can u damage a power head

[captainrandy]

I just purchased a 175 mercury power head off ebay/THe guy i bought it from said it had good compression and was ready to just bolt on my bottom end.Well i had it ship to the mechanic who was doing the work on my boat.Well he calls me while i am on the boat working and says 5 cylinders had 125pds and the number 5 had 85pds/the block has been set up for about 2 years.But the way he did the check was took the starter off my motor put it on the power head.turn it over without having any kind of oil on pistons are spraying them with anything .Could he have scared the block are harmed the pistons by turning the engine over with out having any kind of oil in cylindes.And could this have gave it the reading because of stuck rings from sitting up for so long.The guy i bought it from says thats why the compression was wrong are low because of turn the engine over dry like that.So please let me know if i should be worried about the block being damage from this.And if so is the mechanic responsable for it.the guy i bought it from is a mechanic and said he should have never did what he did.Who is rite and who is wrong.All i know i have a power head that mite need rebuild before i got to even use it./Captain Randy

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: can u damage a power head

Sounds like you bought a Blackbird engine...even if it sat 2 years the compression should be within 5-10 psi of others unless cylinders are rusty, then engine is worthless anyway because it was not prepped for storage. Sounds like you bought a used engine with bad cylinder and seller is trying to blame mechanic...

 

[arimatation]

Re: can u damage a power head

Not an outboard expert. But he probably should have sprayed some type of lube before he did a compression check.

I would think that it should be OK. Try the test again with some lubricant into the cylinders, "the only way".

You are stuck in a tough spot and it will be difficult to place blame. In fact they are in a good position to shift blame to each other.....

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: can u damage a power head

What would be different ??? If it was "ready to bolt on" and installed then found compression low or cranking it with starter in floor???..... Nothing as cylinders would still been dry at cranking till it started. You need to get on seller or call paypal/ebay and stop transaction till settled.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: can u damage a power head

What would be different ??? If it was "ready to bolt on" and installed then found compression low or cranking it with starter in floor???..... Nothing as cylinders would still been dry at cranking till it started. You need to get on seller or call paypal/ebay and stop transaction till settled.

I agree with Faztbullet here. If you bought the motor in "bolt on" and go condition then there is no way that compression test caused scoring.

A motor that is going to be stored for 2 years should've been thoroughly fogged and would still have fogging oil throughout the engine. Sounds like he didn't store it properly and now it may have corrosion or other issues.

 

[captainrandy]

Re: can u damage a power head

I just purchased a 175 mercury power head off ebay/THe guy i bought it from said it had good compression and was ready to just bolt on my bottom end.Well i had it ship to the mechanic who was doing the work on my boat.Well he calls me while i am on the boat working and says 5 cylinders had 125pds and the number 5 had 85pds/the block has been set up for about 2 years.But the way he did the check was took the starter off my motor put it on the power head.turn it over without having any kind of oil on pistons are spraying them with anything .Could he have scared the block are harmed the pistons by turning the engine over with out having any kind of oil in cylindes.And could this have gave it the reading because of stuck rings from sitting up for so long.The guy i bought it from says thats why the compression was wrong are low because of turn the engine over dry like that.So please let me know if i should be worried about the block being damage from this.And if so is the mechanic responsable for it.the guy i bought it from is a mechanic and said he should have never did what he did.Who is rite and who is wrong.All i know i have a power head that mite need rebuild before i got to even use it./Captain Randy

well the worst part about it the power head was delivered a week and a half ago.sat in the shop because of the holidays.i work on the river as a captain so i am trying to deal with this by phone.So he got his money and u r rite now they blaming each other for who did wrong.So i am just amazed because this is the second engine .i just bought this moter a month age and it was rebuild before i bought it and it locked up the first week i used iit.that guy gave me half of my money back because i got this power head off ebay and now its no good what a run of luck.and the bass r biting like crazy on the lake.//so should i wait till i get home and do another compression check myself.the guy i bought it from said for me to do that and get back with him.but i think the damage is done and he going to blame the mechanic.all i guess i can hope for is that his gauge was wrong are the guy i bought it from is a man and relize he sold me a bad block

 

[Dukedog]

Re: can u damage a power head

Sounds like you bought a Blackbird engine...even if it sat 2 years the compression should be within 5-10 psi of others unless cylinders are rusty, then engine is worthless anyway because it was not prepped for storage. Sounds like you bought a used engine with bad cylinder and seller is trying to blame mechanic...

I agree...........Specially "Blackird motor"

Do ya think 5 would be fine but ONLY one would read completly different....
All SIX are in tha same motor arn't they ...............D

Fog or no fog, Unless its had water in it crankin' it like that ain't gonna hurt nothin in tha motor.

 

[captainrandy]

Re: can u damage a power head

well thanks guys not what i wanted to hear but u r rite.just guess i wait till i get off the boat to deal with it.its just the money i have put out between both motor i got screwed on could have bought a new one are a good down pay ment on one.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: can u damage a power head

In my opinion, "ready to bolt on" condition means ready to turn over and run. If he advertised it that way on Ebay, and did not offer any specifics (start up procedures, more or less) or instructions to do prior to use, then he did not have a "Ready to bolt on" head. That be the case, he has mis-advertised and you have a claim...

I doubt that just the compression check damamged the cylinder. Might just be a stuck ring that will free itself... But I would dispute the charge with Paypal until the matter is cleared...

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: can u damage a power head

well thanks guys not what i wanted to hear but u r rite.just guess i wait till i get off the boat to deal with it.its just the money i have put out between both motor i got screwed on could have bought a new one are a good down pay ment on one.

