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Gasket Maintenance
Above are photos of a 1993 mercury 2.5 liter carbureted Outboard. The connecting rod broke free from the crank shaft and put a hole in the engine block. (Top Left) This is a catastrophic failure for any piston engine. In this case water was ingested because of a blown head gasket. When a head gasket fails on a 2 stoke engine quite often the internal bearings rust. A rusted bearing can usually only last 10 hours of running time because the machined surfaces are no longer smooth.
Before our Client purchased his boat someone had replaced the head gaskets. Who ever changed the head gaskets placed red gasket sealer (Top middle) on the head gasket. Using gasket sealer on an outboard head gasket is a very dangerous and unprofessional repair. The head gasket comes with gasket sealer imbedded in it so when you add sealer to the gasket the two gasket sealers have a counter effect to each other and gasket fails.
This boater required a complete replacement powerhead at a cost of $5700. We estimate the cost of this repair to be $ $225. This could have saved him $5475.
- PROBLEM: Improper use of gasket sealer and water ingestion.
- SOLUTION: Repair and replace head gaskets without sealer.
- PREVENTION: The photos we require you send us of your motor would have reveled the red gasket sealer and we would have recommended that it be taken to your local dealer.
- SAVINGS: $5,475