I’m thinking this hole is some sort of case drain that is getting some of the oil from from my power head. I pulled my cowling and see a little bit of oil down at the bottom but can’t tell where it’s coming from. What is going here?

Could have shift shaft seal bad

Gotta confirm which type oil (lower unit or engine) it is. If engine, it could be coming down from leakage under your cowl or the lower crank seal is leaking. If it's lower unit oil it's more than likely the shift shaft or impeller seal leaking

If your not sure which oil type it is, I'd probably start troubleshooting by checking lower unit oil condition/level. If milky color you have water intrusion indicating bad seal in lower unit. You can take the lower unit to the dealer and they can pressure check it to determine which seal is bad.

If your sure it's engine oil, I'd clean up the oil under the cowl, run motor on muffs and locate source of leak. If no leakage noted under cowl, drop lower unit down and you should be able to see signs of leakage in the engine mid section housing and on top of your lower unit section indicating bad lower crank seal.

Hope this helps.

"this"............ if you change it, be sure tha "shaft" does not come out with tha seal when ya pull it.......... keep down pressure on tha shaft.

If it is 2 cycle oil from the powerhead check the small cross feed lines on the motor. On the Black Max I had they were black.

Have a 225 pro xs doing the same. In my case it is engine oil verified with blacklight. Took it to a platinum mechanic and he said nothing to worry about. Also talked to mechanic at dealership and he told me how and why it wasn’t crankshaft seal.

a PLATINUM dealer told you that??? anything runnin' out of hole it's not supposed too "isn't nothin' ta worry 'bout"............ jmo

how do you justify it with a "black light"... there is no way for 2 stroke oil ta get at that peticular place that i know of.......

Two things I would check if its 2 cycle oil:
1: Check all the little oil lines under the hood. Had a small hair line crack in one of mine dripping once.
2: Check the oil reservoir cap under the hood. Mine cracked and made quite a mess.

And if you know its 2 cycle oil leaking DO NOT RUN IT AGAIN UNTIL YOU FIGURE IT OUT!! Your repair bill will skyrocket if you do! Trust me!!!

check your oil tank, is there any oil on the outside? look at the throat of the carbs or injection, do you see an oily film?

I went to pre mix on the fast strike I had, and ran it rich which caused some oil mist sometimes. no idea why but once a yr. I would clean it

with some carb cleaner and rags.

how has your oil to gas been?

Thanks for all the responses. This one still has me confused. The thickness and smell of this oil says it's gear oil and not engine. If in fact it is gear oil, how in the heck does it get that vent hole that is several inches above the prop gears. The vent hole is really close to being in line with the forward/reverse shaft (like TBird says) though maybe there is a seal there that it's bypassing? Another strange thing with this leak is that it won't drip for 2-3 days and then it shows back up. Very puzzling.

Probably has to due with temperature changes. Only take you 10 minutes to drop that lower unit down.

your gonna need ta pull tha gear case ta find it.. its gonna be gear oil.. there is no way for a oil/fuel mixture ta get to that hole.. could be either shift shaft and/or drive shaft seal (below water pump).. you need ta check for water in tha case?.. you will need ta "pressurize" tha case ta locate if its not oblivious.... jmo.

TLW is correct, its a bad seal or gasket in the lower unit, I have read the holes are called "weep holes", I'm not sure its the technical term but you can find out by searching "weep holes on lower unit"