Thread: Mariner ?

Those little motors do tend to be hard on spark plugs. The biggest issue those motors have are fuel related. Since they are so conservative on fuel, the fuel tends to go bad before it's used up. Ethanol blended fuel worsens the problem.
The compression numbers suggest the use of an inaccurate gauge. Those motors have a camshaft mounted compression release system to assist in manual starting. Compression readings are generally very low. Which is why the general diagnostics tool for them is a compression leak down tester.
Have you run the engine since it's been out of the shop?

Originally Posted by sliderman

Those little motors do tend to be hard on spark plugs. The biggest issue those motors have are fuel related. Since they are so conservative on fuel, the fuel tends to go bad before it's used up. Ethanol blended fuel worsens the problem.
The compression numbers suggest the use of an inaccurate gauge. Those motors have a camshaft mounted compression release system to assist in manual starting. Compression readings are generally very low. Which is why the general diagnostics tool for them is a compression leak down tester.
Have you run the engine since it's been out of the shop?

No I just got it out of the shop. I probably will not have a chance to try the motor before I go on vacation, which is why I was asking. Like I said I'm not a mechanic but it didn't make sense to me that a sparkplug was the problem. You have me real worried now if they didn't do the compression test correct. The only thing about the compression I know is that it is a real mother to pull the starter rope.

If the starter rope is excessively difficult to pull from an average viewpoint, I suspect that there is a problem. What it might be I cant say for certain but I would be looking at the compression release system and the timing belt. I would make time to at least run it before depending on it to be trouble free during a vacation.

Originally Posted by sliderman

If the starter rope is excessively difficult to pull from an average viewpoint, I suspect that there is a problem. What it might be I cant say for certain but I would be looking at the compression release system and the timing belt. I would make time to at least run it before depending on it to be trouble free during a vacation.

I'm going to try it before we go. The starter rope has been a[ female dog] since I bought it new.