Those shocks on the motor? Are they designed to help lift the motor or just to lower it slower? Cause they dont seem to do much of anything either way.
Back in the days of the cross flow 4 and then 6 cylinder Mercs, at Lake X in Florida (Mercury's proving ground) boats would undergo destructive testing (being powered with production Merc. engines) to weed out the weak points of the engine. They named the lake X because giving out its real name would/could benefit competition in seeing the results of the testing....(opinion).
One of the tasks was to run over semi submerged logs. Mercury's streamed line lower unit, unlike OMC's gear box protrusion, had no problem running over the logs. The problem was that impact at high speed caused the LU to rise up (very high) and with the prop still turning at WOT throttle, came slamming down against the transom bracket with great force and serious damage to the engine and boat were just an accident waiting to happen.....I have seen pictures (side views) of this testing before, during, and after the impact......may have seen a video.....hard to remember exactly.
The shocks mounted outboard of the engine on the midsection and clamp bracket reduced the upward and downward travel basically reducing the effect of this from happening. And, as it turned out, when Merc. first decided to add PTT to its engines, these shock mounting points easily became the mounting points for the first series of Merc. PTT cylinders.....my 850, currently being discussed in this forum had such an arrangement.
When Merc. upgraded its midsection/lower unit to today's configuration, the cylinders were redesigned and mounted between the ears on the clamp bracket and the trim cylinder was just a push rod, allowing the MS/LU to raise easily during impact with just the two shocks having to release pressure.
