TOPIC: picked up another toy this week. 85 ,,,90hp merc

this was my 2nd 90hp i found in the last 4 months..for next to nothing.. i feel bad....he said it was stuck and wouldnt turn over,, so i gave him $75.00 for it.. then sprayed pb blaster in the cylinders 2 days ago. and went out today and put a socket and ratchet on the crank and turned right over.. now i'll wait for warmer weather and hook up the controls and see if it fires up.. if so.. i'll either flip it as a runner.. or might even throw an impeller in it and drop it right on the back of my boat and run it.. i'm looking for a 140hp next.. these things just keep falling into my lap for a song..

Nice, it has the integrated trim and tilt too.

If you decide to flip it let me know, I've been looking to add more HP to my Aristocraft.
-Brian

It was hung up for a reason......take a look inside of it first or you may ruin it or score it more at minimum. You will prolly find some rust in there. Bad seals most likely. If all is good inside otherwise press in new end cap seals and bearings and replace all gaskets minimum

well since i had just took the owners word at the motor being stuck. i pulled the plugs and soaked the cylinders down without checking if it turned myself. while it was still on my trailer..well after getting it off the trailer and standing back up on the stand and pulling the top cover it turned over with ease with a 3/8 ratchet... well today i had some spare time and hooked up a battery and guess what.. the starters bad... all i get is a click... i have a friend lending me his bore scope this week so i can check out the cylinders.. i'm pulling the starter off tomorrow and going to pull it apart to see if there's anything i can do to it.. i have nothing to lose there.. if not i have a spare.. if it looks good inside i'll swap starters and try checking for spark and compression.. then go from there..

g3jim is right, that engine has to come apart pronto, and be stripped right down to the bare crank. The needles on the crankpins and wristpins have probably corroded marks into the journals and when that happens it is goodnight. Run it like that and the rods will make a hasty exit through the crankcase, and you will have a real mess on your hands, especially if you sell it to someone who is not aware that it was stuck. Best to sell it as is and disclose what you know about it, or tear it down for inspection.These engines do not tolerate internal moisture at all, and will bite you good and hard in the ass if there is any crank journal damage.

I agree with George, at a very minimum pull the intake(front half) off and inspect the crank. That model has the newer rods so its pretty easy to take off the rod cap on number 6, pick out the bearings with a magnet and have a look see. You can even leave the unexposed bearings in place if you like. If there are no rust marks on number 6 you are likely ok. Feel free to inspect others. Now is the time.

had a friend stop by yesterday with his bore scope to look into the cylinders... 0 rust in the cylinders.. and no sign of any scoring.. so i had my nephew call the guy i got it from since he's a friend of his and asked him how he came up with saying it was locked up??? he said it sat for the past 2 seasons and he never winterized it since he kept it covered in his garage.. and when he uncovered the boat to put it up forsale all he got was a click when he tried to start it..when i was checking it out after finding out it did turn.. i found out the starter was bad.. i tried to pull it apart but the top bearing is bad and stuck on the armature shaft.. so i have a spare starter im going to try on it.. its supposed to be nice tomorrow so im going to put the spare starter back on and try to do a compression test..
i am not really convinced this motor was ever stuck..

replaced the starter and starter solenoid today and spun it over doing a compression test... 140 to 145 psi on all cylinders..