Two rookie questions

[spareparts]

you've got a 150, the xr's were performance versions
Use NGKBU8H plugs, do not use anything other than NGK plugs, and before you ask, unless the insulation is coming off the plugs wires, they will be OK

[Jeb]

Originally Posted by spareparts

you've got a 150, the xr's were performance versions
Use NGKBU8H plugs, do not use anything other than NGK plugs, and before you ask, unless the insulation is coming off the plugs wires, they will be OK

Nice. Thanks

[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.

[spareparts]

Originally Posted by 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.

Very true, at one time aftermarket had a substantial price savings to justify using it, but now the price isn't that much different, so go with oem if you have any concerns. I use some aftermarket parts, but its stuff I know works and its worth the savings. I will not use aftermarket for water pumps, and oil filters and fuel filters on Japanese engines. Some times knowing the supplier to the OEM helps, Japanese filters are usually Nippondenso, merc uses NGK plugs, Suzuki uses some of the same stuff that Yamaha uses(Nikki), but sells it cheaper, etc...

[Jeb]

This is all great advice. After quickly searching Amazon, I noticed that the prices were all relatively the same, so I've been able to order Merc/Quicksilver products exclusively so far. (NGK plugs, too).

I wouldn't consider myself mechanically inclined, but I plan on doing as much maintenance/learning as much as I feel comfortable with. I ordered a manual.

As long as we're on topic - I'll throw this out there for thoughts: Like so many 6 cyl 2-strokes of this era, the oil injection unit proved faulty for the previous owner. He bypassed it before it caused him any problems and has been using the gravity-fed oil tank that sits right on top of the motor for the last couple of years.

I don't hate the idea of continuing this practice, except for the fact that the reservoir seems pretty small. What are your thoughts on just mixing directly into the fuel instead? What is the downside of that besides the inconvenience of doing occasional math?

I feel like 2-strokes did well on this practice for like 75 years before oil injection (and their crappy parts) came into play. Appreciate feedback on this. (And as I finish writing this, I'm thinking that there are probably 1000 threads dedicated exactly to this. Apologies if that's the case!)

Jeb

[Jeb]

Yup... just saw this thread. Same thing.

[RidgeRunner]

If you buy that premix cup the math is already figured out for you;-) Premixing only sucks because of the additional smoke at idle from my experience. Mix a little heavy, like 40:1 and idle around a lot and you can foul plugs. Or at least the old beast 250 EFI would.
From the post title - I was wondering if it took a rookie to respond or a rookie to pose a question. So I was drawn into this one... Sounds great, giving her some love. You might be a little green but now your not a rookie.. LOL! Your on the right path and these guys are experts at parts.

[Destroyer]

For the Mercury oil injection topic, there's really only two ways to go. (one) Buy an electronic oil injection unit. or (two) use premix. Now I know that most people here use and recommend premix, mostly because it's cheap and it does the job. But I have one of those oil injection units and since I use my boat less than a lot of people here I'm very happy with it. I can expect the unit to last somewhere between 600 to 1200 hours of run time, and since I only put on about 50 hours a year that's a long, long time that I don't have to fuss with adding oil, figuring out ratios, remembering if I put in oil, etc, etc, etc. So the choice is yours. In all cases DO NOT just use that gravity fed tank at the top of your engine. If you do, at some point in the near future we'll all be reading your post asking where can you buy a new engine.