Well I am on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, so that leaves ME out! Number one, if it’s ever seen salt water, forgiddaboutit. If strictly fresh water, then how is the gear case condition? Do you religiously check and change the gear oil/grease? If not, I would hate to see you do a power head, only to loose the lower unit soon after. Old Mercs are notorious for that! If you’re still with me to this point, You would need a set of special piston ring compressors to reassemble the power head. However, if you have or somehow obtain, those ring compressors, then the actual job of re-ringing a Merc power head is actually pretty EASY. If the pistons are scored, you can try to get good or new replacements….or just clean them up and use them again. It depends on how bad they are. In the real world, pistons do not have to be as absolutely perfect as many make them out to be, especially in two-stroke applications. What you do need is good, free-moving piston rings and good cylinder walls. The latter will be an unknown until you take it apart and look.
Long live American manufacturing!
