Looper or not

[THEFERMANATOR]

It should be a looper. 85 was the 1st year of the V-4 and V-8 loop charged engines. It was also the year of the most problems. Be ABSOLUTELY certain which carbs it has and what to set the timing at. In 85 for the V-4, the 120 ran 18 degrees of timing, and the 140 ran 22 degrees of timing. They used the same carbs for both engines, but different jetting and relied on timing and the exhaust tuner to make the HP changes. this resulted in ALOT of burned up engines as they ran to lean in stock form, and overheated CONSTANTLY from the advanced timing. In 86 OMC made ALOT of changes, and many engines have been upgraded to 86+ specs. The changes were a different exhaust tuner, different carbs, different jetting, lowering the timing back to 18 degrees, and different reed valves. If you don't know which carbs you have, then assume it has been upgraded and run 18 degrees of timing. I upgraded mine to 86 carbs, rejetted, and ran 18-19 degrees of timing and it ran great. In stock form it kept melting down the #2 piston, and is how I ended up with it as the last owner got tired of rebuilding it.