Is This Piston Done For??

I noticed the head gasket wasn’t in the greatest shape while cleaning around it. The previous owner seemed to have no idea what he was doing and tried to use rtv to seal a water leak instead of replacing the gasket so I pulled the head to replace it and noticed the piston on cyl 3 has a nick on the corner. The outboard fires up great and compression is all good. The cylinder looks perfect with no nicks or scratches. Think it’s ok to keep pushing or is it time to replace the piston and rings? 1999 Force F5 150.

Not an expert by any means but I’d say if everything is fine and there’s no cylinder damage I’d run it as is.

And welcome to the forum!

the engine may have eaten something at some point in its life. if there is no cylinder wall damage I would install a new gasket and continue to run it and just keep it in your memory bank

As long as your compression is fine you can use that piston. Only thing would be to take a die grinder and knock the top off of the nick so it is flush with the piston. If you don't you might can experience pre-ignition due to that piece getting hot enough to ignite the fuel before the spark plug and it can cause major damage to the motor.