Wet exhaust from 1994 225-HP 2-stroke

[Frank O]

I've never paid much attention to it, but today was noticing the water spray in the exhaust coming out of my 1994 Merc 3.0L Offshore 225-HP carb two-stroke outboard as it idled in the slip. I shot a few seconds of video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzMGFlTFk1o

Does this look like a normal amount of water in the exhaust?

 

[gss036]

Re: Wet exhaust from 1994 225-HP 2-stroke

That seem like a lot of water. When was the last time you changed the head gaskets? Or a compression check?

 

[Frank O]

Re: Wet exhaust from 1994 225-HP 2-stroke

I've had annual service done on the outboard three times in the three years I've owned the boat. I don't think there was any gasket work on any of those occasions. They did say they ran a compression test each time, which was normal in each case.

If there's a thrashed gasket, would you always expect to see bad compression on at least one cylinder?

Is it pretty straightforward to take off the heads and change out the gaskets?