Belgian made OMC motors

[Smokin' Joe]

Ca. 1984 when the Dollar was strong against the Dmark I bought a Belgian made Mercury 35, it was shipped to Houston. OMC also apparently had a factory in Belgium, in Austria/Germany I own Belgian made Evinrude 6 (1981, converted to 7.5 hp) and 25 (1978, converted to 35 hp) motors, and a 1980 Belgian made Johnson 35. Does anyone know where the factory was, and if spare parts were made here or were shipped to Europe? I have some German language OMC service manuals which I bought on Ebay.de just to learn the terminology (powerpack, exhaust tuner, charge coil, sensor coil, etc). German language OMC parts manuals seem not to have existed. It's quite hard now to find an Evinrude dealer (I've never seen an E-Tec motor anywhere in Germany, and we're on the Baltic every summer), Mercury and Yamaha dominate. The collapse of OMC in 2000 apparently killed the dealer network nearly completely.

[Lars Strom]

The OMC assembly factory was located in Brugge, Belguim..
There was not a special partbook for engines built there,
(except the Euro 4 HP)..
Same motors as built over in the USA..

I do not know about Mercury´s set up.

[Smokin' Joe]

Tusen takk.Did you know Bjarne Hornvedt (Oslo område) who ran OE in the late 1980s?



The OMC assembly factory was located in Brugge, Belguim..
There was not a special partbook for engines built there,
(except the Euro 4 HP)..
Same motors as built over in the USA..

I do not know about Mercury´s set up.

[Lars Strom]

Yes, I know him. There was lots of F3 drivers from Scandinavia back then...

[Smokin' Joe]

He was an engineer at IFE in 1988, I often visited there as physics researcher. I recall that he drove a Yamaha 90, he sent me a picture of his tunnel airborn coming out of a turn.




Yes, I know him. There was lots of F3 drivers from Scandinavia back then...

[Smokin' Joe]

The OMC assembly factory was located in Brugge, Belguim..
There was not a special partbook for engines built there,
(except the Euro 4 HP)..
Same motors as built over in the USA..

I do not know about Mercury´s set up.

Thanks. Jim Nerstrom wrote me later that all OMC parts were made in the U.S., the motors with the "B" stamp were assembled in Bruge.

[850cc racer]

i have 15inch mid and matching gearcase, made in belguim.. did have the powerhead however that went on another boat..

the interesting thing is this gearcase isnt a 2-1 ratio it would be more like 1.85-1 etc.. its the only one i have ever seen and the thing was MINT when i got it.. original paint hadnt been touched.. ( i took paint off and added nose cone)

do you know if they made a different ratio for motors from there?

i cant get model number in the morning...

[Smokin' Joe]

i have 15inch mid and matching gearcase, made in belguim.. did have the powerhead however that went on another boat..

the interesting thing is this gearcase isnt a 2-1 ratio it would be more like 1.85-1 etc.. its the only one i have ever seen and the thing was MINT when i got it.. original paint hadnt been touched.. ( i took paint off and added nose cone)

do you know if they made a different ratio for motors from there?

i cant get model number in the morning...


The 3 cyl. 75, first made in 1975 had a shortshaft (15" model) gear ratio 15/28, or 1.87 to 1. The longshaft (club foot) model had a gear ratio of 12/29, or 2.25 to 1. It was the 140 hp V-4 that had a gear ratio of 2 to 1.

[850cc racer]

so does that mean the gears of a 140 v4 fit into the nitro (55hp case)?

thats what has been fitted to my nitro?

cheers for the info.

[Smokin' Joe]

so does that mean the gears of a 140 v4 fit into the nitro (55hp case)?

thats what has been fitted to my nitro?

cheers for the info.

No, far from it. You can check the Evinrude parts list on the internet, my recollection is that the long shaft 70 and the 140 had the same gearcase but
not the same gearing. The 140 V-4 is basically hopeless, old fashioned and was in its day far outclassed by the Mercury 150XS.

