Outboard gas/oil leak

[mregan]

I have a 3 yr old Taihatsu outboard, 4 stroke.  Tried to start it up on the dighy last week, seems to be leaking oil or gas, there is a sheen on water after trying to start it.  Pulled the cord a few times and noticed the sheen.  Tilted the outboard up out of the water and saw some brownish water leaking out of the drain holes above the prop.  Needs some more gas to start.

Went down today with some new gas.  Filled the tank and 3-4 pulls it started.  Getting a gas/oil sheen on the water again.  Let it run for 5 minutes and seems to be a constant sheen on the water.  Turned off and tilted out of the water.  Water coming out of the drain holes was clean.  Thought maybe the discharge from the week before was from taking it out of storage, putting in car then into cart to the boat.  Guess not.

No visible leaks from above the waterline so must be leaking below.  Any thoughts.

[Ron Hill]

mre : Look in your Tohatsu manual and see if there is a restriction on which side the motor can be on when lying down!!

A thought

[mregan]

Going to the boat tomorrow to look through the manual but searching around on the internet that is something I saw.  Although from what I've read, it tends to cause hydraulic lock of the motor because the cylinders are full of oil.  I'm not having that problem, although maybe because the outboard was on the wrong side for only a half day while it was in the car.

I was also thinking maybe is was a leaking lower seal but it doesn't leak when the engine is off, only when running.  I think, sitting on the wrong side might be the problem.  I wonder if I let it run long enough it will clean itself out?

[Dave Spencer]

If the leak is below or near the waterline, it's the gear oil in the unit leaking. Usually 80W90 gear oil or something close to that. You may wish to snug up the lower and upper fill ports on the lower unit. I think Tohatsu recommends changing the washer with each lower unit oil change. Maybe a $0.10 washer will fix it. (Except a special "marine" washer will be $1.75!)
Or it might be a bit of oil that dripped into the upper housing during the last oil change that is slowly dripping out.
Ron's advice is also good. If the outboard was stored on the wrong side, oil may get where it shouldn't be (or won't be where it should be) and drip in the most inconvenient manner.