Spirit 85 HP engine questions

[yensid]

Hi all! I've just come in to a used boat recently, and you seem to be quite a helpful bunch for those of us with little to no boat/motor knowledge. I have just a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with.<br /><br />Relevant details - boat is a '79 Procraft 1500. Engine is a Spirit 85 HP. Not positive about the year, but according to the spark plug book I looked in (better than nothing) they only listed them for 3 years, 79-81, so I'm guessing it's the age of the boat, 1979. Both the motor and boat look really nice, and having taken it out on the water a few times, they seem to perform well.<br /><br />OK, the questions:<br />1) I just changed the spark plugs, and there was some blaack build-up on the old ones. Is it normal to get some with age? It definitely wasn't to the point it was affecting the gap or anything, but there was a definite film on the threads and around the 'bottom', it wasn't just blackened. Is this anything to be worried about? I'm about to use some carb cleaner on the motor, too. Will that make a difference?<br /><br />2) There seems to be a film of oil coming down the front of the motor, under where the bracket is that attaches it to the transom. It almost seems like it could have come from the 'hinge' or whatever right there. Since this is a 2-cycle engine, I know it's not an oil leak like in a car. Could this just be from excessive grease on that 'hinge' (is there a btter term for that?)?<br /><br />3) Could anyone point me to somewhere that I can get manuals for this boat and motor? I want to do some other basic maintenance, like changing the impeller, and haven't the foggiest how to go about doing that.<br /><br />4) This one might be pretty dumb - I was going to change the lower unit lube, but got thrown by something. There's the drain screw at the bottom, OK, no problem. But there's two screws up higher, one that's labeled Flush and one that's labeled Oil. That threw me, I thought there would be just one up top. Could someone help explain this to me?<br /><br />Thanks much, all! That's it for now! My apologies in advance for any stupid wordings, phrasings, or questions

 

[Yepblaze]

Re: Spirit 85 HP engine questions

Your spirit is in actuallity a Suzuki. You might be able to find a suzuki dealer near you that will help with parts and a manual. <br /><br />Black on the bottom of the threads is pretty normal. You would like the middle ceramic section that the electrode comes out of to be sort of brownish and to see all plugs are about the same color.<br /><br />The carbs will spit a bit causing a slight oily residue to develope underneath them. The film could be just from grease that was used regularly to grease the pivot points through the grease fittings provided.<br /><br />The oil drain and fill holes are the ones that don't say flush. Remove them both to drain and fill from the bottom with the squeeze bottle till it comes out the top. It usually takes a refill on the bottle once to get it full so you need two bottles and a spare set of hands to refill the bottle while you hold your finger on the lower hole.

 

[Rex]

Re: Spirit 85 HP engine questions

I agree with member 1845

 

[yensid]

Re: Spirit 85 HP engine questions

Thanks! You took care of most of it right off. I really appreciate it! I hope that film on the front of the motor is just that. My biggest worry is that it's a leaking seal on the tilt mechanism. We'll see, I guess Seems to be working fine. I just bought some new grease for it so we'll see if it's low.<br /><br />I actually knew it was made by Suzuki, but hadn't even thought to check with a Suzuki dealer. I've been thinking about buying a Suzuki generic service manual for that year and HP range, but don't know if they'll include the Spirits....<br /><br />Next thing I want to get is a tach to throw on there. Look at the packages for them, they don't list Spirit (surprisingly, really), but I gather they're fairly generic, and a standard one will probably work?<br /><br />Thanks again, Yepblaze!!