Horror story
The Universal 5432 is a Kubota tractor engine marinized by Universal. First lesson is get your parts from Kubota at tractor prices, not from Universal (now Westerbeke) at yacht prices. It is an excellent engine. However, there is a design flaw in the gear case, which is aluminum. The case is drilled with oil galleries that are under full oil pump pressure. In earlier versions of the enegine (mine -- 1982 and I presume earlier) the ends of these galleries are plugged with, well, plugs. For whatever reason -- corrosion, stress cracking, bad fit, vibration -- these plugs can leak. And since the leak is on the pressure side, even a tiny leak in no time can fill your bilge with oil and leave none in the crankcase. To fix this the engine must come out of the boat and the gear case must be replaced. The newer replacement does not have plugs. It has screw in inserts with square heads so that you can simply remove a bad one and screw in a new one. Another problem is the raw water pump. It's an Oberdorfer 202M-7 (I believe)which has a grease cup that you must fill and turn occasionally. If you neglect the grease cup it may fall off and your pump will spray raw water all over the aluminum gear case at the front of the engine. This is not good. If the drive belt is a little loose, it will rub against the grease cup cap and cause it to unscrew. The belt itself will be damaged as it does this. Also check the mounting of the heat exchanger. It can break from prolonged vibration, as can the exhaust pipe. Otherwise, it's an excellent and basically trouble-free engine.
