Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

[Point man]

My dad bought a boat, I have been making sure everything is working for him.
I don't know a whole lot about outboards, I have some small engine experience but the inline 6 isn't very small.

I had it out for a while running fine trailored it went home, two days later took it out to an inland lake and was running her. Took her up to full throttle and was running fine then all of a sudden it slowed on its own. I immediatly pulled it back to about 1/2 throttle and thought maybe I hit the throttle by mistake. So I took her back up was running, stopped did some fishing and got going again... same problem took her up to full was running for a little while and it dropped down, I took her to idle and it stalled out, tried to start it back up, turned over and stalled out again. fuel tank was a little lite so I switched to my emergency tank almost had her running but she continued to stall. got a tow in let her cool on the ride home thinking maybe it's a cooling problem. She cranks forever but won't start. Another reason I thought it could be cooling is that my **** stream is a mess it has pressure to it, but it isn't the pretty little stream you see on a brand new engine.
That's where I'm at. Don't know much, this is my first post on here, possibly water in fuel? or carb?
Please if you have a response make anything you can as obvious as possible, treat me like I'm dumber than your inlaws please.

by the way it's been leaking a little fuel, on inpection I found a hole in the line that goes from the bottom two cylinders to the middle 2 cylinders... I think it's a fuel line, but I am really not positive.

unknow year Merc 1000 SS on a 1970 Glastron

 

[daveswaves]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

My dad bought a boat, I have been making sure everything is working for him.
I don't know a whole lot about outboards, I have some small engine experience but the inline 6 isn't very small.

I had it out for a while running fine trailored it went home, two days later took it out to an inland lake and was running her. Took her up to full throttle and was running fine then all of a sudden it slowed on its own. I immediatly pulled it back to about 1/2 throttle and thought maybe I hit the throttle by mistake. So I took her back up was running, stopped did some fishing and got going again... same problem took her up to full was running for a little while and it dropped down, I took her to idle and it stalled out, tried to start it back up, turned over and stalled out again. fuel tank was a little lite so I switched to my emergency tank almost had her running but she continued to stall. got a tow in let her cool on the ride home thinking maybe it's a cooling problem. She cranks forever but won't start. Another reason I thought it could be cooling is that my **** stream is a mess it has pressure to it, but it isn't the pretty little stream you see on a brand new engine.
That's where I'm at. Don't know much, this is my first post on here, possibly water in fuel? or carb?
Please if you have a response make anything you can as obvious as possible, treat me like I'm dumber than your inlaws please.

by the way it's been leaking a little fuel, on inpection I found a hole in the line that goes from the bottom two cylinders to the middle 2 cylinders... I think it's a fuel line, but I am really not positive.

unknow year Merc 1000 SS on a 1970 Glastron

The line that you are talking about is a recirculation line to pull any puddled oil from the bottom of the crankshaft up to the middle cyl where it is consumed with the fuel. Early versions used to simply let the oil drain to the lake, Mercury recognized that was going to be a problem and the recirc line was put in. A hole in that line will cause the middle two cyl to run lean as they will be sucking air on intake and loosing charge on the downstroke (power). Replace the line if you have not already.
Since you have had a failure of sorts check the compression on all cyl and let us know the numbers. The symptoms you describe could be from overheating which a lean condition would contribute to. If you have not changed the water pump impeller you really need to do so. If you post the serial number of the engine we can tell you the year.

There are lots of folks on this site and others that have a particular affection for those inline 6 engines, you are bound to have lots of input.

 

[Point man]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

I appreciate it, the boat is actually at my cabin unfortunately I'm stuck in Detroit for work. How hard is it to check compression?
I can tear down a block and rebuild it, but I was never very good with the carbs, cooling systems or fuel pumps.
Until I can get up to the cabin I won't be able to find the serial number, you would think I would have that documented somewhere here....oops
Where can I buy lines like that? Should I just make them myself?
I was looking for a kit to replace all fuel lines on the outboard because a few others are begining to crack on the outside, but I believe those are steel belted.
Outboards are their own world. I appreciate the reply.

 

[daveswaves]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

I appreciate it, the boat is actually at my cabin unfortunately I'm stuck in Detroit for work. How hard is it to check compression?
I can tear down a block and rebuild it, but I was never very good with the carbs, cooling systems or fuel pumps.
Until I can get up to the cabin I won't be able to find the serial number, you would think I would have that documented somewhere here....oops
Where can I buy lines like that? Should I just make them myself?
I was looking for a kit to replace all fuel lines on the outboard because a few others are begining to crack on the outside, but I believe those are steel belted.
Outboards are their own world. I appreciate the reply.

Compression test is the same as a car, screw the compression tester in the spark plug hole and turn over the engine, read the gauge. I suggest removing all the plugs and ground the high voltage leads to prevent damage to the coils. Alternately you can disconnect the coils so that they do not generate spark in the first place. The lines can be replaced with standard fuel line from your local Napa or favorite auto parts store. They are not steel belted but they did have a covering on them (the old lines).

 

[Point man]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

Are the fittings on the hoses standard fittings then? If I am replacing hoses anyway should I put new fittings on? or keep the original? Is it worth replacing all the lines if they are starting to crack a little bit on the outside or should I just replace the recirculation hose with the hole in it?

 

[daveswaves]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

Are the fittings on the hoses standard fittings then? If I am replacing hoses anyway should I put new fittings on? or keep the original? Is it worth replacing all the lines if they are starting to crack a little bit on the outside or should I just replace the recirculation hose with the hole in it?

Keep the existing fittings, they are better than anything you can buy today and are standard sizing. I would replace all the hoses, however, that could be a winter job.

 

[Point man]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

OK so I got the motor running, ended up having to change more hoses than I thought. Now my problem is when I got it running I inspected the block while I had it running in the driveway yes I put earmuffs on it... I notice a clear liquid leaking from the spark plug ports 2,3, and 4...seeing it i immediatly shut down the engine thinking gas but it was clear unlike a gas oil mixture and it didn't smell like gas. makes me think water which makes me think bad head gasket...anyone else think so? anyone have this problem? it would explain my power problems having water in the fuel i mean. I know the two solutions for everything are...change the impeller and do a compression test, neither of which I ahve gotten to yet, and I still have a rough **** stream

 

[Point man]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

BUMP. please help

 

[coolguy147]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

im thinking water jacket

 

[Fuzzytbay]

Re: Mercury 1000SS died on the lake. Please help.

There is no head gasket, it just has a water jacket. Dry if off good, dap in some silicon around the plug holes, and see if it stops. Other wise you have to remove the water jacket cover, and redo the gasket. Not a hard job, BUT sometimes the bolts/studs break off. Don't run it until you sort out the water issue, and check the compression. Maybe do the compression tests first. There is little doubt you ran the two middle cylinders lean, an air leak will do it. I'd also pull the plugs, and look for metal build ups on the electrodes. But since you gona do a compression test, the plugs gota come out.....? Right.