1999 mariner 60hp NEEDS HELP PLEASE

"Hi, i'm new to this forum

"Hi, i'm new to this forum and hopefully this is the one for me as it has quite a few well imformed people about, anyway the problem i have is the top and middle pistons have suffered a siezure but not the bottom one is this common problem with these engines. I have stripped the engine and noticed the bottom piston and crank well lubricated but the top and middle piston seemed dry to me, this might be the result of siezure though i think, ive checked the water ways and they are clear and i know the water pump was pumping fine so what could have caused this if the rest of the engine was lubricated.
ANY SUGESTIONS WELCOME

All the best Clint"

"The seized pistons are possib

"The seized pistons are possibly due to (in order of most likely)

1) sitting around without being prepped for storage

2) clogged carbs - your model has 1 carb for each cylinder. It's is very possible that the top 2 were clogged and the bottom somehow worked as it should.

Again, lack of proper storage, running old gas, lack of maintenance can all cause a carb to clog.

A good few motors seize from lack of cooling, but carb problems account for far more failures.

Is your problem common to the 60 Merc - NO. It was a well build engine with a sound design. 99.9% of problems can be tracked down to maintenance issues.

Far more outboards die from "lack of use" than overuse.

It is a decent candidate for a rebuild. You could do it yourself (farming out some of the work - like rebore of the cylinders) and have a "like new" powerhead for under 1000 bucks.

Alternately. You could get a rebuilt/reman powerhead for about 2K.

Of course, you still need to service the carbs which either caused the problem, or need attention in any event (if the motor seized from sitting, the carbs are probably gummed as well)..."

Thankyou for your advice Graha

Thankyou for your advice Graham i had this terrible fear it was the oil pump and prices for bits over here are very high for anything marine and the oil pump is about 600 pounds or 900 dollars so hopefully i will have a virtually new engine for roughly the same cost.
Once again thankyou.
All the best Clint