4 HP Mariner fun

[Torque]

I mentioned in the other thread that my kid picked up a boat motor.
Long story made short, he sent me a text message saying he got a free motor from down the street.

I'm thinking a lawn motor so I tell him great can't wait to see it. Then I started thinking that he could have picked up some ole V8 leaking oil. Who knows, but he was stoked.

Turns out it was a boat motor. It was corroded pretty bad around the clamps, but you could pull the cord.

So, we dumped the gas, oiled all of the moving parts and put in new gas. Fired right up. Then it started leaking gas.

We removed the carb, and disassembled the bowl. There were years of the white crap in bowl that was preventing the float from stopping the flow of gas.

We cleaned the bowl and carb hoping that we wouldn't need a carb kit or an impeller replacement.

Re-assembled, gave it 3 pulls and it fired right up with no leaks. After squirting carb cleaner in it, it's looking like it's going to idle fine with a decent pee stream.

Now he's on the hunt for a john boat. Turns out a buddy of his has a small one. They are off and running on this.

I'm hoping with a good spray job on the corrosion and maybe change the gear case oil, the engine will be good for a couple of years.

I'm impressed with the Mariner. Turns out they are Yamaha/Mercury engines.

I'm all excited that he got a free boat motor and that we worked on it together. Hell, I'm stoked that it's running.

[WestEndAngler]

I love projects! Congrats I remember my first boat

[dbarham]

I remember those days best of luck to em!

[coachlaw]

That sounds very much like how I was at that age. My dad called me his little scavenger. Things haven't changed much. I would strongly suggest doing an impeller change. Don't want that to fail when you're out on the water.

[PasadenaMan]

Get him a hand held floating vhf radio for Christmas, I bet he would love that. My wife bought me one and I dont get on any boat with out it. Safety 1st

[Torque]

I probably should change the impeller. I get nervous about taking things apart on a corroded engine, but the area under the cowling was spotless.
So, I guess I'll look into buying an impeller kit.

[Torque]

Parts have been ordered. Should get them this week. I'm going to get the kid to do the work, he isn't really into tearing things apart, so that he'll learn how to do his own motors later on in life.