Long time post reader, first time poster. I'm looking for some advice here, if you have it. I recently purchased a Merc. 80 HP motor at a rummage sale for twenty bucks. The seller told me he bought it new in the early 80's. He had it on a pontoon boat until about 10 years ago when it sucked mud inside and puked. I remember I rebuilt a motor once about 15 years ago, being the mechanic I am, there was a 3 pound box of "extra" parts when I was done. But, I do have a friend who said he'd go through this motor top to bottom for $100 plus parts--he has quite a bit of experience with outboards, but nothing this extensive (read: expensive?) Am I better off going this route, or having him tear it apart and I sell the usable parts off on ebay or something? He said he'd split the take with me for this scenario, and with so little invested, I wouldn't have a problem with it either. Just perusing ebay, I figured I've probably got a couple hundred bucks worth of usable parts here. (Motor has controls, starter, hydraulics, basically everything but the gas tank) But if I have him rebuild it, I have potentially 4 cylinders of H E double hockey sticks. Anyone have any experience/expertise with this situation? I am entitling myself to your opinion. Over the last couple months I've read a lot of valuable info. on here, and I thank you all for that! Just too bad I knew nothing about this site, or motors in general, before I bought a boat with a Chrysler--eek. Well, it runs and I got the boat cheap enough. So, that's my quandry. I would love to have this merc on my Skeeter if it's worth the troubles.
