Re: What does everyone think??
Hi guys,<br /><br />I am the mechanic tengals took with him to check it out. This engine had apparently done 600 hrs in 7 years on the back of an old blokes fishing boat.... Thats a lot of hours for a state with an average of 25hrs per year!! The skeg was broken and bent, the prop belonged on a 70's Merc and was the wrong size, the engine was scratched up, the plastic coil mounting plate was loose as a goose and the engine would not remain running in a tank. On muffs it would keep running (no back pressure), but not in the tank. it had an almost cyclical miss or dieing out episode, corrosion on many bolt heads and generally looked like it had been poorly treated.<br /><br />I told my customer that if I was buying it into my yard that as long as I got it for the right dollar I could fix all its issues and make a dollar from it, but as a straight out purchase for someone he could get a lot more for $4800 with a lot less problems.<br /><br />But here is the clincher..... The seller 'apparently' was very recently a Mercury service manager at the main Mercury factory here in Melbourne and he is presently a teacher at a school teaching marine mechanics!!! Now, you can't tell me that he did not know that this engine was a real crapper. The physical damage, the prop, the compression issue (ok, still in spec but unusual for one of these), the corrosion and of course the inability to run in the tank. Not to mention him backing away as best he could when I spelt it out. He asked for my opinion point blank and he got it. He then went on to say that "there it is" "its as traded" gee if that isn't the biggest load of crap I've ever heard.<br /><br />Chances are it could be returned to good order and be a good engine but when I am advising a customer who wants to put his hard earned bucks into what is supposed to be a late model, good engine and it clearly isn't, I can only tell him to steer clear and wait till we can find a better engine.<br /><br />I am really disappointed with this so called Mercury employee and trade teacher who had to bloody well know that the engine he was flogging was crap..... By the way, I noticed that he had changed the gear oil and obviously the impeller...... <br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Nicholas
<br /><br />cheers