I have a 95 Force 40, I just recently acquierd the boat (1996 Lakeland) Any way, I was rather pleased with the engine for the first couple of times on the water, then it started to vibrate really bad. So, I asked around for some ideas, and came up with the adapter plate gasket. Well that seemed to be the problem. But while pulling the powerhead off the leg, I noticed that two main bolts out of six were loose, and 2 more were missing heads! Anyway, the adapter plate itself was cracked to. Put all together and ran the following weekend. Put 50 miles on the boat, between zipping across lake and putzing around. No problems, but we did do some slow trolling with the boat, for I would say an hour. The day after this, I noticed an exhaust leak, appears to be coming from the adapter plate. This time all bolts are tight to specs. and I used loctite when I reassembled the motor. Is trolling that hard on this engine that it keeps breaking stuff?? And, I would also like to know what I could do to quiet this thing down it is a loud mother at wot, even before the leaks. And, what can I do to get better fuel economy, it seems to be running very rich, it also drinks the gas as fast as I can drink an ice cold mug of beer on a hot day! Any tips or advice would be helpful!! I am pulling it in the garage this weekend to fix the exhaust leak. So I would like to know if there is anything else I can try why it is apart. Thanks!!
