Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Merc question…..80s motor › Re: Merc question…..80s motor
I own a 1988 25 myself. Now I know you were wanting opinions on the 35 hp model, but I can give you a few thoughts on my 25 anyway. If you want speed, they will deliver. In my opinion, they are more finicky than a Johnson or Evinrude of the same period., and more difficult to work on, at least for the inexperienced anyway. They require a lot more attention to the sync and link set up, in other words the linkages, carb adjustments, timing, etc. However, when properly tuned and set up, they are a nice running engine. What impresses me most about them is the power! At full throttle they are screamers. I guess I’m an OMC man and a little biased maybe.. I bought this particular Merc 25 on a 16 ft. Jon boat [from Craig’s List] for a project, as the motor would not run. Now that I have it running again, I am enjoying blasting up and down the lake with it. I may just hang on to it a while..
One other bit of advice I can offer, is make sure you use ethanol free fuel if at all possible in these engines. This is just my personal opinion, but I know from experience that the carb on this particular motor can and will gum up if not cared for properly. In other words, don’t put it up for the season with the carburetor full of gas [with no stabilizer] and expect it to start easy next spring. I have had to go back and re clean previously rebuilt carburetors on these motors from poor or improper storage. Just something to keep in mind on any outboard.