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I was the victim of a Facebook Marketplace scam.

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TheRealDude

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I bought a boat that was "water ready" that needed carpet. It had a Mercury Black Max 225 on it. When I drove the 2.5 hours to pick it up, they fired the boat up on a portable tank and it seemed to run a little rough, but I attributed that to it being cold. I didn't know anything about these engines. So we drive it home and it's a couple days before we can fiddle with it. We put fuel in the tank and mixed it to 50:1 after we thought we determined that the tank was empty. It wasn't. I should mention that on the drive home, the broken trolling motor fell apart where they had stuck it together. The speedometer with all the warning lights fell out of the dash. NONE of the gauges were hooked to anything. We get it started but it is running REALLY rough. I think there's maybe bad gas and we just need to let it run until it gets past it. We take it to the lake to attempt to run it. It will not stay running, and won't get up to speed. We accept defeat and now I'm really angry. This guy knew this boat wasn't "water ready". I call him, he puts me off for a day, then we finally speak. He says he didn't even think about the tank and they should've gone through the carbs. He says we didn't mix the fuel with enough oil and probably damaged the motor running it. I've rebuilt more engines than I can count and this one doesn't look too tough. I'm considering legal action, but I also think it might be an easy fix. I do a compression test cold. 85 psi on all cylinders. Then I do a compression test warm, WOT. 85 PSI all cylinders. I spray a penetrant oil in one cylinder. 85 PSI. I take the heads off. Attached is what I found. What would you guys do?

Motor Serial Number 0B199938
 

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It has 0.030" o/s ----0.015" o/s and standard pistons.-----Makes you wonder.-----I would take it apart for measuring and evaluation of everything.
 
racerone said:
It has 0.030" o/s ----0.015" o/s and standard pistons.-----Makes you wonder.-----I would take it apart for measuring and evaluation of everything.
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So my assumption is that the block is bored .030 over since no shop would do different bore sizes, right? Also I should mention the heads were cleaned and the head gaskets were brand spanking new.
 
You assume wrong.----The pistons are clerarly marked as to what size they are.------A shop will do what the customer wants.
 
TheRealDude said:
I bought a boat that was "water ready" that needed carpet. It had a Mercury Black Max 225 on it. When I drove the 2.5 hours to pick it up, they fired the boat up on a portable tank and it seemed to run a little rough, but I attributed that to it being cold. I didn't know anything about these engines. So we drive it home and it's a couple days before we can fiddle with it. We put fuel in the tank and mixed it to 50:1 after we thought we determined that the tank was empty. It wasn't. I should mention that on the drive home, the broken trolling motor fell apart where they had stuck it together. The speedometer with all the warning lights fell out of the dash. NONE of the gauges were hooked to anything. We get it started but it is running REALLY rough. I think there's maybe bad gas and we just need to let it run until it gets past it. We take it to the lake to attempt to run it. It will not stay running, and won't get up to speed. We accept defeat and now I'm really angry. This guy knew this boat wasn't "water ready". I call him, he puts me off for a day, then we finally speak. He says he didn't even think about the tank and they should've gone through the carbs. He says we didn't mix the fuel with enough oil and probably damaged the motor running it. I've rebuilt more engines than I can count and this one doesn't look too tough. I'm considering legal action, but I also think it might be an easy fix. I do a compression test cold. 85 psi on all cylinders. Then I do a compression test warm, WOT. 85 PSI all cylinders. I spray a penetrant oil in one cylinder. 85 PSI. I take the heads off. Attached is what I found. What would you guys do?

Motor Serial Number 0B199938
Even if everything seems normal at first glance, you still need to check everything. Buying something as expensive and complicated as a boat with a motor requires careful checking. I myself have been deceived and cheated many times but on the Internet. Now I carefully study and check everything. Recently I started reading about ontario at https://casinoofthekings.ca/ontario/ and I learned everything about it from experience. Only after a full check and people's reviews I registered on it. This is the system I work with trust.
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I understand what it's like to trust someone and end up in that situation. It's a hard lesson, you can't just rely on the seller's word. I've been in that situation a couple of times myself, but life has taught me that.
 
Serial number is for a 150hp, Pictures of sleeve look like non ported 150/175/ Post picture of powerhead and head casting or best yet is take it back and get $$$
 
Next time, take it directly to a good shop and have them do a "leak-down" test on each cylinder. If one fails, you might as well replace the motor. Very expensive to bring it back to factory specs.
 
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