So my buddy bought a boat and motor from one of his "buddies". He wanted just the outboard really. Well his buddy told him the last time the engine ran was back when the last time they had it out. We got the engine home and put the water horns on and we did it to run but it struggled to pee any water and what came out the exhaust looked pretty milky. And the left head thermostat was pissing out of the thermostat cover. But feeling both heads while it ran it never got hot enough to worry about it but we knew something was up. We finally pulled the thermostats off the engine to find out they're melted from over heating. The plastic bits. The left one was completely melted and the right was more or less intact but still melted a bet. So we pulled a head to check the cylinders and there was both good and bad. Good is the cylinders looked decent. Found out the engine had been bored .30 over at some point and there was even still some crosshatch still barely visible. Bad was those pistons felt like they had a ton of play. They rocked in the bores a decent amount. Enough to make an audible thunk noise. and they even seem to have some twisting play. Almost like theres slop in the rod on the big or little end. HOWEVER. I'm no expert on outboards and tolerances. But I figure more of my experience from rebuilding atvs applies. Is this engine a goner? Or could he just slap a new water pump, thermostats and gaskets and run it? When did it run when we brought it home it sounded pretty good. rowdy even.
The leading theory is his grandkids got up in the boat and fired it up for a period of time before shutting it down. The guy did say his grandkids would play in the boat. And said that's probably why the key went missing. So if they were playing with the key it's what's most likely to me.
The leading theory is his grandkids got up in the boat and fired it up for a period of time before shutting it down. The guy did say his grandkids would play in the boat. And said that's probably why the key went missing. So if they were playing with the key it's what's most likely to me.