Thanks! I bought it without doing the usual checks except opening the bottom lower unit screw. I actually tried turning it over to check compression,but my connections were poor and the starter spun but didn't engage. When I got it home, I found the compression was exactly 75 lbs. on all 6. I was leery of that # but I remembered my buddy having 50lbs on his 78 85 which ran amazingly well. Then I saw your answer to a post saying 85-95lbs was factory.That gave me confidence. I started it, and it ran,though it was spitting gas from the manual choke solenoid.It got hot after maybe 2 min. The thermostats were caked in salt. I pulled the head covers, but not the heads[I hope not to have to, as I am a chicken. I hate extracting broken head bolts. Maybe I'll get lucky.] There was some salt, but the passages were not blocked. The tilt trim needed an o-ring on the manual release, I changed the lower unit oil, cleaned all surfaces, and now i am about to put the covers on and try again. One more thing. I have to admit, the welded heavy square tube stand on casters it came with is what made me fork over 500 big ones. It has perfect balance and belies the 400+ lbs of this motor. Probably worth the 500 bucks for that. Thanks again!
