Hi everyone
I have a 2003 5hp
mercury outboard that was on my
catalina 25. Half way through last season it started
overheating and shutting down. It had a brand new impeller at the start of the season, I took it down and pulled everything apart used some compressed air and blew out the
plumbing that keeps it cool and it worked for a couple weeks then started struggling again and died. Its old and not worth that much and getting it professionally serviced (they recommended pulling the
power head at this point) will cost more than its worth. I pulled the
power head myself today and there was so much salt/other crusties in there that i think it was obstruction the flow around the cylinder. I have always had flow from the tell but i never felt like it was enough. hopefully this will have fixed it. my question is while it is all open is there anything else I should look at? how do i know that in its
overheating I didn't destroy piston rings or anything else? It all looks decent now that its cleaned but iv never pulled a
motor apart to this degree.
I did a
compression test in the summer and I felt like it was a little low but the
motor runs great until it gets crazy hot and fizzles out. does anyone know what a small
outboard like this should run for
compression?
The other thing i did as a test when it was apart is put the foot in a bucket of
water and i carefully attached my drill to the shaft and ran it. only a small amount of
water was pumped up but i have redone all this before. does the drill just not spin it fast enough do you think? or is there some other issue? the impeller still looks new but i don't know what else to look at.
Hate outboards thanks for your help in advance.