Be careful who and what you trust. When I got home from my Friday trip, I was cleaning my boat getting ready for Saturday's trip. When I got to the engine, I noticed that I had oil all over the rear of the cowling and shaft. I popped the cowling off and oil covered my engine. Knowing that I had eight trips yet this month, I was paniced. Hooking the boat back up to the truck, I was thinking where was the closest marine dealer (it was 2:00 pm). After stopping at two in Lewisville and being told that they couldn't look at it this late, I finally stopped at Lake Park Marine in Lewisville and they agreed to look at it, but with no promises. They popped the cowling (with engine oil running from everywhere) and one guy holds up the oil filler cap that he had recovered from the lower part of the engine, asking if I had been sure that I had tightened it after my last oil change. I assurred him that I didn't do oil changes. He then pulled a shop rag out of my engine, asking if that was mine. It wasn't. After some extensive checking, they determined that it appeared that I had caught it before any 'real' problems with my engine occurred, replaced the oil filter, filled it with oil, and replaced the fuel filter (which hadn't been replaced since new...I thought it had). About 90 minutes later I was on my way home and ready to resume my guide trips, albeit considerably lighter on cash.

Reason for this sad tale of woe, is to hopefully alert you to check everything about your boat/motor after someone else has worked on it. Without sufficient engine oil, I could have easily burned up various parts of my Merc 150 four stroke. I trusted someone to do their job correctly and they didn't. Don't you be so foolish.

A HUGE THANKS goes out to the guys at Lake Park Marine (an authorized Merc repair station) for first allowing the time to look at my problem and then 'getting me back on the water'. They'll have my business from now on

Happy Fathers day....
Glad to hear that the boat was no major problem.. Sounds as though Lake Park Marine are good folks....
Jigum

Good Post Guy. I am looking for a good place to have my motor serviced.

sucks that happened.
ive taken my car in for oil changes and they've forgotten to replace the cap. always check my vehicles after someone works on them.

that happened to me on my wifes car . after taking it to the same place for over 15 yrs . she noticed a smell of burning rubber . i popped the hood and there was oil all over the motor and the backside of the hood . same thing , the oil cap wasnt out back on it was just laying there breather intake housing

Where had you been taking it so we know not to go there?

sounds to me like Wal-Mart

Wow, glad you caught it before it got to be a real problem. Thanks for the advice Guy!

My brother took his car to get the oil changed once. When he left his car started sputtering. They forgot to put oil back in it.

Dang Guy,

Good post and glad you incurred no major damage to your engine.

Thanks

Jeff

I blew a motor in a car once on the way to Kansas city because a nucklehead forgot to put the oil back in.

For those of you that have PM'd me asking for info on Lake Park Marine, here it is:

LAKE PARK MARINE
1740 North I-35 East
Lewisville, TX 75067
972-436-8422

They are located on the east side of 35E directly behind the Athelets Warehouse (about two blocks north of Phil Dill Boats). If you go there or call them, please tell them I told you about them as I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for not making me cancel a lot of guide trips.

Good info, Guy.
I'm skeptical by nature and never had trusted anyone further than I could throw them until I found Bryan Marine.
It's saying a lot about them that I put them in my sig, never had met a dealer/mechanic prior to them that impressed me enough that I would have felt comfortable advertising for.

Ben has been working on my boats since 1994 and he is good folk. He is not the cheapest around but he does good work, he's honest and he stands behind his work. He also works on OMC's as well as Merc.