I was in a rush to get some kind- any kind of engine for the next few weekends until I get my 140 up and running again. So this "engine" came up cheap for $300 as a running fresh water pontoon boat trade in from someone upgrading to a 4 stroke. Of course for $300 I couldn't expect much, it had supposedly been sitting in the storage for a year and the shop refused to just throw it away because it was supposedly running when removed.
Basically I stripped and repainted the mid and lower section, sanded and repaired the cover and custom painted everything this week to match my Mako. Also had to swap all my ignition over into this thing because it had a 115 dual powerpack system. I don't know how it could have possibly been running, but after I swapped my ignition it started right up. I only ran it for about 20-30 sec, but it idled perfect, and had excellent throttle response. I did notice from the beginning it was very hard to turn over, and after I ran it it got much worse. After several very short 3-4 second runs the starter quit, I swapped in another and it wouldn't work. With plugs out I still could barely turn it, then pulled the lower unit, still dragging something.
It's so weird that if I turn it backwards it immediately releases whatever was dragging until half a rotation later, then starts dragging in the opposite direction. All the cylinders still look like new, still shiny and cross hatched. There's not a single scratch or line running up and down the cylinders. Also, while it's dragging and very hard to turn over, I can use my fingers and wiggle each piston around in the cylinder, the pistons aren't jamming up in the cylinders at all.
