[59lido]

I've been talking with a guy about buyiing a vintage motor for my small wooden runabout and he says he has a MK30,MK25, and a MK28 all in the mid 50's year range. I'm looking for somethiing with electric start, so my question is can either of these motors be converted to electric start? If so what kind of cost am I looking at?

[Laddies]

The MK 30 can be quite easily once you find the parts or a donor engine, the 25 requires a differant cowl that might be hard to find and The MK 28 is a spring drive engine I would stay away from it.

[Chinewalker]

Laddies is right on. The Mark 30 powerhead is essentially a sleeved down Mark 55 (eventually evolved into the 44-cube 50hp Mercs built for a generation). As such, it shares much with the Mark 55 powerheads and you can use the electric start parts off of one (1956 and later models). You can get parts lists, etc. from Grubb's at www.oldmercs.com.

The Mark 25 had an electric start version (Mark 25E) but they are rare and the electric starters were unique to the model, so there isn't much of an outside source for them. Plus there's the whole cowling issue - another part unique to the Mark 25E.

I'm not sure if the Mark 28 was ever offered as an electric start model. I've never seen one and I don't see it listed on the oldmercs.com site. However, I did see a white Super Hurricane (Mark 28, Merc 200, Merc 250) powerhead once with a ring gear flywheel, so it stands to reason that one may have been offered as an accessory.

- Scott

[59lido]

Thanks, It soounds like the MK30 will be the best choice.