Re: 79 115 HP Blueband Mercury - Dry Spark Plug
These inline 6's have strange reeds that are on the crank, on a circular plate. They seem to be durable but are hard to inspect. Lot of times a bad reed will make bad idle and go away some at top rpm as air speed goes high in intake and the flow cannot revert back out through bad reed. May show up as puffing out through carb at idle too, not so much if carb is on more than one cylinder. May hear intake noise/popping from that cylinder or is louder intake sounds. <br /><br />Try a $5 spark testor and set for a half inch on bad coil, then I think the second winding in stator starts at 3000rpm if so equipped, and see if spark changes then. Compare to other coils too. Could be CD if coil swap does not change condition. Or, if good it is an airflow/compression problem there. Maybe crank seal, very expensive but not common.