new spark plug fouled and oily And motor won't run right 1999 Merc 125hp please help!

[mallardtone-man]

new spark plug fouled and oily And motor won't run right 1999 Merc 125hp please help!

hey guys I have a 1999 mercury 125 hp outboard that I recently purchased and have been having some trouble With. the short story is I have run the motor probably 20 hours so far and thought it was running pretty good a couple of times. Did stall on me while at low idle. I replace the spark plugs 2 days ago. when I pulled the old ones they were all pretty dirty but did not look oily or gunked up. none looked worse than the others that I could tell. I took it out to the water shortly afterwards and could get it started but it wouldn't run right. it would start on the first crank withouthaving to choke it or lift the warm up lever. it would run for around 30 seconds strong at first then Peter off and stall. I can get it to stay running if I lift the warm up lever however it sounds like it is at around half power and might be misfiring. I pulled the plug out today and the first second and fourth ones were all clean but the third was badly fouled looked oily. also it looks like there is some well for gas and oil coming out off the and of the prop 4 somewhere near there. I am very concerned about this and have to try my hardest to get it fixed in the next two days as I am supposed to be taking the boat on vacation for a week. can you guys please give me any advice you have on what issue might be or what I should do to further diagnosis. should I run a compression test?

just a quick side note I just postedabout the fact that I ran out of gas a couple of times and had a lot of trouble getting it restarted. the only way I could get it started was with the warm up lever all the way up at first it would seem to be doing the same thing it is doing now, but after running it like this for 5 minutes or so would roar back to life and resume normal function. I was told that this is because the carbs had emptied and needed to refill themselves, just thought it was worth mentioning since it is behaving exactly like it was before just not coming back to full Power any more.

​I really need you guys on this one please tell me it is something I can manage. I am very mechanically inclined just have little or no experience with boat motors. Thanks so much for any help James

 

[mallardtone-man]

okay so I just noticed something else important I think this is the source of the problem there is some water leaking from around the top spark plug and when I pulled it out I can see some material that looks like a rotted gasket seal sticking out of the edge of the plug housing I have included a picture. I am assuming that this is also how the gas is getting into the water. can anyone tell me what this gasket might be called also does it sound like this is the whole problem or just part of it? I can see that this whole plate surrounding all 4 spark plugs should come off fairly easily it is around 20 Bolts

 

[flyingscott]

that is a water jacket easy to fix will have nothing to do with water and gas mixing. I answered your other post you had up you made it sound like your problems were just after you ran out of gas. Now we can get somewhere you need to do a carb rebuild You need to get the manual these carbs are unique. I believe the top two are standard carbs the bottom two are tricky i believe they have accelerator pumps and no idle circuit they need to be cleaned. this motor only idles and runs up to about 1800 rpm on two cyl then the other two kick in it sounds like your motor is flooding out thats why the gas in water. When you do the carbs make sure you get the repair accelerator pumps easy to do take your time. Also a trick i was told to make them easier starting is when you push the key in give it a 10 count then start it