Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

[pnwboat]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

You can use standard torque values for those. I believe they are 1/4 20 bolts. My chart indicates 70 inch pounds or 6 foot pounds.

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Hi guys. Quick update, I've got the block back together and all I have to do it the head gasket and port covers. I will put up some videos soon. I am looking for the correct thermostat for this thing, iboats does not have one for a 99 120, anybody know a part number or where I can find one?

 

[pnwboat]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Here you go. P/N F664068 #29 in the diagram below.

http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury-outboard/parts/2531_110.cfm

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

thanks PNW. So everything is coming together pretty smooth so far. The next thing I am going to do is get the stator and the flywheel back on. Do you know what kind of grease should be packed under the flywheel? I have a grease gun full of marine grease from my trailer, that should be fine right?

 

[pnwboat]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Are you talking about greasing the crankshaft snout where the flywheel is bolted to? If so, the bearing grease will be OK. Just a very light coating will do.

When you drop the flywheel onto the crankshaft, you may need to use some grease to keep the little flywheel key in place and in the groove. As you drop the flywheel down, it has a tendency to push the keeper out of place.

I've also taken a flat blade screw driver and taken the tip and positioned it across the groove in the flywheel and tapped the screw driver lightly so as to slightly deform the groove in one small area. When you put the keeper into the grove you may have to tap it in lightly but it really holds it in place. The key here is don't mess up the groove to the point where you can't get the keeper in. You get the general idea.

 

[riptorn]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

I wish you the best swick. Nice to see a thread going to the completion state so soon. Too far between. Good luck.
Thumbs up!

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

PNW, yes thats where I was talking about. You can see in the tear down video at 40:20 it looks like it was greased right there. I oiled all the bearings and hit them with whil lithium grease too, but I guess bearing grease wouldn't do any harm either before I put the flywheel back in place. Antoher thing I wonder, I went to the auto store to try and find replacement fuel lines for the port covers, they didn't have anything in the right size, so for the time being I put (new) weed eater fuel lines. I'm guessing that those won't last as a permanent solution, but to get this thing started it should do the trick. Of course i won't be starting it until I complete the whole project and make all the adjustments back to original settings.

Riptorn, thanks a lot man, I could not have even gotten this far without all the guys on iboats. I always tell people about this forum, a few years ago I didn't know much of anything about boats and now here I am rebuilding an engine.

 

[noflyzone]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

I just swapped blocks on my force 120 ob , the mistakes I made may help you ..
Dont forget to touque the flywheel .... and yes use grease on the key and shaft...
Inspect all wiring , any slices can cause a short and blow a power pack ....
Dont adjust the timing unless absolulty needed , buy a cheap $15 dollar timing light on Ebay an verify it first ,,,
If doing a compression check or timing , everyone here and in the manual states to short the ignition wires
I remove the plugs and jumper cable the plugs to ground , that way I can see the sparking on all 4 cylinders
compression check is with all 4 plugs out and WOT same as timing .... you have to jump the safty switch
Compression numbers will be low for a newly rebuilt block , but will go up after breakin and
can vary with the gauge , My numbers cold were 110 but broken in 130 new gauge 150 lb so dont be shocked
if your numbers are low at first .. I did not touch my carbs or the settings just swapped , dont forget to change
the lower unit oil , these old force engines dont have much value so try to keep to a budget ...
happy boating

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Thanks for the tips noflyzone. I never heard of shorting the ignition wires to do a compression check before. Also, I wonder why would compression numbers be low? I mean I could see maybe before the 1st start up, but wouldn't the compression jump up to normal right after the engines been run just once? As far as the carbs and timing go, I'll have to adjust everything back to normal factory settings. Over the past few years of owning this thing I've made adjustments periodically always trying to get it to run better (long behold the piston wrist pin has been the problem all along). As far as value goes, I've got faith that I've restored more value to this thing now than when I bought it. A comparable engine (new) is upwards of $8k, and used is even more than I've recently put into this. If the Force were still in production this would still be a $5-$6K engine new.

