MERCURY CONCERNS

[MURX]

I expressed some anquish over my 175'S oil pump drive to my local dealer, I had just purchased a 1991 searay laguna with a 175 merc the boat has 51 hours on it and was seldom used hadn't been run in a year. i installed new bats and ran it, had a poor idle but revved well, tell tale was weak and I wanted the lower pressure tested and a new impeller installed, while at the dealer the carbs, diaphrams, thermostats, and impeller were all replaced and the motor was run on the hydralic dyno, everything checked out good, so I put some 23 miles on the trip odometer, had a few false alarms at first low oil went off a couple of times with the resivoir 3/4's full, i had a steady stream comming from the tell tale. anyway after i got it home I called the merc dealer and inquired about the alarms, he told me the oil may be gelled up in the screen on the resivoir. i yold him I had heard these 175'S have plastic drive gears on the oil pump and I was concerned about an oil pump failure i also told him I thought the oil injection system was a joke, IMO using crankcase pressure to force oil out of the resivoir and up to resivoir number two seems ludicrous,(my previous mercs had a resivoir on the engine) anyway he said he's never had a problem with the primary resivoir not adequately feeding the secondary resivoir, and overall in his opinion the system is pretty much trouble free, and I shouldn't worry about this oil injection systems configuration. I don't like it I keep reading about oil pump failure's and low oil alarms, my questions are how much to upgrade to metal oil pump drive gears approx, and is this system as worthless as I think it is? seems to me mercury has set us up for failure with this system, they know **** well it's going to fail and cost the owner of one of these time bombs a lot of money are my suspicions warranted? or am I just being paranoid? sincereley, Don worried mercury time bomb owner, also I I never did see the volt meter go passed 12 volts rectifier is good do i have a regulator as well,? how do I tell if I have the 16amp stator or 40amp stator? I'll look for the serial number, ok here it is serial number 0D014661 I have a feeling I'm going to be buying a stator ouch! I'll be buying sierra as merc part prices are in orbit

 

[ODDD1]

Re: MERCURY CONCERNS

Murx, merc has used a plastic drive gear on their v-6 oil inj system since its inception in 1984....think for a minute how many motors we are talking about here...now, how many failures have you actually heard about??<br />I am not saying these things dont fail occasionally, heck everything on a outboard will break sooner or later...I think the 'problem' has been seriously overstated.<br />dont let the hypochondria run away with your good sense...

 

[MURX]

Re: MERCURY CONCERNS

I've actually read about several merc 175'S that have had an early demise do to oil pump catasrophe, I suspect these guys may live in cold climates, I kinda feel like a dummy for not dumping the main resivoir and starting with fresh new oil, I hear a lot of guys refer to the oil as Gelling up or thickening after prolonged storage, especially in cold climates. I'll be draining both resivoirs and inspecting the strainer in the resivoirs cap. I'm actually considering pre mix and dropping the oil injection alltogether, although I'd like to leave it intact though the engine alarms seem to be another weak point seems everyone that owns an early ninetys model merc v6 complains of false alarms, I've had really good luck with my Mercury products, on the other hand I've heard a lot of horror storys about mercs too. Outboards are hit or miss, you either get a reel good one, or a reel bad one! Boy I know I'd love this package with a Honda four stroker, I'd settle for a 130 might not hit 43mph like it does now but I'd trade speed for reliability in a heartbeat. anyway with 51 hours and excellent compression across the board this little searay skiff should suit my needs just fine if I can stay on top of it, and get these details worked out. Don