[Gus49]

We own a 2004 Mercury 4-stroke 115 salt water outboard. It initially displayed the loss of power, missing, etc. problems discussed on your forum. Last week, we noticed the crankcase was extremely overfilled and we are sure that the new fluid is water!! The engine has extremely low hours (40 or less.)

Question - is this common for this engine, any experiences or suggestions??

[JB]

My experience is that Merc questions get much better results in the Merc forum, Gus.

I will move this.

[tjstaffy]

Hi, I thought you maybe interested in what I have say.I have a 60hp 4 stroke efi Mercury outboard on my Stacer 5.00 bowrider, I brought the boat in 2002 brand new it was great for the first couple of years and then I put it in for its first service. Thats when the problems started, the mechanic found water in the oil,he pulled the power head off and found the head gasket to be faulty this motor had only done 10hrs as we never used it due to my job.Remember the boat was bought in 2002 in 2005 the problem started.the dealer told me to my delight that Mercury would fix it under warranty" great " but three years down the track the motor had only done 20hrs it happened again the same problem with the head gasket now Mercury are saying they cant find the first warranty claim and now they can not help me. Other than that the 4 stroke works well in the dams in Australia for bass and trout trolling , as it can idle so low so the craft is just moving the outcome is that I am taking Mercury and the mechanic to Fair Trading which consumer affairs in Australia.