We recently purchased a new Mercury engine to see if these engines will work well for us. We have been through our share of Honda, Yamaha, and older Mercury engines as well as many other brands with much success, but other issues have persuaded us to finding a better fit over the years. Our work is throughout the Missouri River Basin(sand based sediment filled river) with a large fleet of boats, which leads me to our recent problems. The new Mercury Verado lower unit has added large intakes in the front of the unit and it does not have screens for the side inlets. We believe that this engine runs beautifully, but may be designed more for cleaner water than we work in. We have never experienced the frequent overheating problems and sand/rock packing into the thermostat and impellor housing that we have seen with this engine. Do they have an alternative lower unit or will any other brand interchange with this unit? I am afraid that we may have to go back to our other manufacturers if we cannot filter out the sand better. We had to replace the impellor and housing with 90 hours on the engine and we are looking at taking it in again with 150 hours now. The dealer suggested that we not run in such shallow water, but that is not an option for us with our work. I explained that the conditions have never changed for us and our engines have lasted a long time without overheating at all and little maintenance. I thought that Honda lower units were once interchanged with Mercury, but not sure with the newer models. We thought about using duct tape to just cover the large front holes, but don't know if this will hurt the engine. Any advise on solving our issue or replacing the engine all together would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dereck
Thanks,
Dereck