I am by no means an experienced outboard mechanic but I think that I have the symptoms of a catostrophic failure. I am looking for some confirmation or more optimistically some hope of a relatively inexpensive repair.
The motor is a 1989 Mercury V6 135. Today while on the water I experienced complete power loss and engine shut down. I was thinking maybe I caught a crab pot line in the prop or something of that sort because it began to slow and then completely shutdown. I tilted the engine and checked the prop, and found nothing. I tilted it back down and restarted. It ran but was significantly under powered. I could barely get on plane. I limped back to the boat ramp and while tilting the engine in preps for trailering a significant amount of water expelled from the engine cowl. When I got the boat on the trailer I removed the cowl and noted the source of the water was the carberator of all places. I removed the air box cover and it appears that 4 of the six cylinders have a milky looking discharge in the intake. In addition to this one of the spark plug wires was disconnected. Not sure if this happened upon removal of the cowl or if it came off sometime previously. The spark plug wires have not been replaced in a couple of years. There was some pretty severe vibration on the way back to the ramp so it is concievable that this came off then but I wanted to include it in the post just incase because I am not a mechanic and I wanted to include everything. I understand that being one cyclinder short would reduce my power but I would not expect to the degree that I was experiencing. The only other thing worth mentioning but I don't believe to be a contributer. I replaced the thermostats before departing due to an overheating issue I was having last time I was out. The motor was never significantly overheated I was only beginning to experience higher than normal temps while at no wake speed that disappeared when on plane. The thermotat replacement seemed to remedy that and the boat ran well for about 45 minutes today prior to the issue described in the post.
Sorry for the long post I just wanted to provide all the facts. I appreciate everyones help. I am looking for advice on whether to seek repair or begin looking for a replacement engine. The boat is 20 yrs old so I am not looking for anything new but maybe a later model replacement if my failure warrants that. Although I would be very happy to hear someone say that my problem is much smaller than I am imagining.
The motor is a 1989 Mercury V6 135. Today while on the water I experienced complete power loss and engine shut down. I was thinking maybe I caught a crab pot line in the prop or something of that sort because it began to slow and then completely shutdown. I tilted the engine and checked the prop, and found nothing. I tilted it back down and restarted. It ran but was significantly under powered. I could barely get on plane. I limped back to the boat ramp and while tilting the engine in preps for trailering a significant amount of water expelled from the engine cowl. When I got the boat on the trailer I removed the cowl and noted the source of the water was the carberator of all places. I removed the air box cover and it appears that 4 of the six cylinders have a milky looking discharge in the intake. In addition to this one of the spark plug wires was disconnected. Not sure if this happened upon removal of the cowl or if it came off sometime previously. The spark plug wires have not been replaced in a couple of years. There was some pretty severe vibration on the way back to the ramp so it is concievable that this came off then but I wanted to include it in the post just incase because I am not a mechanic and I wanted to include everything. I understand that being one cyclinder short would reduce my power but I would not expect to the degree that I was experiencing. The only other thing worth mentioning but I don't believe to be a contributer. I replaced the thermostats before departing due to an overheating issue I was having last time I was out. The motor was never significantly overheated I was only beginning to experience higher than normal temps while at no wake speed that disappeared when on plane. The thermotat replacement seemed to remedy that and the boat ran well for about 45 minutes today prior to the issue described in the post.
Sorry for the long post I just wanted to provide all the facts. I appreciate everyones help. I am looking for advice on whether to seek repair or begin looking for a replacement engine. The boat is 20 yrs old so I am not looking for anything new but maybe a later model replacement if my failure warrants that. Although I would be very happy to hear someone say that my problem is much smaller than I am imagining.