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  1. Lou C

    Off-Season Float Battery Charging, 2 Batteries

    same, I seem to average 7 years of good use on my Deka gp 27 dual purpose batteries
  2. Lou C

    Penta 4.3 GL in saltwater?

    I think there is a difference from the 95 & older models and the 96 & up. 95 & older had a steel pan & 96 and up has an alloy pan that seems bigger. My old ‘88 with the steel pan takes 4 US qts to fill.
  3. Lou C

    Off-Season Float Battery Charging, 2 Batteries

    I charge em and turn the batt switch off; during the winter I’ll open up the cover & charge em every 2/3 months depending on the weather. If they are dead in the spring then you needed to replace them anyway. Keeping them on a maintainer all winter can mask a weak battery that won’t hold a charge.
  4. Lou C

    Looking for pump to drain oil through dipstick tube

    If you can get to the drain plug to add a drain hose then sure it might get a bit more oil out than using the vacuum pump but in many cases you can’t even reach it with the engine in place.
  5. Lou C

    Looking for pump to drain oil through dipstick tube

    That’s what some of the Yamaha owners say. Cannot overtorque them at all. I have a little Suzuki DF 2.5 and never had that problem so who knows?! Never had problems with drain/fill plugs in lower units either.
  6. Lou C

    Looking for pump to drain oil through dipstick tube

    Well if you do some reading on the Hull Truth which is very outboard based; stripped engine oil drain plugs are common on Yamahas. Hence why some people use vacuum pumps on them too. And don’t feel there is any big drawback to it.
  7. Lou C

    Fuel injected parts no longer available

    If it’s a Ford & a JV drive, and the engine has the Ford EFI and that unobtanium Splitfire ignition system figure in finding a Ford cast iron 4 bbl intake a mechanical fuel pump & Holley 4bbl carb. These engines originally had a points distributor that you can sometimes find used. Since the...
  8. Lou C

    98 Horizon 180 pull engine to change starter?

    That (removing interior panels) and sometimes removing the exhaust system on that side will give you access.
  9. Lou C

    Looking for pump to drain oil through dipstick tube

    Well for those of us with inboards or I/Os that’s the only way!
  10. Lou C

    Fuel injected parts no longer available

    Cleaning and rebuilding this was actually less of a headache for me than rebuilding the Zama carb on my Husky chain saw! The parts on those little cube carbs are really tiny. It did run much better though when I was done with it.
  11. Lou C

    Looking for pump to drain oil through dipstick tube

    I like this, the Topsider, all metal construction, this one is over 20 years old and works great.
  12. Lou C

    Oil Analysis for high-hour 4.5L 250 HP

    I spoke with the guys at Michigan Motorz about this and they hardly ever get a core to reman. That might be good news, maybe Merc did a better job than GM.
  13. Lou C

    Oil Analysis for high-hour 4.5L 250 HP

    Scott take a look at a Merc parts diagram you'll see that the 4.5 has many features of the old 4.3 1) 90* included angle between cyls, why would you design a brand new V6 with a 90* angle instead of a 60* angle which is normal for V6s 2) same split journal crank 3) same balance shaft set up 4)...
  14. Lou C

    SAFETY ALERT: Bow Seating Hazard (Malibu)

    Four Winns briefly made a model called the Convertible, it was just like my bow rider without the bow seats, and had a panel you open up to access the bow for docking or running it up on the trailer. The area where the seats are on the bowrider were for storage. The advantage of this was the...
  15. Lou C

    Fuel injected parts no longer available

    Once you've done the Q-jet it really isn't hard, taking off the air horn is a bit tricky but again your second rebuild will take half the time of the first. Yes you can get aftermarket carbs from Amazon....but do they work? What I do with all my small engines that have a float bowl type carb is...
  16. Lou C

    Fuel injected parts no longer available

    Rebuilding a Quadrajet or Holley 4 bbl is no harder than a small engine carb. I don’t mind trouble shooting electronic engines since that’s what all our vehicles are now what I do mind is NLA parts. With carbs & points ignition it’s just not an issue. BTW the fancy Autel scanner that I bought...
  17. Lou C

    Off-Season Float Battery Charging, 2 Batteries

    I like the NOCO Genius 10 I bought last year. Thinking of picking up another. If you have an old charger, check what voltage it is putting into the battery. I had an old Schumacher that was charging at 16.5V! The NOCO charges at the rate you'd expect.
  18. Lou C

    Oil Analysis for high-hour 4.5L 250 HP

    Here's the one up to last year. The high levels of sodium and high wear were the beginnings of leaking head gaskets (boat is 100% used in salt water). Got water in a cyl at the end of '16 season, replaced heads with reman units over the winter of 2016/2017 (took old ones to a machine shop, found...
  19. Lou C

    OMC vs Volvo drives

    Find out what your local mechanics like to work on and buy that. Here you can get service on both Volvo & Merc but not sure about the rest of the country. OMCs no one wants to work on. So I have to be my own mechanic as far as I can take it. I have a spare drive I am going to get rebuilt, I...
  20. Lou C

    Oil Analysis for high-hour 4.5L 250 HP

    Probably will take a couple weeks. BTW I have oil analyses on this same engine dating back to 2011.
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