65hp Mercury 4 stroke

[Michigan16footer]

First and foremost I’d like to thank everyone in advance for and help/info given.

Ive always wanted a boat. And last week I finally said today’s the day lol. I hopped on Craigslist and bought a 16 foot 1965 Starcraft. With trailer for 750 bucks. Hull is good. Transom is not rotted out and it’s strong. Engine actually runs. Just not the best. I put it on the water(never left the dock unfortunately). It runs but very poorly and when you put it in forward it jumps quite hard and then dies. I tinkered with the idle switch on the engine and it ran a bit better. Didn’t die anymore but still jerked. But I know absolutely NOTHING about boat engines.

So I guess my question is, where should I start? I know for a fact I have to pull the lower and change seals and water pump. Fluid is milky which means water is mixed. And no water shoots out while it’s running. But aside from that. And help us much appreciated.

 

[ThomW]

What year is the motor? As far as the motor running well, start with the big 3-- Spark, compression, and gas. Check compression on each cylinder. Make sure there in spec. Check spark and make sure you have that. Then fuel. Start with the tank and work your way to the motor. Fuel lines in good shape? Fresh gas? fuel filter clean? Gas making it through fuel pump okay? Then the carbs. Depending how long the boat sat and how it was cared for, you may need to remove the carbs and clean them up and sync them.