Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I follow the "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" credo when it comes to all things I own that are mechanical. Especialy ones that use an internal combustion engine and could possibly leave me stranded in the middle of a lake. I also enjoy turning wrenches and keeping my stuff nice. So I go to change the engine oil after the 10 hour break-in period (Mercury recommends this after 100 hours) on my brand new 60hp Mercury and expect to see oil that looks like honey. You can imagine my horror when I see this instead:




After a few choice words, I call the dealer and explain what just came out of my engine. Long story short, the explanation was that the rigger that prepped my boat left a bolt that plugs the spot for a water pressure gauge loose causing water to fill up under the cowl and somehow enter the motor. Naturally I wanted a new engine but after alot of back and forth, that didn't happen. I was assured that if I had any further problems they'd replace the motor no charge and since I caught it so early, they felt strongly that I wont experience any further issues. I did call Mercury so they'd could attach this episode to my motor's serial number in case this becomes a problem in the future.

So I've put another 12 hours on the motor and I have been checking the oil religiously. So far, no water. I plan on changing it again this weekend just to make sure.

It's a good thing you caught it when you did

Good luck and hope all still continues to go well for many, many hours to come .

Cheers!

WOW, glad you found it in time

Man I would be furious. Hope it runs good for you for many years. Make sure you document all your maintainence for a long time.

They need to give you a free long term warranty upgrade at minimum. That way you are covered for possible damage down the road.

As part of a promotion, I got an extra 2 years warranty (5 total) on the motor and I double checked this with Mercury just to make sure.

If they are saying that water piled up under the cowl to the point that it went in the dip stick hole you should relubricate all of the linkages in that cowl.

GregF wrote:If they are saying that water piled up under the cowl to the point that it went in the dip stick hole you should relubricate all of the linkages in that cowl.

Bingo. And thanks. Good advice.

gramps wrote:Man I would be furious. Hope it runs good for you for many years. Make sure you document all your maintainence for a long time.

Yep. If you can, get what the dealer said in writing. You'd be surprised how dealers get amnesia in cases like this.

That dipstick snaps in there pretty tight so I doubt you really got that much water in there and it was fresh water wasn't it?
Good thing you aren't in the ocean.

I did pull the plug on my lower unit once and get nothing but salt water out. It recovered. I did flush it immediately with WD40, like a minute later. Filled it completely, spun it over a few minutes by hand and dumped it ... twice.

That is 1/2" of water with specks of oil floating on top.

personally I'd be going for a new engine, this has definitely shortened the life of your engine! looks like alot of metal even for brake in oil. The oil in my beater Plow truck doesn't look that bad, and haven't changed it in 8 years! my 100 hour oil on my Johnzuki almost looks like fresh oil when I change it.

Even though Mercury recommends the first oil change at 100 hours, I plan to have mine done between 10 and 20. Both engine and lower unit. This is due to a different grade break-in oil shipped from the factory, and what my Merc tech recommends.

While I could do it myself, I've got a good relationship with my local Merc dealer. It's always good to have a record of the oil changes with Mercury, so no issues can come up in case of a warranty claim. I also got the extra 2 years on top of the 3 year warranty.

With some of the problems I've had with the original 250 Verados on our Patrol Boats, the more documentation of service, the better.

Break-in is also important. No excessive idling. Don't run at a consistent RPM for more than 10 minutes or so at a time. Short 2-3 minute WOT runs occasionally. Vary RPMs frequently for the first 10 hours. No heavy strains (towing).

You want the engine to wear in throughout the RPM range, and not just at one speed.

Not sure that your dealer gave you a good or truthful explanation of what went wrong. Yours is a China made motor and if memory serves, they had a big problem with those motors getting water in the motor due to water getting in under the cowl and causing the motors to seize up. Those motors went on back order because they had to replace so many of them. You may have just caught it early. Does anyone remember those posts in regards to the China Big food series and the problems they had?

I am still not sure how the water got in the oil in any quantity., The crankcase is sealed so well they are shipped "wet". Mine came out of the crate with everything in it but gas. There was no sigh of oil getting out.

I am not sure about water getting under the cowl either. That must be a "chinese" manufacture thing. My motor was clean and dry the whole 10 years I had it and I bounced it around in pretty rough seas.
In fact I never even had to clean the motor. No oil blow by or anything. It just stayed clean. I was amazed

not a good experience esp. after you laid out good money for it.. i know i would be HOT if this happened to my new yammi.. dont take this the wrong way but i hope it blows up on you and puts a hole in the block and you can get what you paid for and that is a new engine without any issues.. you know it's gonna be in the back of your head everytime you look at that motor.. good luck.