90s era Mercury 115/125 (2+4 ) for Seafari?

[Fr. Frank]

I wonder if any of you have experience with the carbed inline 4 115/125 hp from Mercury/Mariner.

Any opinions on these 4 cyls?

A friend had a 125 on the back of his 26' pontoon boat. It was a problem motor in that he lost compression in one or more cylinders on three occasions in a year and a half.

He rebuilt it once, replaced the powerhead once, and threw it away once.

I mean he literally threw the motor away after dropping two cylinders for the 3rd time. He bought one of my old Chrysler 3 cyl. 90hp motors, and put the Merc on the deck of the pontoon boat, hooked to 30' of logging chain with a buoy attached to the other end, and then pushed the old Merc off the deck in 24' of water SE of Sebastian Inlet by the rockpile 1/2 mile from the Monster Hole. Instant mooring buoy for snorkling and spearfishing. He took me to dive there once, and the whole motor, including the lower unit and prop was still there over a year later. The cowling was gone, though.

On the other hand, another friend has a 100hp version on the back of his 17' Sea Ray, with untold hours of skiing on it, probably over 2000 hours over all. Never a hiccup from the powerhead, and only a seal replacement on the lower unit. Go figure.