Been having a whole bunch of issues with a new refurbed Mercruiser 357 Alpha 5.7L. Engine has less than 20hrs on it. I changed the break in oil at about 15hrs. I posted on the forum because I seemed to be unusally low on oil and had a lot of steam exhaust. Example: add a quart after a few uses. The forum said it's normal given that Im still in break-in mode an piston rings need to set (so this in turn is causing oil consumption and a lot of steam exhaust). Anyways, this might be important info because the engine has run rough the last 5 hours. Seems fine at 3K rpm, but pretty rough at idle. Also been taking a good 10-20secs to start if I've run her and then stop for an hour to fish. Starts up quickly if its cold and been sitting for days. So I decided I'd check the plugs. Here's what they looked like... Half were black soot, and the other half had a black caked on layer... Yikes. I replaced all 8plugs but Im nervous there's a bigger problem going on here. The engine and plugs were new (<20hrs). Should I not take her out? Thoughts? See pics below. Thanks.
