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Mercury 135

K

Konrad

Member
hey fellas,
i just picked up a 85 checkmate exciter with a Mercury 135 motor. i don't know anything about boats or marine engines, but i can handle cars, so i hope that will help me. i've noticed that it says that it is "oil injected", what does that mean? The guy said it ran, but it overheats, water pump maybe?? What kind of gas goes in those things? Basically, what should I do before trying to start it?
thanks...
 
Konrad,

What year is your motor? You can usually find the serial number and then reference it to a year of manufacture. Have a look on the side where the motor attaches to the transom. The plates are usually attached in that area. Once you figure out what you have, I'd invest in a service manual. Your local Merc dealer should have one, or can at least get you one.

As far as the what oil injection is and does, in a nutshell, oil injection automatically injects oil into your fuel mix. If you don't have oil injection and have a two stroke, you typically have to mix oil and gas together for fuel. Even though you motor says it's oil injected, I would carefully check and make sure the oil injection is actually still on it and that it is working properly. Many people disconnect older oil injection systems and then just manually mix oil and gas the old fashioned way. The rationale for disconnecting oil injection is that if it malfunctions, you'll most likely blow your powerhead. And as time passes, some of the parts in the oil injection system tend to wear and the likelyhood of a malfunction increases. Therefore many people just disconnect them with a kit you can get.

What I would do with your motor is give it a good once over before you do anything. I'd start with a compression test and see what the results are. And then I would proceed from there. If the compression is good, I'd start with doing some regular maintenance like changing the spark plugs, cleaning the carb and changing the impeller and lower unit oil for starters. Whatever you do, don't even attempt to start the motor without some kind of water source running through it. I know you're probably tempted to see if it fires up, but believe me that's a sure fire way to ruin your impeller for starters. Before you try to start it, get yourself a set of "ear muffs" and hook them up to the garden hose. You can find the muffs at most marine supply places. What they do is supply water to the lower unit and impeller.

And seriously be careful! Stay away from the prop if you attempt to start the motor. If it ever ends up in gear and you're near it, you'll end up in the hospital. My marine buddy had that happen to him and he was an experienced tech of 30 years. Basically what happened to him is that the motor was idling and it jumped into gear on its own. The net result is that he lost a number of toes as the prop cut right through his steel toe work boots. So again, be REALLY careful! :thumb:

If you're not comfortable with what you're doing or in doubt, take it in to your local marine tech.

That's my .02 cents. :)
 
Konrad said:
The guy said it ran, but it overheats, water pump maybe?? /QUOTE]
What Chris said....and
Overheats is not good. Usually only happens once and then you are rebuilding. How did he know it overheats? Did the alarm go off? Does it have a gauge? Impeller is a good place to start.
Click to expand...
 
Well if you're lucky it's just the impeller.

As Mark mentioned though, it might have started as an impeller problem and may now be a BIG problem. Overheating an outboard is never good. So the trick will be doing a bit maintenance so that you can get it fired up, verify and then diagnose the overheating issue. That's why I'd start with the compression test. If the compression is horrible, then you might as well make the tough decision on what to do with the motor before you spend any money you don't have to. :thumb:
 
Chris and Mark,
thanks for all the information. All of it is very valuable to me, since I don't know anything, and anything you tell me is something new I learn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a 2-cycle engine we're talking about? How do you distinguish between the 2 and 4-cycles? Chris, I'll try to find out what year it is, right now, all I know is that it's a Mercury Black Max 135. Also, how do I know if the oil injection is still on there or if it was removed. I'd rather remove it and just mix the gas with oil, I'd say it's one less thing to worry about. How would I know if the Impeller is bad?
Thanks for all the help.

Does anyone know a good site where I can learn the basics of maintaining a marine engine and just learning about the oil/gas and other essentials?
 
My guess is you have a two stroke. If it says oil injected that's a clear give away. But get the serial number and we can probably figure out more about it.

Here are a couple of pages that explain the difference between the two types of engines. Most outboards older than 10 years or so are most likely going to be of the two stroke variety. The 4 strokes have just come of age since then.

Anyway, here are the links...

http://www.fishingworld.com/GoneFishin/BuyingBoat/Read.tmpl?SKU=10418868218608218

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-two-stroke-and-four-stroke-engine.htm
 
You've got a steep learning curve ahead. You can search the web for articles on changing the impeller. In the meantime, order a shop manual from your Merc dealer. Lots to learn; a completely different animal from a car.
Sounds like you are probably going to need some professional help to give you the skinny on this motor. Personally, I prefer the oil injection and have never had one go down on me. Others think they are a time bomb.
 
