Re: 1962 Mercury 700 70hp question(s)
Outboards do not require an air filter since they operate in an environment with little or no dust (the water tends to dampen any dust that's hanging around in the lake or bay!).
Water will discharge from the exhaust relief ports at the upper backside, under the cowling. The water telltale comes from a passage at the bottom of the block, thru the lower cowling on the Port rear side, up underneath. Most times it's plugged up and you won't get anything out.
A 700 FGS has thru-the-prop exhaust and so if you're running it on a flusher, you'll get warm-ish water running out the center of the prop, along with exhaust. On a flusher you'll have no backpressure so not a lot of water will exit the exhaust reliefs. In the water, at idle or slow speeds there's enough backpressure to force exhaust/water out the reliefs. You should get a good flow of water from the reliefs underway, as well.
If you have any doubt about water flow thru the motor, just feel the exhaust manifold cover. It should never ever be hot. Usually even after a hard run it'll just be lukewarm if that. At idle it'll probably be stone cold.
Exhaust beats right on this area, so if there's no water flowing it'll get hot very fast. If it's been running for many minutes and is still cool, you can rest assured that you've got plenty of water flowing thru the motor.
On your fuel issue, if you're still having troubles you might need to check the wire mesh filter screens, one at the top of each carb. The filter cover is held on with one bolt in the top center and you'll need to pull all three as they'll come up in one big Lump. The screens are underneath and you can blow them out with air or carb cleaner spray.
If you think you might have gotten a load of bad gas or water-contaminated, you can flush the carbs with fresh fuel by removing the main jet plug on each carb, then pumping fresh fuel thru the carbs and out the front. You'll see a brass hex-headed plug (7/16" wrench) at the bottom front of each carb. There's a thin red gasket behind each plug so be sure to keep track of them. Snug down the plugs after you flush gas thru the carbs. You can use some shop rags or paper towels to capture the effluent coming out of the carbs as you flush.
The starting drill on these old Mercs is, they like lotsa fuel! Pump the primer bulb up hard and then a couple squeezes for good measure. Run the fast idle lever up a ways then depress and hold the choke button, crank over with choke until she fires up. Release the choke and if the motor wants to die, hold choke button down for a second or so then release. Repeat until the motor is warm enough to idle without choke. Very likely you'll need to tweak-in the idle speed and mixture once you get out in the water. If the idle mix is adjusted too lean it'll be hard to start.
BTW, you realize you resurrected a 5-yr-old thread!!!!?? Probably better to start a new one but there it is!
And to reiterate the old info, your motor will run great on a good TCW-3 oil mixed at 50:1. Wal-Mart has good deals on TCW-3 oil, usually they stock the Penzoil synthetic blend and that's good stuff for a decent price.
Here's some info on oils straight from Mercury:
Mercury Bulletin Number 80-6:
"A. USE OF FORMULA 50-D OIL IN OLDER MERCURY OUTBOARDS
Formula 50-D oil can be recommended (at a 50:1 mixture) for use in earlier Mercury outboards regardless of year of manufacture.
Formula 50-D also can be used in other brand outboards (at a 50:1 mixture), provided that the manufacturer recommends use of a 50:1 oil mixture."
The above was copied verbatim from a Merc Service Bulletins Microfiche.
Since this bulletin was issued over 20 years ago, I'd expect that Mercury's latest oil formulations (and any good TCW3 oil for that matter) would be far superior to the Formula 50-D oil.
This of course doesn't apply to racing motors which do require more oil in the fuel for proper lubrication under extreme operation.
HTH & enjoy your classic Merc............ed
p.s. here's some reading material you'll likely find useful:
http://www.maxrules.com/fixoldmercindex.html
<br /><br />If you are using a modern TCW-3 outboard oil the std 50-1 ratio is fine. I ran my '62 800 on Pennzoil Synthetic Blend (9.99 Gal, Wal-Mart) for 3 seasons.<br /><br />1 quart for 10 gallons is 40-1, it can handle that fine.<br /><br />-W
