Mouse nest in cylinder!

[David Stanton]

I’ve seen plenty of mouse nests in old motors but just came upon a first. A 1958 35 Johnson with a mouse nest clearly visible in the lower cylinder when I took out the spark plugs! Must have crawled up the exhaust port. That explains why I can’t turn it over all the way with the recoil starter. I’ll pull the head soon – hope mouse urine hasn’t corroded the cylinder wall too bad to bring it back with a hone.
Dave

[buckknife1970]

That brings up a good topic… Those pesky little critters will build a nest in anything they can squirt into. I once pick up a nice looking master 16 that had a nest in the muffler. Not to bad till I pulled the muffler and found they used one cylinder for nut storage and the other as a bathroom. I did manage to salvage some parts but the power head was toast. So put a cork in your exhaust snouts.

[Leon]

Sorry to rain on your parade. I’m willing to bet my last dollar, that cylinder is shot. Mice are horrible on anything they nest on.

[David Stanton]

My only hope that the cylinder isn’t shot is that mice sometimes do not leave their bodily excrement by the nest. After I finish up a couple other motors, I’ll the the head off and see. If it’s shot, I do have another good ’58 35 HP powerhead I can swap onto it.
Dave

[Leon]

On the contrary, every time I have removed a mouse nest from any metal object, it’s very rusty, or corroded. Mouse urine is nasty stuff. Yucky….yucky…yucky

[opposedtwin]

Me too. I hate those little stinkers!

[beerman57]

If you get the pistons even as far as top/bottom of travel, are the exhaust ports closed?

[Leon]

Funny thing is, that mouse must be Jenny Craig, to be able to fit in through one of those holes 😀 😀

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