Two rookie questions

[phatdaddy]

Ditto on the ngk's. On the other stuff, I always used merc parts, especially on water pumps, t-stats & poppet valves. Not that much difference in price from the look-a-like parts. Lot of opinions on this , but I also used merc lubricants and premium 2-stroke oil.

Sounds like your doing a lot of your maintenance, see if you can find a copy of the merc shop manual for that motor. Not a seloc or clymer, big difference.