Some of you may recall my post from August wherein I asked about strange
spray around my transom, and wondered about some sort of deformity in the
alumimum hull. Yesterday, because it was cold and I hadn't used the boat in
a couple of weeks, I decided to put on the muffs and start it in the
driveway before going to the boat launch. Terminology might be faulty here,
but I noticed some water spritzing out from where the motor pivots (down
low). Cooling water was flowing fine, however. Oil looks clean (4 stroke
motor, by the way), and there was no oil slick of any kind on the driveway
or around the motor once it was in the water.

Maybe I'm looking for problems where there aren't any. But, if you could
carefully observe an outboard in, say, a tank, what would be signs of
trouble, in terms of effluent? I know....flames would be something to think
about.