[Powerabout]

the v4 gearcase is longer
propshaft, bearing carrier,dog etc are all longer
Gears are also wider
probably no part in common except for the trim tab

[Bill Gohr]

There are no internal parts between the 3 and 4 that will interchange.

There were a couple "weird" Belgian models as I remember, but generally they were just older models that were continued over there as well as South America.

When money was good here I do remember people buying engines over there and shipping them back here, generally in Florida, we would get lots of "B" motors on warranty claims, people would really get pissed when they found out that V8 with the blown piston has no warranty.

[Powerabout]

Didnt OMC make a well known Swede rich????

In OZ OMC would honour warranty on Belguim and US motors

[850cc racer]

powerabout werent u an oz dealer? or am i thinking of someone else?

did our FT's come with 2-1 boxes??

as 2-1 here is kinda "common"

[Powerabout]

powerabout werent u an oz dealer? or am i thinking of someone else?

did our FT's come with 2-1 boxes??

as 2-1 here is kinda "common"
I never sold a a race motor so I couldn't say nor did we have parts manuals for them.
There was only one set of parts manuals/fische as OZ built engines were the same as the US.
( we raced 6 hp OMC and Merc and 25hp OMC but they were stock classes)
Most were sold from Dealers in Sydney ( where the factory is) I would think.

I was in Melbourne where Mercury was/is so more people raced Mercs as plenty of help from the factory.

The only stuff manufactured in oz was small stuff like shift shafts and one piece drive shafts and propshafts as far as I know
I would seriously doubt omc made special gears for anything just doing the 15:28 in the Nitro was a big step I thought ( for production engines thats is)
They seem to prefer to check the parts bin to create engines.

[850cc racer]

ahhh interesting. well i am thinking of buying a bobs machine shop low water pick up nose cone for a case i have, so im thinking ill put the 2-1 gears in it.. ill take photos of gears and post on here!

cheers
850

[Powerabout]

ahhh interesting. well i am thinking of buying a bobs machine shop low water pick up nose cone for a case i have, so im thinking ill put the 2-1 gears in it.. ill take photos of gears and post on here!

cheers
850
The question with the 2:1 gears is where do you get the part numbers to order new ones?

[Bill Gohr]

2:1 gears for what lower

[Powerabout]

Nitro
there's only 2 ratio's correct?
love to have a 3rd one.

[850cc racer]

i have 1.87-1, 2-1 and 2.4-1

ill get that lower apart in a couple of weeks.

[Powerabout]

i have 1.87-1, 2-1 and 2.4-1

ill get that lower apart in a couple of weeks.
Cool
Hopefully Bill Ghor can help us out with the part numbers?

[Lars Strom]

powerabout werent u an oz dealer? or am i thinking of someone else?

did our FT's come with 2-1 boxes??

as 2-1 here is kinda "common"

Are you talking about the FT 19S???

I was the lucky one to receive the first FT 19S built, for the big SE Race in Sweden
1976.

The gear ratio was the same as a stock 75 short shaft..I tried the 55hp gears
but worth less..no speed only RPM..

PS..OMC never made anyone rich..but sometimes you could use OMC products
to get rich..and a Powerboat World Champ..:)

[Lars Strom]

When money was good here I do remember people buying engines over there and shipping them back here, generally in Florida, we would get lots of "B" motors on warranty claims, people would really get pissed when they found out that V8 with the blown piston has no warranty.


Well..OMC only built up to 70 hp in Belgium..The V-4, V-6 and V-8 was
built in Waukegan..but some of those engines
"took a round trip to Sweden"..:)

The OMC warranty was good all over the world, but some dealers refuse
to work on motors that was not sold by them..

Back then, some years OMC gave dealers warranty parts..instead of credit for installed parts..Many dealers did not like that..

Lots of "round trip OMC outboards" where sold in California also.

Return of US made goods..no duty needed to be paid..

[Mercuryfan]

For the people interested: If you look at the site www.bruggemarinecenter.com, and then go to bedrijfsinfo (company info) and then geschiedenis (history) you can see a picture of the former Omc europe racing facility.

