Thread: Motor problems

I thought my 60 hp merc had oil leaking from the foot (90 wt gear oil) but it was the mixing oil in the fuel. I had been trolling alot in cold weather at very slow operating speed and apparently the fuel and oil was not all combusting so the excess oil was leaking out at the exhaust in the prop. You can check it by taking out the drain plug on the foot, if milky looking oil drains it means you most likely have water getting into it some where and it may need a seal replaced or something may be cracked. If it is just clean oil then it may just be excess mixing oil coming from the exhaust. Sorry you got skunked on the fishing, sounds like my luck.

I've heard that leaving the motor propped up will prevent all the water from draining and then freezing and messing up a lower unit but I don't know to what extent it'll cause damage. Where are you located?

on that motor there should be a flat head screw on the bottom by the skag loosen that and see if the lower unit grease is clean your good to go. if it is real milky looking i would change the oil and run it then check it again. if it is still milky looking you have probaly blew a seal if it froze you would of cracked the casing hope this helps i am just a il yankee

Originally Posted by fishbaskett

i thought my 60 hp merc had oil leaking from the foot (90 wt gear oil) but it was the mixing oil in the fuel. I had been trolling alot in cold weather at very slow operating speed and apparently the fuel and oil was not all combusting so the excess oil was leaking out at the exhaust in the prop. You can check it by taking out the drain plug on the foot, if milky looking oil drains it means you most likely have water getting into it some where and it may need a seal replaced or something may be cracked. If it is just clean oil then it may just be excess mixing oil coming from the exhaust. Sorry you got skunked on the fishing, sounds like my luck.

x 2

Thanks everybody. I got a similar answer on the mechanics board and after reading that I remembered it smelling like gas, I hope that is what it is. What a sigh of relief!

It may have cracked the housing where the water pump is....

Change the oil and hook it up to a watering hose,without starting the motor let the water flow though the engine for several mins.After several mins. start the engine and let run for a sec or two and shut if off.Check your oil,if its milky you have problems,could be just a gasket...hope so.It wouldn't hurt to drop the lower unit and replace the water pump if it hasn't been changed in a while.

If you have to take it somewhere. Dont take it to either pier 65 marine in conway or bradford marine in NLR. Both are super slow and dont do a good job. They both wont stand behind there work.

I had a 25 merc that I thought the same thing on. It was just unburned oil/fuel. Aside from it being water in the gearbox there should not be enough water in there to freeze/expand enough to damage anything. What can happen though is............say you run the boat one day and it gets cold enough to freeze. It may freeze your waterpump impeller to the plate causing it to not work properly. Thats why it's a good idea to lower the motor into the water for a minute or 2 to melt any ice before cranking up.

If you need any motor work done JLues on this board is the only guy that will ever turn a wrench on mine. Done alot of work for folks all over Central and South Ark. Hard to find a good/ honest mechanic these days at a fair price. He'll get you fixed up.