I am looking for a used fish and ski and the majority of the boats i am looking at all have force/mercury motors.

What are your thoughts on these motors?

If the compression all checks out is there anything else to look for?

thanks,
Chris

I had a 115 Tracker (Mercury) on a Tahoe Fish and Ski. Had no issues with it....

There is not a lot of resale value on the Force/Mercury engines mainly because they were a decendent of the Chrysler outboards. A lot of people bad mouthed the Chrysler motors and IMHO they really didn't know what they were talking about. The Chrysler engines did not change design from the sixty's right up into the late eighty's. They did this for two reasons. You got more motor for the buck and they did not have to redesign or retool every year. That way they kept the cost down. Along came Merc in the late 80's and they saw the hand writing on the wall. "Buy a boat company, put your motor on it, make $$$ both sides of the sale" So Mercury bought Bayliner and inherated Force. After a couple years of research and development, in 1988-1989 emergerd Force by Mercury. In other words, Merc took the motor, put Merc ignition, some models they put Merc carbs, changed the obsolete Prestolite t-n-t and poor lower units to all Merc componients. They were the only one's on the market that had a 70 hp one-one barrel carb that was a detuned engine. There was a baffel behind the carb to restrict the flow and spread the fuel equally to all cylinders. If you took the baffel out from behind the carb, the engine made 104hp. In the same block, they put 3-one barrel carbs and called it a 90. LMAO That baby would turn waaaay over 130hp. And it was for sure detuned. They also stacked 5 cylinders on top of one another and used three carbs, two big ones and one small one, It was baffeled and they called it a 150. Ain't nobody else could do that. Nope, every body went to a V-6. All in all, they were a low cost motor, not much in the way of frills, never had a VRO (automatic oiling system), ran High compression, Did'nt burn that much fuel, Sold a B-zillion of them. And died in 2000, when Merc downsized. Now don't be afraid to buy one today, parts will still be available for years and years. But buyer beware: If you need to sell it tomorrow, Do Not Expect to get your money back. They depreciate rapidly. But IMHO, they were pretty good engines and I even put one on my 83 year old dads boat....

MIKE, I HAVE BEEN SAYING THE SAME THING FOR YEARS, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW ALL THE TECH ASSPECTS. I PRINTED YOUR COMMENTS SO THAT I CAN SHOW SOME OF THESE OLDTIME SCEPTICS. THANKS

Thanks for the info and the details in your post!

I ran the living snot out of a 90 force, replaced a reverse clutch dog, and that was pretty well it. They are not very saltwater resistant, but try as I could, just couldn't kill it. I know I ran at least two tons of marsh mud through it, the heat alarm went off at least 200 times, and it still just kept on chugging...

Now I wouldn't even sneeze at a pre merc force, but the later ones are at least workhorses.

i forgot to mention that i am looking at a 97 model boat, thanks again for all the info guys!

i forgot to mention that i am looking at a 97 model boat, thanks again for all the info guys!

The question now is. is this motor on a old Bayliner boat? I'd have more problem with that then the motor.

I put a 130 Chrysler on a jet drive lower unit and I can't tell you how many times that engine went over 7000, by mistake. I even tapped the jet, did away with the water pump impeller and ran a hose up to the bottom of the block where there is a 1/2 pipe plug. That's where I injected the water into the power head. Worked great, and elimanated the water pump impeller.