Late '90s Mercury/Force

Well, I went and did it: I bought a late 90s Force. Don't know the exact year because all model number plates are missing but it has the Merc midleg and Merc ignition. It also has the single ram tilt. Got it real cheap (very poor condition) and only bought it for the exhaust cover, head, and electric fuel enrichment solenoid. Got four good carbs with it so that's a plus.

The changes Merc made mechanically are well done and the match plate they designed to mate the block to the midleg is a beautiful piece of engineering. I can't comment on ignition because only the coils and voltage regulator were still attached. I was very surprised at the really small cross section of the exhaust in the match plate and midleg. Also noticed that the stock pistons now use circlips to retain the wristpin instead of a press fit like older engines.

On tearing it apart, what I don't understand is why Merc even bothered to use the Force block. The block and pistons are the same, but there are different splines in the crankshaft. Just about everything else on the engine is different---so why bother? Ahh--maybe they had 50,000 blocks just laying around and needed to use them.

Still, it was a fun hour or two disassembling this engine and I learned a little about the later Merc/Force.