I have a 1995 model Mercury 225 that started knocking on our last adventure at the lake. The motor is on a 24' Hurricane deck boat. We love the boat and have never had any issues wioth the motor either. Other than the occasional hard start and smoke when cold. I am now stumped. I do not know what to do moving forward. I feel like I could rebuild the powerhead myself over the winter, but have a friend that warns me of bad machine work costing me more than needed. He was a boat mechanic 20 years ago and seems to think that the machine work is very difficult to be done within Mercury specs. The only thing I have done to the motor so far is pull the heads off and the carbs off. 1 Piston has metal melted into it. The cylinder wall is smooth instead of textured on that cylinder. The reed cage is completley intact and I can not tell exactly where the metal came from. My best guess is a bearing in the motor. Just have not had time to tear into it any further. So I have been looking for a rebuilt powerhead and not happy with the prices I am seeing. the boat is a 1995 modek as well so part of me wants to just let the boat go and let someone with better mechanical knowledge have a nice deck boat. This is our first boat and we have had it for 3 years now. It has become part of our summer life and I cannot imagine having a different boat. Our boat has room for 14 and we always have a big crowd. I really do not know what to do. Just looking for advice from someone more experienced. Most of our friend have ski or wakeboard boats so I always have a part of me wanting to just start over wqith something different, but very attached to the deck boat. My wife and I like the thought of a cuddy cabin, but not sure if it would be ideal for the occasional wakeboarding that the kids enjoy. Thank you in advance for any advice.