This site now houses a boat company wich sells engines and ribs.

The former Omc factory was on the same industrial park and was sold to a company that recycled Polyester waste, but they went bankrupt en a gigantic amount of polyester waste was left there (almost 2500 full truck loads):eek:.

It now houses a printing company.

[Lars Strom]

Post # 567..http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6727&page=57

“The Boat House”…OMC´s old racing building in Belgium have a new life..!!
Click below for more info and picture,

http://svera.se/blogg/2012/04/15/the...ve-a-new-life/

[Smokin' Joe]

For the people interested: If you look at the site www.bruggemarinecenter.com, and then go to bedrijfsinfo (company info) and then geschiedenis (history) you can see a picture of the former Omc europe racing facility.

This site now houses a boat company wich sells engines and ribs.

The former Omc factory was on the same industrial park and was sold to a company that recycled Polyester waste, but they went bankrupt en a gigantic amount of polyester waste was left there (almost 2500 full truck loads):eek:.

It now houses a printing company.

Danke, aber, das Bild ist etwast zu klein für meine jetzigen Augen! Wurde interessant sein, mehr bilder vom Vergangenheit zu sehen.
Joe

[Smokin' Joe]

Well..OMC only built up to 70 hp in Belgium..The V-4, V-6 and V-8 was
built in Waukegan..but some of those engines
"took a round trip to Sweden"..:)

The OMC warranty was good all over the world, but some dealers refuse
to work on motors that was not sold by them..

Back then, some years OMC gave dealers warranty parts..instead of credit for installed parts..Many dealers did not like that..

Lots of "round trip OMC outboards" where sold in California also.

Return of US made goods..no duty needed to be paid..


I've written before that BRP is not OMC, they don't advertise and promote. From Croatia through Italy to N. Germany we saw six Evinrude E-Tecs in a sea of lumbering 4 stroke Hondas and Yamahas this summer. Two were in NE Germany, had never seen more than one there before, so decided to visit the nearest dealer, Olaf Lingrön in Barth. Surprise! There was a brand new 2002 Johnson 30 in the showroom, price ca. 5000 Euro (about $6200). Son Lars, shown below, said that they were a Johnson dealer since 1997, and that when OMC collapsed they bought up the existing stock of 30 motors. The 2002 30 is the last of that stock.

[Mercuryfan]

Joe, i just posted it in addition to the thread, it is indeed a bit small.
I would love to see more pictures of how everything was back in the omc europe days, i live closeby the former site and have also visited the company wich now resides in the building but nothing there reminds of the omc time.

It still seems to me that you can read almost everything there is to know about Mercury history, from the products to lake x and everything about Mr Kiekhaefer, but there are a lot of missing parts about omc history.

Mabe some one else has pictures of Omc Belgium??

[Smokin' Joe]

Joe, i just posted it in addition to the thread, it is indeed a bit small.
I would love to see more pictures of how everything was back in the omc europe days, i live closeby the former site and have also visited the company wich now resides in the building but nothing there reminds of the omc time.

It still seems to me that you can read almost everything there is to know about Mercury history, from the products to lake x and everything about Mr Kiekhaefer, but there are a lot of missing parts about omc history.

Mabe some one else has pictures of Omc Belgium??

I'm close to Edgar Rose and Jim Nerstrom but they're not talking much about it. Someone close to Strang would have to interview him. Ralph Evinrude also would have been the man to interview. Dennis Evinrude is active in AOMC but I don't know that he was really involved in OMC. Wouldn't hurt to ask him, I guess.

We can thank too strong outboard emissions rules for causing severe problems, and George Soros for helping to fund the idiot who beat Penske out of buying OMC, then drove the co. further into the ground out of ignorance.

[thornl01]

ahhh interesting. well i am thinking of buying a bobs machine shop low water pick up nose cone for a case i have, so im thinking ill put the 2-1 gears in it.. ill take photos of gears and post on here!

cheers
850

I know that this is an old post, But Where are the pictures of the 2.0 /1 nitro gears?:confused: