Mercury outboards are junk?

[wired247]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Yeah , lets take the words rich and lean out of the oil discussion. They don't belong there. They are A/F ratio terms. More oil is not going to hurt a thing. The old chrome and nikasil merc motors specified a 32:1 ratio. Thats what I ran in my 260 and never had a problem with fouled plugs or anything like that. My current 225 pro max clone I run at 40:1 with no hint of over oiling. The plugs don't care and the bearings like it . If I was spinning it over 7000 I'd run 32:1.

I hear about people running 100:1 and I want to bang my head against a wall.

Well there's that ole pesky Carbon, oil dipping out, sludge thing ya know? There is a balance, sure but, just where that is? I'm not too sure, I've never ran that rich, so I'm not one to make a definitive statement here but, seems 33:1 is pushing it, is it "just a bit more"? or is it "just a bit much?..

"In any case more oil doesnt make it run rich. It makes it run lean"? I guess I've always considered too much black, wet and sooty "rich", Dry and white is "lean"

In just air and fuel(no oil), too much fuel is "rich"(usually black carbony plugs as well though) and too much air is "lean"(white plugs).

Oil goes up, soot and carbon are building on plugs, exhaust etc and goes up, I say too "rich"

I could be wrong though, as I said, it happens

 

[Dukedog]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Tha problem here is with tha "lean", "rich" definition. These terms relate to GAS and AIR. Have absolutely nothing ta do with tha amount of oil in tha mix. Although in theory with more oil you take away from tha gas part of tha mix so its causing a more "lean" condition. It would take an awful lot of oil to produce a lean enough condition to cause much of a problem. I hear about all tha fouled plugs on these motors because of oil but have yet to see any strickly because of an over oiling situation and I've run some motors at 24 ta 1 Dino oil without problems. Seen fouled plugs before but it was caused by a number of things not just to much oil. If ya got tha black, smudgy, grimy crap drippin or bulidin' up ya got some problems with a lot more than just oil................jmo

 

[wired247]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

That 1100 degree exhaust does a lot to clear the oil smudge junk out of the exhaust chest.

 

[sam am I]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Yeah , lets take the words rich and lean out of the oil discussion. They don't belong there. They are A/F ratio terms.

Tha problem here is with tha "lean", "rich" definition. These terms relate to GAS and AIR. Have absolutely nothing ta do with tha amount of oil in tha mix. Although in theory with more oil you take away from tha gas part of tha mix so its causing a more "lean" condition.

True and guilty as charge......Guess i never thought about it much, I never equated air to oil when using "rich/lean in the O/F ratio world. But since oil is the least combustible of a gas and oil mix, it make sense to equate air to oil......I think.:dizzy: I shall re-frame from using A/F terms in the O/F ratio world, I shall use the term "Oilier"

 

[alanfox55]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

I am so glad I posted the idea...makes for more interesting reading. To me running a 100:1 premix along with the oil injection seems like a win win. I am not much of a mechanic. I am fine with doing maintenance and minor repairs but I don't want to go much beyond that. Adding the 100:1 premix seems like a simple way to back up the oil injection system. When you run 100:1 along with oil injection you end up running about a 37:1 mix which does not seem to rich at all. Running that premix you also create a tell tale for the oil injection system. If you start to notice you are making a whole lot less smoke it is a sure sign you are probably having an oil injection problem. By the way the premix oil I would be using is Amsoil 100:1 premix oil which is formulated to run that lean. Personally I would not run that lean all the time but it would be fine as a back up in case of oil injection system failure. The only down side to all this,as far as I can see, is a little more money in 2-stroke oil, which is a lot better than a lot of money to fix a busted motor, not to mention the pain in the butt it is to break down while your out in the water.

 

[racerone]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Simple question.--------------What happens to the oil that is mixed with the fuel once it goes through the carburetor and into the crankcase ?

 

[sam am I]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

According to a lubrication/two cycle oil manu

"The fuel/oil/air mixture passes from the carburetor into the combustion chamber in a split second, where high temperatures instantly vaporize the gasoline. The oil, in droplet form, must lubricate all moving parts of the crankshaft, plus the piston and cylinder. If combustion of the oil is incomplete, or by-products are deposited in the cylinder, serious problems can develop such as spark plug fouling, clogging and restriction of intake ports, piston ring sticking or piston scuffing."

Soooo I think these "serious problems" are a mix of the extrema's of too much oil verses too little oil because they used the term "or" :noidea:

I run and "putt"(search and destroy mode) a lot, maybe as much as 50/50 with my merc so that is why I said (believe) 50:1 was bad and 33:1 is even worse above, I idle it perhaps too much maybe for 100:1 even let alone for those ratio's but that's how i end up needing to fish sometimes.......Individual results can vary, depends on how you run your motor/s

Think I'll stick where merc set it, you know, just to be "safe" and hopefully get 23 yrs of season usage again, it worked for me :bolt:


Combustion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Duuuude!!! Waaaaay cool.

"Colourized gray-scale composite image of the individual frames from a video of a backlit fuel droplet burning in microgravity."


@alan, where is the "37:1" source? I'm not saying it's/you're wrong or right but, I would like to see how this ratio was arrived at.

 

[wired247]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Simple question.--------------What happens to the oil that is mixed with the fuel once it goes through the carburetor and into the crankcase ?

Some of it burns and some of it goes out the exhaust. Think of the exhaust chest as an afterburner where the majority of the oil that makes it through the combustion cycle is burned off. A normally functioning 2 cycle can take a LOT of oil in the system and run just fine even at high oil to gas mixture ratios. Where mototrs run into problems is where they run too lean ( A/F ) and get too hot in the combustion chamber. That will cause coking.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

To continue Sam's description, since the crankcases do not fill up with oil, the oil is obviously burned or passes unburned into the water. Also, due to the recripicating motion of the crank and rods, some of the oil becomes a mist which allows it to lubricate wrist pins, cylinder walls and other areas further away from the reed valves. This misting action also occurs on 4 cycle motors, and lubricates the same sort of spots in the motor.

 

[alanfox55]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

According to a lubrication/two cycle oil manu

"The fuel/oil/air mixture passes from the carburetor into the combustion chamber in a split second, where high temperatures instantly vaporize the gasoline. The oil, in droplet form, must lubricate all moving parts of the crankshaft, plus the piston and cylinder. If combustion of the oil is incomplete, or by-products are deposited in the cylinder, serious problems can develop such as spark plug fouling, clogging and restriction of intake ports, piston ring sticking or piston scuffing."

Soooo I think these "serious problems" are a mix of the extrema's of too much oil verses too little oil because they used the term "or" :noidea:

I run and "putt"(search and destroy mode) a lot, maybe as much as 50/50 with my merc so that is why I said (believe) 50:1 was bad and 33:1 is even worse above, I idle it perhaps too much maybe for 100:1 even let alone for those ratio's but that's how i end up needing to fish sometimes.......Individual results can vary, depends on how you run your motor/s

Think I'll stick where merc set it, you know, just to be "safe" and hopefully get 23 yrs of season usage again, it worked for me :bolt:


Combustion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

View attachment 220970 Duuuude!!! Waaaaay cool.

"Colourized gray-scale composite image of the individual frames from a video of a backlit fuel droplet burning in microgravity."


@alan, where is the "37:1" source? I'm not saying it's/you're wrong or right but, I would like to see how this ratio was arrived at.

I admit my math might be a bit off but I think I'm in the ballpark. Still any and all corrections are welcome. I know that if you add a 50:1 premix to 50:1 oil injection you end up with a total mix of 25:1(1997 mercury service manual). It stands to reason then,at lest to my non mathematical mind, that if you add 100:1 to a 50:1 injector you get half again as much as 25:1 which is 25+12.5=37.5:1 total mix.

 

[sam am I]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

I admit my math might be a bit off but I think I'm in the ballpark. Still any and all corrections are welcome. I know that if you add a 50:1 premix to 50:1 oil injection you end up with a total mix of 25:1(1997 mercury service manual). It stands to reason then,at lest to my non mathematical mind, that if you add 100:1 to a 50:1 injector you get half again as much as 25:1 which is 25+12.5=37.5:1 total mix.

Hmmmmmmm, I need to ponder that over coffee. Thank you for the reply.

 

[wired247]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

If I have 100 gallons of gas that I add 1 gallon of oil to ( 100:1 ) then I add 2 more gallons of oil to that same 100 gallons of gas ( 50:1 ) I now have a total of 3 gallons of oil in that 103 gallons. That would be expressed as 100:3 or roughly 33:1.

 

[sam am I]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Lol...Interesting approaches, all valid and reasonable since we're not splitting hairs. Well, it happens sometimes though

 

[wired247]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Well. I figure that when I go to the gas station and I add 10 gallons of gas to my boats tank and then add however ounces of oil I need to make it a 50:1 or 40:1 or whatever I dont calculate it based on how many gallons I will have AFTER I add the oil. For practical purposes 50:1 of 100 gallons of gas is 2 gallons of oil in 100 gallons of gas. Splitting hairs isnt going to make it 50:1 on paper but its still not going to make any difference how the motor runs.

 

[sam am I]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

My mixing worries go as far as a chain saw gas can and being paranoid about a outboard...:facepalm: Oh well, at least I can catch fish, most of the time.

 

[Gibbles]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Total garbage and a time bomb, please send me your address and I'll drive down from UT to take it off of your hands and dispose in the Utah desert for the safety of the children! ainkiller:

 

[bgc]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

All of you that have these junk motors can send them to me. You know you have to pay to have your junk hauled away, don't you.

BTW - Fords are better than Chevies, but both are way better than Hondas. eep::deadhorse::lol:

Hey!! My Honda out pulls my Chevy at the ramp??

 

[jbjennings]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

Hey!! My Honda out pulls my Chevy at the ramp……

My eyes are burning........

I don't think Mercs are junk. I own a few and work on them myself and they have a lot of particularly good designs. I personally think their lower units have always been particularly good.
JMO,
JBJ

 

[bgc]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

My eyes are burning........

I don't think Mercs are junk. I own a few and work on them myself and they have a lot of particularly good designs. I personally think their lower units have always been particularly good.
JMO,
JBJ

I would have mentioned the F-350 but the 6.0 kept grenading, she spent little time towing…. I like my fussy Mercs, keeps my mind active…..

 

[Dukedog]

Re: Mercury outboards are junk?

I would have mentioned the F-350 but the 6.0 kept grenading, she spent little time towing…...

Ya probably didn't do tha math right for your oil mixture