serial # help please!

the sticker on my outboard reads Mariner 20 hp. the serial # is 6536464, and that doesnt matc any thing i can find. the best i can tell, is it either a 18 hp or a 25 hp from 84 maybe? The link below is the chart i was looking at. Does anyone have any opinions or guidance on this subject?

Comes up as an 84' 18 or 25hp from what I could find. Man Merc and Mariner have a messed up way of identifying there motors ugh. What a mess to cross reference! But yeah you would think there would be more markings or a better way to identify? I will stick to my Johnson's :wink:

the guy i bought the boat from told me he thought it was a mid 90's... he said he'd give me my money back for any reason. i'm calling him tomorrow, we'll see..

Yeah well if he cannot verify that the motor is mid 90's and not and 84 then i would get my money back. Do you have pics you can post? That will help in determining what year it is. There is a pretty significant difference between a mid 80's and mid 90's styling that we can decipher which it is : )

pic of the motor. and, i really appreciate the help!

You might find out what you want here.....https://www.maxrules.com/fixmercindex.html

I noticed that the normal sequence shows an ALPHA character as the second entry. Any possibility that the 6536464 is really 6E36464 or some other ALPHA character in the second position?

Just guessing. rich

i wish, but no chance.. i just got off the phone w/ that guy and knows what he did. that is the web site i was using to get me info, by the way thanks! i should have known the guy was a tad bit scrupulous when i drove 4 hours and then he decided to tell me it needed a new starter..
here lies my dilemma. he say's he'll give me back 1500 of the 1800 i paid(dont wont to argue w/ him, cuz his offer could get worse, you know what i mean). i spent 150.00 on gas, over there and back. if i do it again, double that. so, thats 600.00 i'll be loosing straight off the bat(to take the boat back). take that off the price i paid, and i have a 1200.00 boat. since 1200 is what i'll be taking back, the boat is prolly worth that..
it's a 1988 1448 monark w/ a 1984 18 hp mariner. should i keep it, or take it back on principle?

It does look like a mid 80's Mariner. Did he tell you it was an 18hp on the phone this time when you chatted with him? $600 dollars is a lot to lose on principle

If the motor is sound, clean and not beat up you didn't really get a bad deal. Not an honest one either but I see this a lot in the boat and motor world unfortunately. Most people don't even have an idea what they are selling. I run into this all the time when looking at adds for johnson/evinrude outboards. Motors are very commonly misrepresented out of lack off knowledge.

Hmmmm Yea, buying boats at long distances can be a problem. I drove all of the way to Florida (from Texas) one time. In that case, the boat was "as advertised"...but you never know.

Considering time; gas; travel issues etc....AND if the price is OK (even at 1800)????...then I guess I'd keep it. However, you really don't even know if the motor is OK. Did you/can you...do a compression check? If that is OK, then most everything else can be fixed by applying money.

regards, rich

thanks Rich for the advice. i like to go at these type of issues w/ a little logic, and sometimes it hard to use logic when your P.O'd. But I agree with you if the motor is ok. i havent done a compression test, but i put it in a local state park lake today. i ran it for a really long time. i went from one end to the other(after testing it out close to the boat ramp). on the way back from the other end of the lake, i saw a good place to do a little casting. i shut the motor off and trolled around for a bit, while throwing a spinner bait. after 30 mins or so, i fired the motor up and headed back towards the boat ramp. it took a min to crank when i initially arrived, but after it did it ran great all day long... i feel a bit better about being bamboozled.

Well, as far as compression vs running....my trusted mechanic of at least 15 years...told me that "If you can't do a compression test .. a motor that runs well, on the boat, on the water, is probably fine."

Sounds like you are good to go.

Oh, I agree that this guy probably took advantage, but the costs to reverse things..and then go looking for another boat/motor...just don't add up. If he was down the block, I'd have given him the boat back and gone and paid MORE for another one...but...he isn't.

Sometimes, and ONLY sometimes... the practical has to over-come the principle.....

regards, Rich

so true! thanks Rich..

Did The guy you bought it from say it was an 18HP? Have you discovered the actual HP rating? I just bought what i think (and was told) is a mariner 20 hp last week and I'm having the same problem with the serial number. Mine is 6618658, and doesn't come up on any of the charts I've found online. It looks just like yours, except its been painted over, however you can still see the 20 HP markings on it. Do you think we both have 18's? Or perhaps the charts are inaccurate.
The one I have cranks right up and seems to run strong. It seems to be a pretty good engine, but time will tell.
Maybe swapping the cowls is a Mississippi thing!

I don't know much...but....I do understand that older engines hp ratings were rated differently. Something about measured at the prop vs measured at the crankshaft??? or something like that.

Rich

Back in the early 1980s probably 82-83 I bought a new Mariner 25HP. It was a really good motor until the lower crank seal started leaking salt water on-to the main bearing. At that time on my motor you could not buy crankshaft parts neither mains nor rod bearings therefore any crank problem and the entire assembly had to be replaced including rods and pistons.

I really liked the Mariner but after that experience I became a Johnson fan. Good luck with yours.

Regards, Keith

Well as far as the HP ratings back then....... In 85' they began to rate HP at the prop instead of the flywheel/crank. So the motors prior to that did not produce a true 20hp but they still labeled them as such. This does not factor into labels or serial numbers though.

A 20hp in say 84' was really putting out 17-18hp. It is somewhere in the 12-15% less HP at the prop than labeled on the motor back then.

Does your state require a title. no principal there, he has to give it all back.