mercury leaking oil

raduga

Recruit
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
2
Please somebody explain what can cause wide oily spot around an outboard Mercury 50HP. I was checking this boat to buy. It would not start first. The owner explained that I choked it for too long and flooded the cylinders. He got it started eventually; it ran good at full speed and idle speed. When we docked the boat (motor stopped) oil spot just kept widening at the motor.
10 min at the dock left oily trail about 10? long and 2 -3? wide, stretching from the motor with the water flow. Somebody said that it is fuel leak or the motor runs too rich and that is the motor oil from exhaust. Is that correct?
 

Chris1956

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
28,109
Re: mercury leaking oil

It is very likely that the motor is leaking fuel. It is likely that it is from flooding carbs, leaking fuel pump diaghram or non-firing cylinder.
 

raduga

Recruit
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
2
Re: mercury leaking oil

Thank you for your response. In case of any of these scenarios it is not extremely expensive to get it fixed, is it? Should this leak be a deal breaker?
 

Chris1956

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
28,109
Re: mercury leaking oil

The fixes are pretty easy and cheap if you supply the labor. If not, the fixes could cost a couple of hundred $.
 
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