Mark said:
You've got a steep learning curve ahead. You can search the web for articles on changing the impeller. In the meantime, order a shop manual from your Merc dealer. Lots to learn; a completely different animal from a car.
Sounds like you are probably going to need some professional help to give you the skinny on this motor. Personally, I prefer the oil injection and have never had one go down on me. Others think they are a time bomb.
Click to expand...
I still have mine connected. ;)
 
Chris, here is the serial number off the motor: a166343
I was going to go down to a Mercury dealer today, but I got out of work late, now I won't be able to till Friday. If you'll find out anything, please let me know. BTW, thanks for the links, real helpful.
 
wickedrister, yes, that's exactly what it looks like. but i went to get some parts for it today after i took down the serial number, and the guy at the counter looked it up and told me it's in the computer as a 150 NOT a 135. he said that someone might have just put a 135 sticker on there because of power restrictions on a lake. but now you showed me yours and yours is a 135 so i don't know what to think. do you know if the 135s and 150s look the same?
 
You've got yourself a 2.0L 150hp. The 135, 150 and 175 all looked exactly the same. You can only tell for sure from the serial number.
 
The guys seemed to have figured out what you have.

Kewl!

Keep us updated on how your make out. :)
 
Thanks for all the support, I don't what I would do without all your comments and suggestions. Today I took off the lower unit and got to the impeller. From just looking at it, it looked cooked. The fins were bent and they weren't bent evenly, some were more, some were less, and there was spiders living inside too. I put in a new ignition and at first the motor wouldn't even crank or move, I figured it was seized. I sprayed some more WD-40 in there and tried it manually from the top, after a while, it finally let go. Let me tell you, what a relief that was. Now it turns by it self. I checked the compression like you guys told me to and 5 have just about 80 psi and one has 90. I don't know if I should be happy or sad with that. But I finished the day without getting a spark. I can't figure out why there's no spark. I'll continue with her tomorrow. I promise I'll get the pictures.
Thanks!
Konrad
 
I'm not an expert konrad but i think those numbers are a bit low. I think something like 95 across the board would be minimum.
 
Serial numbers

One thing that I have found out is that Mercury puts the serial number tag on the engine mounting bracket. This bracket is the same on most v6 merc's and are interchangeable. My 225EFI had a broken mounting bracket at one time so me and my local Mercury dealer robbed one from a blown 150 Mariner and replaced it. Now if you go by the tag on mine, it's a 150. boatman
 
boatman, I've talked to several marine shops, and I've established that (like you said) it is a 150. right now, i'm in the process of buying a bunch of nickle and dime parts for it. i had i running and i lost the spark again so i have to try and figure that out.
 
When you do a compression test, you have to crank it over with the engine at full thottle. So, if you don't have controls set up, figure out a way to rig the throttle to be completely open. Then you can crank it over. Don't worry much about how high they are, whats more important is that they are even. Anywhere from 10-15psi difference between cylinders means its time for a rebuild. Can you run it like it is? Yes. But you'll never get it to run smoothly. It'll be most noticable at idle. Also, it depends on which cylinders they are. Obviously, if one bank is 80 and the other is 90, the engine won't run so well and it'll shake. But, like i said, you can get away with it.
 
Transition Zero said:
When you do a compression test, you have to crank it over with the engine at full thottle. So, if you don't have controls set up, figure out a way to rig the throttle to be completely open. Then you can crank it over. Don't worry much about how high they are, whats more important is that they are even. Anywhere from 10-15psi difference between cylinders means its time for a rebuild. Can you run it like it is? Yes. But you'll never get it to run smoothly. It'll be most noticable at idle. Also, it depends on which cylinders they are. Obviously, if one bank is 80 and the other is 90, the engine won't run so well and it'll shake. But, like i said, you can get away with it.
Click to expand...

Transition Zero,
what do you mean at full throttle? Start the motor, full throttle it then while checking the compression?? Or just full throttle it while cranking but not actually starting it? I had it idling for about an hour or maybe even longer, so I'm hoping the the rings set themselves and the compression evened out. I should check it again now.
Thanks...
 
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