I still have a way to go, today I'm going to try and replace the burnt/melted wires. I'm hoping that those would be the reason my overheat alarm never worked on this motor. Does anyone know if there is a way to test the overheat alarm without actually overheating? Also, I've got plenty of video putting this back together, I need to sit down and edit it all though, otherwise it gets pretty long and boring, but for anyong taking notes, here is what the wiesco pistons look like compared to what I replaced:

 

[tater76]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Way to go swick! this is the exciting part. I just have one comment to correct noflyzone, NEVER grease the flywheel shaft or key!! I know its tempting considering how much of a PITA it is to remove them, but its not designed to have lube on it. The manual states this clearly, and for good reason. Now your white lithium grease is just fine on its own. After I attach the rods to the crank I squirt good two stroke oil on all of the bearings, then spin the entire assembly over a few times.

Onto the wiring.. does the boat actually have a overheat alarm?? they are "usually" under the dash, and "usually" have an orange wire going to them. Your boat looks pretty new, so I would guess its got one?

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Onto the wiring.. does the boat actually have a overheat alarm?? they are "usually" under the dash, and "usually" have an orange wire going to them. Your boat looks pretty new, so I would guess its got one?

Thanks Tater. I'll check under the dash later, I've been down there a bunch of times and nothing jumps out in my mind. I was wondering if there were an alarm in the throttle casing, but I guess not. I'll poke around a little later, I just remember people menitoning in the past that there should be an overheat alarm and I factually know I've overheated this a time or two with no alarm sounding. The boat itself is a 99 Sprint, also out of business, kind of fitting for the Force isn't it?

 

[tater76]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Yep you could be right about the alarm placement. I have never trusted any of mine, so I just keep an eye on the telltale (pisser) to make sure there is water flowing. I also replace the water pump impeller EVERY YEAR. I think $16 bucks for the impeller is cheap insurance against frying my motor

You said you overheated the motor before..?? most of the time this is due to lack of water flow. I guess part of it could have been from a lean carb on your bottom cylinder though? Anyhoo, you will have remedied any of those issues by the time you get it all together and tuned properly Remember to read the FAQ sticky about link and syncing the carbs, then set the timing correctly and you will be like new! I promise this motor will scream when its tuned right.

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Yeah, unfortunately got it stuck in the mud out here in the everglades once or twice and clogged it up pretty good (quickest way to overheat the engine is to start peeing mud). Something we need to watch out for down here, when Lake O is low, so are all the fresh water holes. I think the lean carb definitely didn't help. Live and learn, I'm totally with you about having it synced like new, I can't wait to have it all back together and feel the real power this motor's supposed to have. I got some new wire ends today just haven't had a chance to play with it today. I'm going to see what I can get done this week and I'll record the 1st fire-up and maiden voyage.

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Hey guys. Quick update, its all back together. I just finished putting the carbs back on, now I only need to get it back on the boat and make all the final adjustments. Which leads me to a few more questions:

 

[pnwboat]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

The gear shift lever needs to be set correctly but I'm not sure about how to do that. That little screw adjustment on the tower shaft under the flywheel is the timing. Very important to get that set correctly. Turning the screw clockwise, advances the timing, counterclockwise retards the timing. If the timing is too far advanced, you can do some serious damage to the pistons. Also make sure you double the amount of oil 25:1 ratio during the break in period.

 

[tater76]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

I guess I should have said something in the begginning of your rebuild.... put the shifter in forward before you pull the powerhead. I made the same mistake as you, but its not too difficult to remedy. First, the shift rod is the first thing you referenced in the video. The arm along with a plastic guide peice, ride on the motor (that little slotted runner peice with wear marks). Once you reinstall the powerhead you will attach the shift rod arm to the motor runner peice. Then attach your shift cable from the controls to the shift linkage, then put the controls in forward. Now.... in order to get the shifter to the correct gear you must drop the lower unit.

