Didn't know if this was the correct forum to put this in, don't care. Thought it would be some useful info since I had Gooooogled my heart out about the issues I was having with my new-to-me Boat/Motor-
2016 Ranger Reata 190LS Fish-n-Ski, very, very low hours. Mercury Verado 175HP. It had been sitting 2+ years in the woods, it was a friend of mine. He/His family no longer had a desire to fish/boat. There was 15+ gallons of two year old gas in the tank. I pumped that out with a HF hand transfer pump. Talk about Popeye the sailor man arms....
Anyway, I performed most of a 300 hour service on this motor, knowing it had not been run in 2 years. I did pull the top plug before I ordered parts and inspect it, it was in fairly good shape IMO. Evidently, it was the only plug of the 4 that was in good shape.
I changed the impeller, drive belt, fuel filter, fuel/water separator castle filter, lower gear oil, motor oil/filter. I did not change the thermostat, as the previously listed items whoooped me like a little school boy and I felt if anything was still in good shape, it was.
I get everything back together, crank it up in the driveway with earmuffs and it runs. I do hear a skip a couple of times, but that's it. Ok. I load up, put 20 gallons of fresh gas and some Stabil in it on the way to the lake. I crank it up and can barely get it backed off the trailer. It's like it has no power. I have trouble idling in gear around the dock, trying to dock it after getting it off the trailer. It's vibrating pretty bad. The entire boat looks like a bowl of jello shaking. Granted, I am used to a 25+ year old Sea Ray Bow Rider with a Smoooooth running 454 in it and a Bravo III outdrive. There is no lack of power there.
I decided to leave it at the marina where I dry stack the Sea Ray and tell them to figure it out. 3 days later they call, say the spark plugs are shot, they have some of the vibration cut down but are in talks with Mercury about it and will call back later. 3 hours later he calls again, says it is good to go. They had to take the fuel injectors off and clean them, I assume they put them in an ultrasonic cleaner. Bad part is this hurt, about $750 for all of this.
Anyway, I wanted to give some experience about a rough-running Verado of this vintage, warn about letting one sit, etc. Also....if you are changing the impeller on an L4 Verado (125-150-175-200) of this vintage, DRAIN THE ENGINE OIL FIRST. Otherwise, about 1.5-2 quarts will pour out on you, the driveway, etc., when you pull the lower unit off. This is not covered on Youtube except for one video....
2016 Ranger Reata 190LS Fish-n-Ski, very, very low hours. Mercury Verado 175HP. It had been sitting 2+ years in the woods, it was a friend of mine. He/His family no longer had a desire to fish/boat. There was 15+ gallons of two year old gas in the tank. I pumped that out with a HF hand transfer pump. Talk about Popeye the sailor man arms....
Anyway, I performed most of a 300 hour service on this motor, knowing it had not been run in 2 years. I did pull the top plug before I ordered parts and inspect it, it was in fairly good shape IMO. Evidently, it was the only plug of the 4 that was in good shape.
I changed the impeller, drive belt, fuel filter, fuel/water separator castle filter, lower gear oil, motor oil/filter. I did not change the thermostat, as the previously listed items whoooped me like a little school boy and I felt if anything was still in good shape, it was.
I get everything back together, crank it up in the driveway with earmuffs and it runs. I do hear a skip a couple of times, but that's it. Ok. I load up, put 20 gallons of fresh gas and some Stabil in it on the way to the lake. I crank it up and can barely get it backed off the trailer. It's like it has no power. I have trouble idling in gear around the dock, trying to dock it after getting it off the trailer. It's vibrating pretty bad. The entire boat looks like a bowl of jello shaking. Granted, I am used to a 25+ year old Sea Ray Bow Rider with a Smoooooth running 454 in it and a Bravo III outdrive. There is no lack of power there.
I decided to leave it at the marina where I dry stack the Sea Ray and tell them to figure it out. 3 days later they call, say the spark plugs are shot, they have some of the vibration cut down but are in talks with Mercury about it and will call back later. 3 hours later he calls again, says it is good to go. They had to take the fuel injectors off and clean them, I assume they put them in an ultrasonic cleaner. Bad part is this hurt, about $750 for all of this.
Anyway, I wanted to give some experience about a rough-running Verado of this vintage, warn about letting one sit, etc. Also....if you are changing the impeller on an L4 Verado (125-150-175-200) of this vintage, DRAIN THE ENGINE OIL FIRST. Otherwise, about 1.5-2 quarts will pour out on you, the driveway, etc., when you pull the lower unit off. This is not covered on Youtube except for one video....
