Thread: Expensive lesson learned the hard - and most espensive - way

I've owned a 2.5 hp 4 stroke Mercury motor for over a year and haven't been able to start it consistently. I took it to a home-based mechanic twice and was charged over $425 to get it working. The trip to his house was over 1 1/2 hours round trip so add that expense. It sat in my garage and disgusted me every time I looked at it.

Three weeks ago a fishing buddy found possible repair sources which I contacted - mostly marinas, but all said they were backed up with jobs and too few mechanics to do the work. But one guy I called said he comes to the motor owner's house and sees what's what before bringing the motor to his shop. $135 for the visit. (note: he fixes motors within 50 mi. of his shop!)

After a week or so and getting no call to come over, I gave up. But he called yesterday and came over with his partner. First thing he did was check the spark plug connection. At first he thought it may have been the ethanol gas sitting in the tank for a year, but I told him Stabil was in the tank. After pushing on the spark plug cap, it started the first time and idled smoothly at the lowest rpm ! It restarted every time after that.

All that time and money wasted because of some incompetent and/or unscrupulous mechanic recommended by a marina no less!

Okay, for those that own small 4-stroke outboards, here are some tips the mechanic gave me:
Use non-ethanol gas only. The jets in the carburetor are super small and ethanol gas has a way of not getting a spark depending on the age of the pump gas and gas breaking down. "Pump gas and oil can leave carbon depsosits and gunk in the engine and fuel line.
The ethanol in the gasoline attracts water from the atmosphere, and the two bond together in a process called “phase separation.” Having water in your fuel mix is not good. Water gets in and separates the oil and gas into two layers. The bottom layer with raw ethanol and water is typically the first that enters your engine without any lubrication, which can be a recipe for disaster. It’s a big problem, and fuel stabilizers can’t fix it. Ethanol will wear away rubber and plastic engine parts because it is a powerful solvent when separation occurs, "

Use Chevron Techron Fuel system-cleaner in the gas every time I fill the tank.

Use Tru-Fuel 4-cycle synthetic fuel mixed in during motor storage.

I also found out that iridium spark plugs the only ones to use.

$135 later and the motor goes into neutral. Better than jumping ahead on start-up with no neutral.
Worked fine today. Good thing. I had to get the jump on a pop-up shower that was coming my way. TM's don't cut it when you hear thunder and you're still over a mile away to the launch.