1997 mercury 115 Off Shore Engine

[Johnson110]

I purchased a 1990 20ft Bayliner Cuddy came with a 115 mercury, engine ran of muffs good has equal compression 120 psi ( by my tester ). Question are they good motors have not had boat out for sea trial, always owned OMC motors. Thanks for any replies!

 

[Johnson110]

Anyone ?

 

[Texasmark]

You have your folks who are partial to their brand for their reasons. You are talking about an engine that is 9 years old. In 9 years rubber wears out meaning seals and hoses, fuel pump diaphragms, external fuel lines and priming bulbs wear out and all that. The lower unit may have damage due to water intrusion where you are only supposed to have gear oil. The carburetors could be varnished up and the needle valve may be deformed allowing the carb to leak gas when you tilt it up.

Any engine of that age could possess these potential problems.

Basically you have a rock solid engine in my opinion, my last engine, which I had for over 10 years was the 3 cylinder 90 hp of that series engine.

 

[ondarvr]

They were good, no big issues.

 

[Johnson110]

Thank you, Fact that the engine was good from the start is what I wanted to hear, I fully understand that it is old etc, I have many outboards in the past, as I said never owned Mercury outboard this will be my first.

 

[Texasmark]

I said never owned Mercury outboard this will be my first.

I started boating with a 1955 10 hp Scott Attwater that was dads. My first was a brand new $400 '58 Evinrude 18 (spent my whole summer's earnings on that sucker) and stayed with the badge till the mid '70's where I had the 125 Johnson I bought new in '72; largest engine they had at the time....perfect engine. My next boat was a new bass boat and it had a mid 70's Merc 850 4 cyl 85 hp with power trim. Haven't looked back and haven't been without the PTT. Neither badge has let me down over the years but I just got partial to the Merc because they were just a lot of fun, or I had them on fun boats that went fast (enough).