Thanks to those who look/reply to this thread. My father has a 1985 tiller evinrude 8HP - I let him borrow my compression tester (screw-in kind) so that he could test his motor. He just called me and said he got 165(top) and 160(bottom) - not that I don't trust him - but this is the first time he's done a compression check and I've never heard of numbers that high on a motor this old and (quite frankly) a motor that really has not been taken all that well care of. I just recently rebuilt the carb for him - do you think this is just the result of a 'not so great' tester? or can these numbers be possible for this engine?? thanks again!