Worth It or Not?

I have an older 4hp Mercury outboard that has been causing me more grief than I really need and just wondering if it is worth the time and effort to get it fixed.
Normal (to me) problems have been: Will be boating along, it seems to pop out of gear, you back down all the way on the throttle and it will re-engage and drive forward as usual. When it happens, it sounds like it is over-revving.
Second issue, we will be running along and then it will just shut down, pull the choke out and start it again and it will run fine for a bit (or a while) and then will shut down again. It's usually not hard to get it started again, just a pain that you can't run sometimes for more than 5 mins straight.
Now the big issue that might be the determining factor. I was out in it last night, and heading in I noticed that it smelled hot or something, then it shut off, no big deal since it is a pretty common occurrence. Went to start it again and I am not able to pull it over. Can not pull the cord out to start it.
We just use the boat around the lake to go for little boat rides and fishing. Just trying to figure out which would be a better option, try to fix it or just replace it.
Thanks for any input.

problem one is the lower unit needs a rebuild.
problem 2 sounds like a tank vent or fuel pump
problem 3 sounds terminal, classic water pump failure to overheat to melt down

Would make a nice tomato stake or kick it overboard for the fish

The first issue u have is prob. the prop bushing. If you run and it pops out of gear (as u describe) and you slow down (while it's still in gear) and it gives you propulsion again, your prob bushing is spun.

If you repeatedly run the engine with it popping out of gear, esp at full throttle, you are puting a tremendous strain on the engine because it is basically run full throttle with no load on it. This may have caused you to burn a piston??

I would take heads off and see if the pistons are scored. Sounds like you may have one stuck??

A brand new 4 horse is under 1000 bucks, you could easily spend half that trying to fix yours yourself (most shops would tell you "not worth it") and still have an "old" motor.

There are tons of little air cooled 5'ish horse motors on Ebay at any given time. You can often pick them up for about 100 bucks - might be your better option..

Thanks for the valuable feedback, I figured that it wasn't worth sinking any $$ or time into it. That being said, any particular types to stay away from, thinking that 6-9hp should be good for the boat.
Thanks again

Ok, if you are looking in the 6hp + area, first off stay away from any single cylinder motors - they are just always "shakey" no matter how well you tune them.

Personally, I tend to stay away from motors older than about 1986 because parts can be difficult to find in some cases and you don't want to scrap an otherwise decent motor because that 5 dollar widget that you need is no longer stocked.

Having said that, the OMC's going back into the mid 70's still have decent parts support, so a 1978 6 horse Johnson as an example is still a very viable motor.

On the Merc side of things, 1986 was the year of the new model runs. The 6, 8 and 9.9 Mercs all shared a powerhead, ignition, case, gears etc - only the exhaust and carb was different and the model run lasted until 2005, so tons of parts out there.

They hold their value well, so a late 80's/early 90's Merc will normally fetch $700 or so.

If you are looking at a new 4 stroke, you would probably need to move up to an 8 horse before you find a twin cylinder model. At a boat show this spring I was looking at a 8 horse Tohatsu that the dealer was selling for $1400 (list at about 2K). Tohatsu builds all the little Merc's and all the Nissan's - only the paint and decals are different so you can shop for the best deal on "identical" motors.

If you are not looking to spend so much on a new motor you might want to check out Parsun outboards. They are mechanical copies of small Yamaha's that are built in China which knocks about 25% off the cost of the "brand names". They are Yami parts, just all bolted together in China (just like Honda automobiles now)..