Next, find forward gear by spinning the driveshaft clockwise and watch the prop for correct direction. If its not in forward turn the shiftrod coupler with a pair of channel locks with a rag on the teeth as to not damage the coupler, until you find forward. When you find it, then reinstall the lower and return the control to neutral. Make sure the lower is in fact in neutral by spinning the prop. It should spin freely without any clicking or drag. If it clicks when you spin it, you can adjust the cable where it mounts inside the lower pan (the little clip and barrel that hold the cable in place). Just open the clip up, pull the barrel out with the cable and spin it clockwise while counting revolutions, reinstall and spin the prop. If the prop has no clicking while being spun in either direction then your good to go. If it clicks harder then go in the opposite direction with the barrel.

Thats the way I did it, but maybe someone else has a better easier way? As far as your linkages go... don't mess with them until you get the motor mounted, and the carbs on. I say this because you will need to power the starter to set the timing. I suggest reading Frank A's FAQ sticky on Link and Sync, it is imperative that you set it up according to these instructions prior to starting it.

As for the timing, the linkage at the top of the motor just under the flywheel adjusts your timing. Following the arm that linkage connects to down, you will see the idle screw.

The overheat wire is correct if I saw the colors right

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

You might have said to put it in foward first, I don't remember but it does sound familiar. So I shot myself in the foot there. I had the feeling I was going to have to drop the lower unit, oh well. When you say foward, do you mean WOT, or does it matter? I have the carbs on already too, I took the video first and posted after I did the carbs. Do you think I should try and start it (after adjustments) and see if the gears are already in nuetral before dropping the lower unit? Or would that be bad? I guess I'll be reading those other threads a little later, my son has a baseball game tonight so I won't be getting any other work in. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, it will be the 1st time all week if it doesn't, but I should be able to get the engine back in and go buy a timing light.

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

Another thought, I have plenty of video and pictures prior to taking apart, what are the chances that I get the shift rod lined up based on those? Are the linkages too close for that?

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

"I suggest reading Frank A's FAQ sticky on Link and Sync, it is imperative that you set it up according to these instructions prior to starting it."


I just finished reading it (again). A couple follow-up questions; 1) I guess this answers my last question, looks like I will have to drop the l/u as you suggested to do adjust the shift rod 1st because 2) it looks like I'll have to actually make these adjustments in the water? so 3) I guess I'll have to charge my batteries and won't be able to do a quick fire-up on muffs 1st? Oh yeah, one more... so someone previously mentioned need for a timing light, but Frank does not mention use or need for one in the FAQ, any thoughts?

 

[swick]

Re: Took the head off my motor, heres a video explaining everything.

put the shifter in forward before you pull the powerhead. I made the same mistake as you, but its not too difficult to remedy. First, the shift rod is the first thing you referenced in the video. The arm along with a plastic guide peice, ride on the motor (that little slotted runner peice with wear marks). Once you reinstall the powerhead you will attach the shift rod arm to the motor runner peice. Then attach your shift cable from the controls to the shift linkage, then put the controls in forward. Now.... in order to get the shifter to the correct gear you must drop the lower unit.

Next, find forward gear by spinning the driveshaft clockwise and watch the prop for correct direction. If its not in forward turn the shiftrod coupler with a pair of channel locks with a rag on the teeth as to not damage the coupler, until you find forward. When you find it, then reinstall the lower and return the control to neutral. Make sure the lower is in fact in neutral by spinning the prop. It should spin freely without any clicking or drag. If it clicks when you spin it, you can adjust the cable where it mounts inside the lower pan (the little clip and barrel that hold the cable in place). Just open the clip up, pull the barrel out with the cable and spin it clockwise while counting revolutions, reinstall and spin the prop. If the prop has no clicking while being spun in either direction then your good to go. If it clicks harder then go in the opposite direction with the barrel.

I put the completed engine back in today and reconnected everything. I also dropped the L/U and followed your instructions above. So right now I have it in nuetral and the prop spins freely without any clicking. What I don't remember is do they usually click in fwd? I haven't started it up yet cause I still need to link and sync, but when I turned the driveshaft clockwise it spun the prop correctly, when I spin just the prop (by hand) it does click. I rebolted the l/u on for now, thinking this is correct, I obviouly always had it parked in nuetral so I never bothered to spin a prop in gear by hand before.