Re: 1968 Mercruiser/GM Inline Six
A. Can I get an appropriate set of marine gaskets for this engine at NAPA or do I have to pay throught the nose at my local Mercruiser Dealer?
Trouble I'm finding with our local NAPA is that they don't
stock anything related to boating and it all has to be ordered and shipped from other states. So if your NAPA is small time, you could either:
A. Go to your local Mercruiser dealer and pay through the nose and get the part today (they carry non-OEM too - which chances are, that's what you're going to get from NAPA), or
B. Go to your local NAPA and pay close to the same amount
and pay for shipping if they don't have it in stock
and wait for several more days for it to be shipped,
plus another trip back to NAPA to pick up the part,
plus a chance it got damaged while in the mail on the way to your local NAPA, which means the part either has to be sent back and re-ordered or you just have to live with the damaged part if its not too bad.
From now on, I'll pay for the part at the local Merc dealer and be happy that I have it today and safe and sound.

Can you tell I've had some problems with my local NAPA?

Just do a price check first and then weigh your odds.