Hey TSUBAKI, were you running it without the front plastic airbox portion? I see in your pics it isn't on there and that WILL cause one of them to burn itself up in a HURRY!

FERM (I had to look and see) you are correct, in that picture the air damper is off of that booger and I've not put it back on.
Trying to remember if I ran it without it on the whole time.

Thanks for all the info Tsubaki. That looks damn clean for an '84, but I'm gonna pass on this one. I've put alot of work into the boat and am looking to get alot of use out of it this year. Since I don't know too much about engines, I'm looking for something relatively worry-free. Good luck getting rid of it... looks like a couple bites here already.

Ain't no problem awthacker, thanks for the interest.

quick sell the boat!! cause brand new ok the rack you going to have issues, its the nature of salt and boating!1

You must be typing on your smartphone, cause that was just hard to read. Think I got the jist of the joke, though. But seriously, I think you can see the difference between a motor that is producing metallic build-up on one of the plugs vs. one that checks out good. I know the boat is gonna cost me lots of money over time. I just scrapped a motor that I thought was excessively corroded, showed signs of having been overheated, and had no trim/tilt assembly. If I wanted a "trouble" motor, I would've just slapped a t/t on it and headed out. I don't mind spending a few thousand to get something "relatively" reliable. Kinda looking at that 175HP Evinrude in Jupiter that Ferm is endorsing. May not be too different than the one you picked up because the guy "thought it may break soon".

You have to learn to read "WINDTALKER", it is an aquired talent. MJ is the only known individual that can type in the mistic "WINDTALKER" language so we are privilaged enough to have him here. As for the engine, ANY engine you get will have problems at some point in time. Most get to warm and fuzzy inside when they hear that they have a warranty and think of it as a guarantee it won't let you down which ios not the case. I can understand you not wanting an engine with problems already, but there is no guarantee that the next clean engine you get won't do the same thing right away. The best thing you can do is to find a good engine and disable the oil injection if it is an OMC or MERC(provided it's an old school 2 stroke, DFI's CANNOT have the oil injection removed) and mix your own oil in the fuel. That is about as much of a guarantee that you can get that it will last for you(that and decarb it often).

I'm glad you guys got the "windtalkin'" because I have no idea what the hell that means.

I think then, that I'm picking up on this WINDTALKING. "k" replaces "ff" and always add a "1" after an exclamation point.

The 115hp Johnson on my old boat had the VRO disable, so I figure that's what I'd do with the next, if applicable. Mostly because I don't want to find a place for an oil resorvoir.

You got it!! LOL

everyone here can tell you that I have had my share of motor problems over the years!!!