Rebuilding The Motor
The original motor, which came with the boat, Turned out to be a project in itself! I decided to try get it going myself, even though I've had
very limited experience with outboards. I picked up a copy of the service manual for it on E-Bay, so I'd have some idea what I was doing.
I was lucky enough to 'score' a second, identical same year parts motor on E-Bay... SOME of the internal parts, such as gaskets, impellers,
etc. are still available from Sierra for these motors, but there are a lot of parts that are not. I've already scavenged a few parts, such as the plastic pawl
that engages the manual start, from the old motor. Hopefully, almost everything I need will be there!
The first step was to do a compression test- and the news was NOT good. The comression was OK in one cylinder, low in 2, and non existant in one. I
was about ready to give up, but then I got some encouragement from some fellow old boat fanatics on the web. They encouraged me to try soaking the cylinders in penertating oil
overnight, to see if perhaps stuck rings were the culprit. So, I tried it.
I wish I could say that fixed everything. It DID increase the compression to an acceptable level in the three cylinders that had comression before, but not in the fourth
that had no compression. So, I took the cylinder head off, and as I suspected-
Yup, a blown head gasket... Luckily, an easy repair- AND the part is still made by Sierra. It's an 18-2995.
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