Mercury tower of power years

[mrdad990]

Hey everyone, I had a question of the tower of power years that Mercury put out for their outboards specifically 140hp? I’m thinking of buying one from this person but he doesn’t seem to know where to take a picture of the serial on the back nor about the engine. The boat is a saltrun 2012 with a 140 Mercury on the back. Going to see it today and he listed at 13500 and dropped after talking for awhile to 8k apparently due to Debt stuff, anyway I have an old 77 Johnson 85 and as much as I love to fix and tinker I def don’t want my newer boat to have the same stuff and I don’t really know much about old Mercury’s. Any help on the year and if the old Mercury is worth buying even for such a low price?

 

[dwco5051]

As much as I liked those old Mercs you are looking at a motor that was made in 1972-1981 if it is really an old inline 6. A possibly 50 year old saltwater motor known for deteriorating wiring is meant for someone who likes to "tinker."

 

[mrdad990]

Oh wow, I don’t think I can do that old of a motor, so they don’t make any newer versions? That’s such a bummer man that boat really seemed to be a good boat but I cannot afford a repower if I buy this boat unfortunately at least not now

 

[roscoe]

Big price drop ! Beware. Nobody drops their price 40% on a phone call.
Sounds like a scam to me.
Maybe not.

Is the sellers name kevin crough, ?
The 140 not worth much in my opinion, unless it is pristine and you have an old boat to put it on, it is fully functional, and seller can demonstrate it. If it has tilt, it is inside the boat. Motor $300-$1000 max, if you can service it yourself, cause likely no one will let it in their shop.

Salt Run . 2012 ???
US Coast Guard says they went out of business in 2008.

​ SALT RUN BOATWORKS​
MIC:	OAU		Status:
Company:	SALT RUN BOATWORKS		Company Official:	CROUGH, KEVIN
DBA			Parent MIC:
Past Company 1:
Past Company 2:
Past Company 3:
Past Company 4:
Address:	12075 SHARPTOWN ROAD		City:	MARDELA SPRINGS
State:	MD		Zip:	21837
Country:			Phone:	(410) 883-2501
Fax:			In Business:	4/7/2003
Out of Business:	11/5/2008

 

[dwco5051]

Misread the original post. Didn't realize saltrun was the boat maker. Agree with roscoe on the motor value. Most of the value is the sound that one of those old Towers makes running flat out.

 

[mrdad990]

Big price drop ! Beware. Nobody drops their price 40% on a phone call.
Sounds like a scam to me.
Maybe not.

Is the sellers name kevin crough, ?
The 140 not worth much in my opinion, unless it is pristine and you have an old boat to put it on, it is fully functional, and seller can demonstrate it. If it has tilt, it is inside the boat. Motor $300-$1000 max, if you can service it yourself, cause likely no one will let it in their shop.

Salt Run . 2012 ???
US Coast Guard says they went out of business in 2008.

​ SALT RUN BOATWORKS​
MIC:	OAU		Status:
Company:	SALT RUN BOATWORKS		Company Official:	CROUGH, KEVIN
DBA			Parent MIC:
Past Company 1:
Past Company 2:
Past Company 3:
Past Company 4:
Address:	12075 SHARPTOWN ROAD		City:	MARDELA SPRINGS
State:	MD		Zip:	21837
Country:			Phone:	(410) 883-2501
Fax:			In Business:	4/7/2003
Out of Business:	11/5/2008

I guess the guy bought it off someone and got the engine from a place that rebuilds them but I saw that one post how the guy got screwed over by the owner on the east coast for building one for him…. Again I love working on engines just not when it holds me back from fishing lol. Interesting about them going out of business in 2008….hmmmm not sure what to make of that. And yeah it was a little weird the guy is supposed to come show me the boat today so we will see

 

[mrdad990]

Misread the original post. Didn't realize saltrun was the boat maker. Agree with roscoe on the motor value. Most of the value is the sound that one of those old Towers makes running flat out.

That does sound cool! It’s a little loud for my situation I rather have a quiet motor so when I come up on a fishing spot it doesn’t trip them out. I really want a Suzuki or Honda if possible for future but I don’t know what to think I gotta see this boat before I assume but mismatch in years from boat to the company is a little worry some as well as his price drop although in my area that is a good price for a boat that doesn’t sink and works out here unfortunately

 

[mrdad990]

Big price drop ! Beware. Nobody drops their price 40% on a phone call.
Sounds like a scam to me.
Maybe not.

Is the sellers name kevin crough, ?
The 140 not worth much in my opinion, unless it is pristine and you have an old boat to put it on, it is fully functional, and seller can demonstrate it. If it has tilt, it is inside the boat. Motor $300-$1000 max, if you can service it yourself, cause likely no one will let it in their shop.

Salt Run . 2012 ???
US Coast Guard says they went out of business in 2008.

 

[mrdad990]

For some backstory the guy asked if I wanted it after talking for a while and I was honest and told him I was looking at another boat that had more things I want and needed on my next boat and also told him the price of the other boat 8k then I said I’m gonna go and check out this boat first then he said I could drop it to 8 cuz I gotta a lot of debt I need to pay off or something. Still is weird but keeping an open mind

 

[444]

If memory serves, the last inline 6's were sold as 1988 model years 115hp. Mercury played around with the HP rating of the this particular engine a lot. The way I understand it is prior to 1978 this engine was called the 150hp. In 78 merc came out with their 150hp v6 so they dropped 10hp off the top of their inline 6 to make room for the v6 to be the top dog. Then in 1980 they started calling it the 115hp, I don't know if this had to do with the transition from crankshaft HP rating to prop HP rating or what but it happened.

They're good engines, rugged, simple to work on. I think mercury dropped them in favor of their shorter and more modern looking 3-4 cylinder engines. Maintenance on them is pretty minimal as the inlines do not have thermostats or poppet valves.

I would have no qualms about owning another inline, I used to have a 1986 90 horse tower and it was a good engine, very reliable, ran smooth and not noisy by any means.

I would question why someone put a 40 year old engine onto a 10 year old boat.

 

[Chris1956]

The last 140HP IL6 was made in 1978-1979, I believe. It was the same as the Merc 1500, but since Merc introduced a 150HPV6 motor in 1978, they changed the IL6 to 140HP.

There were some earlier 140HP IL6 models, say around 1972.

As was said, the motor is likely worth very little, say $300.

 

[mrdad990]

If memory serves, the last inline 6's were sold as 1988 model years 115hp. Mercury played around with the HP rating of the this particular engine a lot. The way I understand it is prior to 1978 this engine was called the 150hp. In 78 merc came out with their 150hp v6 so they dropped 10hp off the top of their inline 6 to make room for the v6 to be the top dog. Then in 1980 they started calling it the 115hp, I don't know if this had to do with the transition from crankshaft HP rating to prop HP rating or what but it happened.

They're good engines, rugged, simple to work on. I think mercury dropped them in favor of their shorter and more modern looking 3-4 cylinder engines. Maintenance on them is pretty minimal as the inlines do not have thermostats or poppet valves.

I would have no qualms about owning another inline, I used to have a 1986 90 horse tower and it was a good engine, very reliable, ran smooth and not noisy by any means.

I would question why someone put a 40 year old engine onto a 10 year old boat.

Yeah that same question came to mind, so there was a few things that was weird with this situation, the guy ended up taking the post down and telling me he ended up not wanting to sell for such a low price (which he basically dropped in fear of me buying a different boat) so I can’t say I’m not a little sad I just need a solid CC hull with working engine to go fishing. I think something happened or maybe he got weird when I asked for the serial number on the outboard