Recently took my 87 Mariner 9.9 to shop , had began smoking some ,but on a cold start at the ramp it smoked a lot, I did not notice any loss in power at full throttle but sometimes it did not want to start very easily or idle well. I had ran this motor three previous years and hardly smoked,started easily would idle perfectly. When I took it in mechanic worked all day on motor,finally said it was low speed stator not generating enough spark.When I came back to pick it up he also said at some point someone had rejetted to 15hp,so he had to install 15hp plugs.Took her fishing,started and ran O.K. but during an extended idle she fouled a plug.Took it back,tech said lower cylinder too fuel rich ,worked another day on it, tried carb off another motor,even though he had rebuilt mine.Finally got frustrated ,he did not charge me anything,gave me some money to part mine out and sold me a new Johnson.What can I learn from this? could it be a ring,or reed,or port problem? Oh yeah tech said 90psi on both cylinders
