This board has been very helpfull to me in the past so this place was my first thought when I got a dreaded phone call today. I think I'm going to be needing some help very soon on this one so I thought I'd get this thread started before I have all the details in hopes that I can get plenty of input.<br /><br />My fishing buddy has a 1997 Merc 225 Offshore on a 24 ft. Proline CC. Lastnight she was running back in from a fishing trip and heard a bunch of loud clunking noises just as she lost power. She says the motor was running fine after this happened but the boat wouldn't move. She ended up having to get towed back into the marinia.<br /><br />The shop at the marinia looked at it today and told her the lower unit was shot. Apparently something let loose and just about burst through the side of the gear housing. Ouch!! They gave her a quote of $3K to replace the lower unit.<br /><br />They called her back a few hours later and now they are saying the motor is shot and she should be thinking about repowering. This motor has been meticously maintained through this shop for many years. It has had a check and service every 100 hours since my buddy has owned it.<br /><br />She's going tommorrow to have the shop explain to her whats wrong with the motor. I told her to take a pad of paper and write down everything they say.<br /><br />My gut is telling me that if the motor was running fine after this happened that the problem is with the lower unit only. If you were me what would you check in order to determine if the motor is shot? Would a compression check tell me much about what's going on inside the motor?<br /><br />I'll post back to this thread as soon as I get some details. Thanks in advance for any input you guys can come up with.<br /><br />Rob
