Late 80's Merc 60hp ? Question

Picked up a steal on craigslist yesterday, supposedly 2 merc 60's from the late 80's early 90's, one with a seized powerhead the other might be in running condition, but it was discarded in favor of a 4 stroke the guy had when he bought the boat so he never tried it. Compression was tight, 115psi + on all cylinders, spark was good, had a stainless 15 pitch prop so I took them.

Well, got home, found the parts motor with the seized head is an '85 from the s/n, no biggie, but there is no S/N on the other. I don't even know which cowl belongs with which motor. Are there any parts stamped with a part number that corresponds to boats.net or somewhere else that you can tell what you're working with? I found the swivel arm is very tight and I was looking to try and pull it apart to clean it up some but i'm not 100% sure what year it is that i have or if the carbs are really for a 60hp and i didn't just pick up a pair of 40hp motors and 60hp hoods.

There is a freeze plug on the right hand side of the motor with serial #'s of the motor on it.

you are the man!

1988! Awesome! now I can reliably order parts as I need them. Thank you so much!

Next question - any tips on separating the lower unit from the rest of the engine? I've got the bolt and 3 nuts off (two up top & one behind the tab), I've tried it in fwd, neutral & reverse and I can't separate it more than 1/2". There doesn't appear to be a coupling or other release point in the shift linkage, I think given the condition of the parts motor that the driveshaft spline is probably corroded and not separating, but I'm not sure.

I want to get the lower unit off the 2nd motor without damaging the the longshaft driveshaft housing, as i'd like to put the whole thing up on eBay as a conversion, but this is aggravating me no end.

Turn the motor up side down & spray some penetrating fluid on the drive shaft so it runs down to the splines.

Been trying that... no luck yet. I've got wooden shims wedged between the lower unit and the drive shaft housing opening it 3/8 of an inch. I'm having to spray on the impeller housing and hope that it dribbles down the drive shaft from there. We'll see where it sits today.

Next up is pulling the flywheel to gut the stator and trigger before I smash the seized up powerhead to attempt approaching the spline from the topside.

Uhg...steering bracket on the motor I'm keeping is all seized up. Tried greasing it - no luck...hope it isn't rusted. I'm planning on trying some heat to see if that will loosen up the old grease, if not :?:

well it helped some but grease is only pushing through the lower seel at the moment, no matter how much grease I pushed into the fitting it would only come out the bottom so I don't think that I'm pushing out the old bad grease anywhere.

nope - only a temporary fix. as soon as it cooled down it got tight again. Oh well, time to tear it apart.