here to read the facts about Mobil One and older motors (scroll to the bottom of the page). I was under the impression that synthetics were much slipperier than Dinio oil and could seep past older seals, but Mobil begs to differ.

A good shop should be able to examine the bellows and if they are found to be leaking, they should also check the U-joints and Gimbal bearing.

You are correct, the caps should just pull off to get to the grease fitting.

WetWilly