I ran a. 150 mariner for 20 years on my cuddy. I also used the oil injection system. Lotta bad feelings about the plastic gear on the crank that turns the oil pump. Mine never failed for 1800 hours, my oil alert went out and the tank sensor did not let me know the tank under the cowling was dry. Ultimately , it was my lack of attention that did it in.
One of the biggest issues on that vintage motor is the steering arm. My rotted fairly fast. To replace requires just about complete disassembly of the motor.
Sounds like your comfortable swapping motors around, so I'd do whatever you want to do.
It's only four bolts.
As far as reliability of the merc/mariner. Bout as good as any thing with that many moving parts using hot salt water for cooling.
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