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Al Duresa

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"Maybe this belongs under a ge

"Maybe this belongs under a general comments but I bought a Mercury so I figured I would post here. I am some what new to boat engine ownership and it seems like an expensive hoppy. Anyway I bought a 40 HP used and so far so good. I was looking at e-bay and readings a lot about compression numbers and rebuilt power heads and rebuilt lower units. The response to my question may require lots of input, but I'm am wondering why are so many people giving out this info in the first place. What would make an engine lose compression . . is this a sign of corrosion in the piston sleeves or excessive hours? And what about the power head how would someone screw one up to the point it needed to be rebuilt. I figure re-built lower units are due to guys running over logs or hitting a sand bars, but wouldn't a hit like that keep the engine in good running order?"
 
"This is easy, you bought a 2

"This is easy, you bought a 2 cycle engine, the oil mixes with the gas to lube the engine. If one leaves the fuel in the engine over the winter months it will break down and gum up the carb or carbs. These engines are built basically one cyl on top of another using the same crankshaft and multiple fuel supplies(carbs). The engine will run with a clogged carb allowing that cyl or cyl's to function with no oil/gas, thus destroying that piston and block, no sleeves on most engines. So in general, never force the engine to run if it seems down on power.
Second thing to wipe out the engine is the water pump. One minute you see water coming from the tell tale, and the next minute the engine is loosing power, going slower, so you increase the throttle, and now your overheated engine is a molten mass of aluminum scrap. Why you ask, because you went 5 years without changing a $20 pump.
As far as the lower unit, service it every year, before winter. Install new gaskets on the drain plugs, new lube, and a new pump every other year and its good to go. Always shift gears with a purpose, grinding them together is bad."
 
"Al, JB has pretty well summed

"Al, JB has pretty well summed it up there. And your comment about boat engine ownership being an expensive hobby - it can be - but with relatively "cheap" regular maintenance, it doesn't have to be.

Remember, BOAT is just an acronym for Bet On Another Thousand (dollars that is)


Most of us on here have "older" engines. A 20 or 30 year old outboard is not "that old" if it has been taken care of.

And to one of your other comments about "excessive hours". Personally, I am far more cautious of a 20 year old engine with "only" 200 hours on it, than say the same vintage with well over 1000 hours.

If you only ran the motor an average of 10 hours a year (200 hours over 20 years), it is far more likely to be in "bad shape" than one that has been constantly run.

The 1000 hour motor must have been cared for or the owner whould have "toasted" it a long time ago...."
 
"I forgot to mention the dread

"I forgot to mention the dreaded automatic oil injection systems, better known as the soon to be blown powerhead. If your engine is under warrenty then keep the system, if out of warrenty ditch it before it ditches you."
 
i am 68 years old...have been

i am 68 years old...have been on the water for over 50..started off using a 3hp engine with an old wooden boat...a boat..motor...trailer can be unforgiving if not taken care of...as mentioned above by JB and Graham maintenance is the rule...some people(the majority i think) can take a new rig and have a unreliable pile of junk in 3-5 years..i had a 50 merc on a plain 15 foot john boat years ago..a non boating neighbor remarked to me once that i had a 2k boat and 20k worth of cars (quite a while ago eh) and spent more time cleaning and maintaining boat than i did the cars..he was right..the fact is you gotta love to piddle and observe and take care of a boat...much more than a car..the little things undone add up..then you end up with a lot of things wrong that can run a lot of bucks to fix all at once...a person could write a small book about this if he wished...good luck and if its broke then fix it before you even store it sunday night..leave it out and tackle it when you get in from work during the week..a rig is a definite pay me now or pay me later proposition....
 
i am 68 years old...have been

i am 68 years old...have been on the water for over 50..started off using a 3hp engine with an old wooden boat...a boat..motor...trailer can be unforgiving if not taken care of...as mentioned above by JB and Graham maintenance is the rule...some people(the majority i think) can take a new rig and have a unreliable pile of junk in 3-5 years..i had a 50 merc on a plain 15 foot john boat years ago..a non boating neighbor remarked to me once that i had a 2k boat and 20k worth of cars (quite a while ago eh) and spent more time cleaning and maintaining boat than i did the cars..he was right..the fact is you gotta love to piddle and observe and take care of a boat...much more than a car..the little things undone add up..then you end up with a lot of things wrong that can run a lot of bucks to fix all at once...a person could write a small book about this if he wished...good luck and if its broke then fix it before you even store it sunday night..leave it out and tackle it when you get in from work during the week..a rig is a definite pay me now or pay me later proposition....
 
"Thanks for the comments and a

"Thanks for the comments and any other tips would be greatly appreciated as I do not want my engine to turn into scrap as JB put it. Like I indicated, so far so good. One comment that popped my eyes
blush.gif
was the one about the oil injection system. Are they really that unreliable that you recommend not owning an engine that has it? How about mixing my own gas so I know the gas has oil in it. Can I defeat the injection system? What happens if you just don't fill it and mix your own gas? Another question I have has more to do with why I bought the boat in the first place. I am an avid hunter and fisherman that does not the opportunity to hunt and fish as much as I would like. How long can I let the rig sit before the oil gas mix gums up my carbs? And last but not least, I did notice that on my maiden voyage that on deceleration from high RPM (5000) there was tapping noise that came from the engine. This definitely worried me so I had the engine looked at a place where I was fishing for the weekend and the guy tuned the engine and replaced the water pump (same reason as you guys mentioned above, more of a maintenance move as I had good water but the guy said since I didn't know for sure when the last time it was replaced I should get done and know), but, the guy did not tell me anything about the deceleration noise. Any suggestions on what that could be? I ran the engine this summer and the same noise still existed, so the tune up did not eliminate anything. I would think the repair shop would test the engine in a tank and notice the same noise. I'm thinking I should get it back in with another place where I live where the guy is not under any pressure to get me back on the water."
 
"i run a evinrude 88 that make

"i run a evinrude 88 that makes more noise after being run wide open...its been like that for 14 years...all of the 88,s do that..i dont know about your 40..i would check the compression and if thats ok i would then check the water temp after a long 5k rpm run...if you can hold your hand in the water flow coming out of the engine exhaust then its cool enough..does it sound like a slight knock?does it go away after running slower for a few minutes?it may be that you have burned any excess oil that had accumalated out..."
 
Is it the ratcheting of the fo

Is it the ratcheting of the forward gear and clutch dog???? These motors are ok with that noise.
 
"Carl/London,

Thanks for th

"Carl/London,

Thanks for the response:

I'll check out the water temp, but I suspect that is OK. Yes the tapping goes away as soon as I slow down. Like I said its the deceleration from high rpm to low. The only thing I can liken it to is like when a truck engine brakes to slow down. Obviously not that loud or as intense, but it just tapps down and goes away as soon as I gas it again or start putting along.

I have no idea whata clutch dog is so I can not relate, but if you mean that some sort of linkage is rattling around that is under stress during acceleration and then gets loose during deceleration, yes I have thought about this."
 
"Simple , put the motor in for

"Simple , put the motor in forward and you should be able to turn the prop one way and not the other( ratheting of the clutch ).Do not worry about this noise it is normal!"
 
"Al, with regards to your ques

"Al, with regards to your question about the Auto-Blend oil system.

The word from Merc is, if it didn't have in the first place, never install it on a motor - likewise, if it goes (and you catch it before it harms anything), remove it and throw it as far away from the motor as possible."
 
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