2002 Mercury 25EH

Come across a motor for sale on craig's list about an hour from where i live. The guy who has it bought a boat that came with this motor but he said the motor is too big for what he uses the boat for. It has been converted into a remote steer and he does not have the starter hooked up to a battery and doesn't know if he has the right cables that goes along with it. If i did get it, i think i would be interested in converting it back to tiller which he does not have the parts for. He has not ran the motor in a year but says it runs good. The guy really cant tell me much about it because he really doesn't know anything about boat motors, nor do i proclaim to know much either.

Things i would check would be compression(what does this motor call for?), if water is in lower unit, any water or oil leaks on motor, turn flywheel to make sure engine isnt locked up. Is there anything else i should check before trying to start it up for him. He is asking $450 for the motor as is.

My questions are:
1) What is the review on this outboard? Run good, any common problems with it....
2) If i decide to switch it back to tiller, I could get everything i need for a couple hundred bucks, correct? Would it be worth it to even do this?

Any guidance on whether or not to go and check this thing out or just to forget about it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hello compression should be above 100 psi and within 10% of each other. They are excellent motors good running very powerful. Converting to a tiller is tricky mercury has kind of a complicated tiller set-up. That motor probably wasn't converted from a tiller came that way from the factory. You could probably find a parts motor they show up pretty regularly for sale. People do not change the water pump and they burn up. Do you get the controls with it it's a good price I would buy it and hold onto it until i can find the parts. Definitely do a compression test they are very expensive to rebuild.