1974 Mercury 1150

Howdy all!

My family and I have a 1985 Pontoon Harris flotebote that currently has a 40hp Evinrude outboard on it and it is pretty underpowered.

A guy we know (that lives about a hour away) has a runabout boat (with trailer) with a Mercury 1150 on it that he is willing to sell us for $1,000. The 1150 is a 1974 according to the serial number.

We are going to go look at the boat on Saturday with the idea of moving the 1150 over to our pontoon boat this season. I guess I am looking for opinions on this motor, and if anyone had any tips on what to specifically look out for. My husband is fairly mechanically inclined. Also - would this be a crazy idea - should I just be cruising craigslist or something to find a motor seperate from a boat.

We would probably take the 40 off the pontoon boat and sell it with the runabout boat and we were hoping to recoup a nice chunk of the cost - but what I am afraid of is ending up putting a TON (like over another $750-$1,000) into this 1974 motor.

Just fishing for thoughts/opinions/experiences - I saw the other 1150 thread.. it seemed semi-discouraging... and I saw one for sale on craigslist where the guy said he had to buy a $500 distributor.

I attached some pictures(not that it really tells you much...)

Thanks
Melanie

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

Melanie, the 74 1150 is a good engine. Things to check for are even compression on all six cyl, do you have spark, does it run now, can they start it up for you. Some of the engine wiring will likely be rotten with age, but you can replace them one by one or buy a new harness for around $100. the pictures do help a bit because they show the gentleman took good care of his boat. If it has always been inside the wiring may be in good shape. Distributors are expensive.
Hope this helps.

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

Couple quick thoughts.
1) Make sure your craft is rated for the 115hp. That's alot of extra HP.
2) Older Mercs are notorious for bad wiring. Pretty much every motor of that vintage needs to be rewired. Pull the cowling off and check the internal wiring.
3) Replacement parts are still available but are getting harder to find. Costs of the ignition components is expensive.
4) I wouldn't consider the deal without being able to take it for a test drive, UNLESS you are prepared to potentially invest alot of time and money. Maybe it's a good runner, maybe not.
5) Perform a compression check on the motor and verify ALL cyls are above 100PSI AND within 10% of each other.
6) Check that there is a good strong spark.
7) Inspect the lower unit oil for metal debris and signs of water intrusion. Both cases are bad news.
8) Is the power trim system operable ?
9) Is the runabout "sellable", or will it become another repair project ?

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

If you?re talking about my thread, don't be discouraged and I totally apologize! Parts are pretty easy to come by and if I can rebuild a motor, ANYONE could do it. No, I'm not calling myself stupid; it?s just easy to do as long as you do your homework! First of all, I'm a total Mercury fan. Second, after I did my "homework" I discovered that no matter how big of a POS you think your engine might be, the power towers are great motors and worth the fix. Seriously though, a few dollars go pretty far when you do the work yourself.

If the 1150 starts up, check the compression. That right there will give you a good place to start.
Buy a manual for your engine if it won?t start or needs a fair amount of work.... there's a great amount of info in the book and lots of troubleshooting.
As some have mentioned, make sure you can put a 115HP on the boat you have... In Michigan, it?s a pretty big fine if you happen to get stopped by any law enforcement for a safety inspection with an over-rated motor.

Hope this helped some! Give it some thought and weigh ALL possible options before you decide either way ...

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

Yea, we are good with the rating. It is a 24' pontoon boat, and my husband said he checked the rating out.

Am I correct in thinking that if we were to replace the water pump, that would be about $60-$80 in parts? All I found online is "water pump impeller repair kit" - not saying that we know we need too, but just figuring that would be a likely possibility (we did that last year to the 40 hp evinrude).

We are going to try to take a livestock water tank over with us and fill it with water to see to get it to run before committing. My husband has a compression guage, and I appreciate the post where the poster specifically mentioned the PSI it should be at.

Oh, and the old boat... I'm not too concerned about it.. really just buying it for the motor.. the boat, if it doesn't sell as a boat as is will just go to scrap, hopefully we would get something for the scrap, friend of mine said it looked like a lot of aluminum.

Mel

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

I would check the wires and electrical out after the compression test ... followed by the lower unit oil. Make sure the oil looks like oil and isn't overly discolored, white and thick. Bad news if it comes out "milky", as most describe it. If it was me and I were in your shoes with a new purchase at a minimum I would:

Rebuild the water pump; yes they come in a kit. You just need the gaskets, rings and impeller ... not the whole assembly (unless the current one is damaged).
Rebuild the fuel pump.
Rebuild the carbs.

All of the rebuilds come in kits with most of the components.
Check to see if there is a fuel filter installed and replace it if present ... if not I would install one.
New oil in the lower unit and clean off the magnet on the bottom plug (if there is a magnet). If not, I would make it an additional install. It helps to let you know if there is excessive metal wear or potential problems with alot of fragments between oil changes. It also keeps the metal pieces from being recirculated throughout the unit.

Most the parts will be ordered by engine serial number. Try a google search for "Sierra Marine" and you will find a bunch of suppliers for rebuild kits.

Here are a few parts web sites I have been using:
http://www.boatmotors.com/parts/mercury/
http://www.dougrussell.com/
http://www.marineengine.com/
http://store.eastcoastmarineservice.com/
http://www.marinepartsplus.com/index.html
http://www.marineparts.com/partspages/table.htm

Hope that helps a little.

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

Gee, I think that is a lot of money for a 37 year old motor. It was a good motor, and still may be a good motor, but anything over $500 is too much IMHO. I bought a '93 Merc 135HPV6 a couple of years ago for $1000. I thought that was reasonable.

That '74 has the old PTT system, the old distributor ign, likely bad wiring, and maybe basic stuff like failing motor mounts and worn swivel bracket bushings

Re: 1974 Mercury 1150

Chris1956 said:

Gee, I think that is a lot of money for a 37 year old motor. It was a good motor, and still may be a good motor, but anything over $500 is too much IMHO. I bought a '93 Merc 135HPV6 a couple of years ago for $1000. I thought that was reasonable.

That '74 has the old PTT system, the old distributor ign, likely bad wiring, and maybe basic stuff like failing motor mounts and worn swivel bracket bushings

Click to expand...

I agree Chris, if it was just the motor. The aluminum scrap value on the crestliner boat is about $800 if you scrap it. If its a decent boat they can likely sell it for $1000. Making the engine free.