Ouch...

by the way, Welcome to iboats! You'll find the folks on here are very knowledgeable on these sorts of things.

Come back and ask lots of questions and if you ask the right ones, you'll save yourself a lot of headache and money.

best of luck

 

[ENSIGN]

Re: can u damage a power head

Why does it always have to be someone elses fault??? Don't blame the mechanic you screwd up!!

 

[CVX20SPRINT]

Re: can u damage a power head

I'd lay money the motor had issues before it was shipped.Problem these days is that there are very few people that you can trust.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: can u damage a power head

I'd lay money the motor had issues before it was shipped.Problem these days is that there are very few people that you can trust.

I feel the same ^^^^ That is what I was trying to get across in my above post...

 

[sschefer]

Re: can u damage a power head

I don't know if you can do a search on #5 with low compression on 2.0L engines but if you could you'd find a bunch of them.

What I know from my own experience is that the #5 journal on two cranks that I checked was .005 larger in diameter and the lift on that journal was .006 higher on both cranks. I found some mention of the problem on other sites. I also found that the bottom of the exhaust port on #5 was higher above the piston top than any other cylinder.

I don't know if that's enough to cause it to fail early but certainly there does seem to be a problem at that cylinder on some of the 2.0L engines.

The good news is that you have a sweet engine that is certainly worth rebuilding and it's not all that expensive either.

 

[turbinedoctor]

Re: can u damage a power head

In reading this I did not see it stated that the newest powerhead was a rebuild or a used powerhead. If it was a rebuild and done proper it should have had oil on the cylinders when it was put back together and grease on the bearings. That should have been enough to do a compression check since you would have to crank it over to adjust the timing anyway. If it was a used motor and not fogged when stored it should have had enough residual oil in it to perform the compression test. I just torn apart a engine that had been setting for 4 years without fogging and there was plenty of oil on the critical parts. Now that I am putting my engine back together during a rebuild, grease was used in the bearings and oil was applied to the cylinder walls, this should give me enough lube to do the pre-start cranks to adjust the timing and first run before the oil gets to it.

I think it was a bad engine to start with.

Durwood

 

[bernieb]

Re: can u damage a power head

I don't think you would mind posting the sellers ebay title name would you...........might wanna buy a hanging rope from him.

 

[outboardnut]

Re: can u damage a power head

I would do a compression check and observe it myself before I got my panties to far in a wad.

Believe it or not all mechanics are not honest. He may be just wanting to sell you a rebuild.

I've seen dishonest sellers too.

Bottom line is though it doesn't matter who's fault it is, if you bought it on EBay and paid with PayPal then they will give your money back and stick it to the seller.

If you have a bad cyl often the spark plugs will give you a clue too, look for metal.

I would probably tell my mech to fill that cyl with oil and check it again or find someone with a scope that can look in there.

All this being said I would imagine more than likely you bought a lemon.

 

[sschefer]

Re: can u damage a power head

Captain Randy, having re-read your original post I think your mechanic could easily be blammed for the problem but I'm not saying that he caused it.

In order to properly fog an engine you need to put a starter on it and crank it over while spraying fogging oil into the carbs. Spraying fogging oil into the cylinders would only help those cylinders that were down in position not the ones that were up and you would still need to turn the engine over. As you can see, the use of oil in the cylinders prior to cranking would probably not have hurt but it likely would not have helped this problem either.

You mentioned that the engine had been laid up for two years. Did your mechanic know that? I think I would have pulled the heads and exhaust divider and checked for stuck rings before I tried to crank it over. This is a procedure that is pretty standard when dealing with a engine of unknown condition.

I mentioned before but purposely did not go into great detail about is the problem with #5 on some 2.0L engines. A Merc trained mechanic would know about this since I've been told they do talk about it in at least some of the schools. Merc doesn't make a big deal about it because the engines seem to last a normal life time. You have bought an engine expecting to extend it's use beyond it's normal lifetime so in essence, you get what you pay for. That may seem like a hard lesson but the reality is that you have a very rebuildable engine.

The question then comes to if it was a drop on power head or not. I would say yes. You could have probably run that engine for another season and would not have known anything was wrong until #5 went completely south. At that point you would have probably told your mechanic it was running rough and he would have said #5 is low on compression. You would have thought it was something you did and had it fixed.

As I said, you do have a very rebuildable engine that can be put back to factory original condition and given a new lifetime. And, you can do that at a fraction of the cost of new engine or about the same cost as if you started with a certified rebuilt powerhead.

 

[Dukedog]

Re: can u damage a power head

The question then comes to if it was a drop on power head or not. I would say yes. You could have probably run that engine for another season and would not have known anything was wrong until #5 went completely south.

This part is very true so just one ? Captn'. Did you ask for compression and/or leak down numbers BEFORE ya made tha deal?..............

It could have very well been a "runnin' drop on" with him havin' no idea about tha low clyinder..............

 

[out 2 launch]

Re: can u damage a power head

In defense of the mechanic, right or wrong, at least he had the foresight to check the compression before mounting the power head. I seriously doubt that any damage was done unless bone dry, and I mean bone dry. Highly unlikely. Someone mentioned to add oil and repeat the test. What!!!! Now there is a good way to hide a bad cylinder. I'd give the benefit of any doubt to the mechanic. Personally I'd be very weary of any thing purchased used, sight unseen, and I don"t know about others but in this case a compression check would be the first thing done.