I have a 1986 Mercury 25XD short shaft that has been a good motor until recently. I was on a fishing trip with a friend and noticed that when I powered up to get on plane the motor was only at about half it's power. I stopped and pulled the engine cowling off. There was water leaking around the base of the powerhead. I immediately shut down the engine and used the trolling motor to get back to the boat launch.
I took it home and put water muffs on it to see if I could reproduce the symptoms. Sure enough water was leaking again. I checked the hose from the top of the powerhead that goes to the cowling and it produces the tell tale "pee stream". No cracks or loose clamps. The stream itself was fine and produced a nice strong stream of water.
Upon further inspection I saw where the water was coming from. There are 2 small ports (one directly on top of the other spaced about 2 inches apart) on the port side of the powerhead. They are located where the cylinders meet the cavity for the crankshaft. There is no break in the powerhead at this point, it is one solid piece. The water was coming from the bottom of these 2 ports and spitting out a pretty good stream of water.
Any ideas of what might be causing this? My immediate thoughts were a gasket but the water isn't leaking near any gaskets. I just hope it's not a cracked cylinder or cracked powerhead. Maybe it's a bad water jacket. Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I took it home and put water muffs on it to see if I could reproduce the symptoms. Sure enough water was leaking again. I checked the hose from the top of the powerhead that goes to the cowling and it produces the tell tale "pee stream". No cracks or loose clamps. The stream itself was fine and produced a nice strong stream of water.
Upon further inspection I saw where the water was coming from. There are 2 small ports (one directly on top of the other spaced about 2 inches apart) on the port side of the powerhead. They are located where the cylinders meet the cavity for the crankshaft. There is no break in the powerhead at this point, it is one solid piece. The water was coming from the bottom of these 2 ports and spitting out a pretty good stream of water.
Any ideas of what might be causing this? My immediate thoughts were a gasket but the water isn't leaking near any gaskets. I just hope it's not a cracked cylinder or cracked powerhead. Maybe it's a bad water jacket. Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
