Hi all,
I have a 1984 35 hp mercury 2 stroke (serial number 06491413) on a 1986 MV-16 basstracker. I got the boat for a very good deal and want to use it as a first boat for my 14 year old son to learn on who just got his boating license. Compression tested it and it came back near perfect with cylinder #1 being 140 psi and #2 at 139 psi. We put a new impeller on it, rebuilt the carb and fuel pump, and put a new starter on it. Got it running but it is getting water in the #2 cylinder. I took it to a Mercury dealer and they verified the compression is good, spark is good, but water is in #2. They also bore scoped the cylinders and told me both cyliners have scarring. They can pull the powerhead and repace all the gaskets that can cause water to get into the cylinder for $1,200 or rebuild the entire motor for $4,000. If they rebuild the motor, they will go .030 over and install oversized pistons and replace all the bearings and maintance parts as well as the gaskets so the water issue will be fixed.
My question is, if there is scarring on cylinders, but compression is perfect, do we need to worry about it short term in the next few years? We can use premium mercury oil and properly winterize it with fogging oil, re-fog before starting it back up the next season, etc, and keep an eye on the compression. The thing I'm worried about the most is leaving him stranded somewhere, but I don't think scarring on the cylinders will do that. I don't mind putting $4,000 in this boat because we got it for practically nothing, but we will be probably buying a better boat in 3-4 years.
Thanks,
Ed
I have a 1984 35 hp mercury 2 stroke (serial number 06491413) on a 1986 MV-16 basstracker. I got the boat for a very good deal and want to use it as a first boat for my 14 year old son to learn on who just got his boating license. Compression tested it and it came back near perfect with cylinder #1 being 140 psi and #2 at 139 psi. We put a new impeller on it, rebuilt the carb and fuel pump, and put a new starter on it. Got it running but it is getting water in the #2 cylinder. I took it to a Mercury dealer and they verified the compression is good, spark is good, but water is in #2. They also bore scoped the cylinders and told me both cyliners have scarring. They can pull the powerhead and repace all the gaskets that can cause water to get into the cylinder for $1,200 or rebuild the entire motor for $4,000. If they rebuild the motor, they will go .030 over and install oversized pistons and replace all the bearings and maintance parts as well as the gaskets so the water issue will be fixed.
My question is, if there is scarring on cylinders, but compression is perfect, do we need to worry about it short term in the next few years? We can use premium mercury oil and properly winterize it with fogging oil, re-fog before starting it back up the next season, etc, and keep an eye on the compression. The thing I'm worried about the most is leaving him stranded somewhere, but I don't think scarring on the cylinders will do that. I don't mind putting $4,000 in this boat because we got it for practically nothing, but we will be probably buying a better boat in 3-4 years.
Thanks,
Ed