Blue thanks for the heads up

I think I'm going to take it to Mike let him work on it

Mike Flower? If so he is very good and honest. He fixed my fuel problem.

I was fooling around with the boat and I saw something that may be related to my problem. And if not it will create a problem later

I replaced the spark plugs not to long ago and today I noticed that the top 2 on each side of the engine were rusted and you could tell that salt water was seeping out of both thermostat housings dripping on the 2 plugs. Now when at idle and with the cowl off it does not leak but I imagine under increasing throttle it does leak.

Would this water going all over my spark plugs not effect it?

I took off the thermostat housings and there was no gasket to prevent it from leaking

Either way tomorrow I will replace the 2 thermostats and the 2 housings, they were not in great shape so that will be replaced also

Just wanted to know if this could be the issue or part of the issue

Don't know Mike Flower but I use Mike Fernandez out by Tamiami Airport

If your taking it soundsville he loves those older mercs like that. He says its his specialty.

I bought the 2 new thermostat housings and installed them yesterday.
Found it odd that it shows that there are no gaskets that go in-between the housing's and the head, but placed the thermostat's in position and tightened the bolts and placed the hoses in position with new clamps. Cranked the engine and it still leaked from both sides where the housing meets the head. Tightened them a little bit more but still would leak.


I looked at a parts schematic and it does not show any type of gasket either

My next idea is too either use some type of form a gasket or make a gasket out of material ?

Or is there something I'm not seeing??????

we all do good luck

made a gasket out of form a gasket and no leaks now

Hope that cures it

Now I need to wait till this Wednesday to head down to Islamorada for the 4th

Old school here. Take the air box off and put your hand on each throat while runnin`.
If you hear more rpm in one, there you go. Don`t do this for long, just to see if you can isolate to one throat. As Bushwacker said runnin` premix can be a double edged sword.

Have you done a compression test? That is always tops on my list.

Cheers,
Us.

I had a similar symptom show up on my 4stroke and it ended up being the downstream check ball in the bulb. Mine seemed to work fine and after squeezing it many times, (no comments required ;) ), I happened to feel the ball suck back upstream towards the tank. Replaced the bulb and haven't had any trouble since. good luck!