I just bought a 1999 Mercury 8 HP 2 stroke. It has only about 10 hours on it. The guy I bought it from said he bought it new and then took it out twice and decided he needed a bigger one. He had it "winterized" and then stored it in a climate control storage. It looks brand new, no dirt or wear on any labels. I am new to this and ordered a book, but want to get it in the water sooner. What should I do, if anything to make sure everything is good. I don't want to run it and blow it up because I didn't do a quick look over. Any help would be great. I will post pictures this weekend. Thanks.
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That is good number of years, even though they "winterized" it. "Winterized" can mean just about anything. Hopefully, at least oil was put in the cylinders and the gas run out of it. Water impeler can dry rot or take heavy set, fuel pumps and carb gaskets can be shot.
I'd pull the plugs, squirt in some oil, and turn it over. If it turns freely without initial sticking, proceed.
With the plugs laying on the head, see if you got a good spark when turing over. No spark means ignition system problems to diagnois, or the lanyard was left off.
On the water pump impeller, you can choose to do it before starting or do it shortly after, even if you see a good "pee" indication. I usually do the latter and just be extremly careful watching for over temp.
Same for the carb/fuel pump, if an inspection reveals that gas was probably not left in it. If it looks like gas was left in, then would just go ahead and have carb and fuel sys cleaned.
Drain a little bit of the lower unit oil out and inspect. It should look like new clean oil, based on the storage you described. If milky, water is in there, and change the oil.
Mix some fresh gas and oil and try starting in tub or on muffs. If it starts and runs, good news.
Shut it off and now go through the manual and do any of the routine maint items, along with changing out the impeller, fuel pump diaphram, and carb kit.
I'd pull the plugs, squirt in some oil, and turn it over. If it turns freely without initial sticking, proceed.
With the plugs laying on the head, see if you got a good spark when turing over. No spark means ignition system problems to diagnois, or the lanyard was left off.
On the water pump impeller, you can choose to do it before starting or do it shortly after, even if you see a good "pee" indication. I usually do the latter and just be extremly careful watching for over temp.
Same for the carb/fuel pump, if an inspection reveals that gas was probably not left in it. If it looks like gas was left in, then would just go ahead and have carb and fuel sys cleaned.
Drain a little bit of the lower unit oil out and inspect. It should look like new clean oil, based on the storage you described. If milky, water is in there, and change the oil.
Mix some fresh gas and oil and try starting in tub or on muffs. If it starts and runs, good news.
Shut it off and now go through the manual and do any of the routine maint items, along with changing out the impeller, fuel pump diaphram, and carb kit.
