Reply To: Merc 1100 Tower of Power Restoration

[jeff-register]

Doug,

I know Dave is a great welth of knowledge. On the broken bolts removed I wouldn’t use stainless. They arn’t as strong as grede 8 steel bolts. The cover you speak of is only the water gacket cover, Mercurys have no head. The cylinder & head are cast into one piece. I don’t remember if the crankcase check valves are one way or not. Consult your manual. Oh, Just remembered, If you can find “steam fitting anti seeze” use that on all threads. I have a can  & it comes with a brush about a pint size. We used it at the hospital on all steam fittings & that steam was so hot we called it dry steam for sterolision. Sorry speling! Anyway we could always get the pipe apart & it was under such pressure it would sound like hitting a pipe with a hammer during delivery. A good plumbing supply store should have it. Stick with Dave he has been working on Mercury’s from the 50’s.

Glad you are moving forward, Please give a progress report, you have one of Mercury’s best build!! & glad the compression is great!!! P.S.Yes they should be check valves too. Picture please! I still have my 1957 Mercury 6 cylinder motor. The starter was double wound because it was direct drive, no shift. To get reverse turn off, pull the throttle back & restart the motor reverse rotation. The distributer drive had 180 degree slop so starting in reverse the timing was corrected for running backwards. They were called Dock busters because it took too long to get reverse working. The waterpump worked in either rotation. Fun motors to master! They were so different.