300 hour service 2015 175 Pro XS 2 stroke, SN 2B120168

[MattVT18]

I posted this in the general Mercury forum, probably should have been here:

I just picked up my new to me Phoenix 618 with 175 Optimax Pro XS 2 stroke. I have no idea what the service history is other than the engine had 299 hours on it when I picked it up. I took the cowl off and everything looked good visually. There were numbers written in paint pen in a few spots, not really sure what they are but might be compression and injector pressures. The engine is a little slow to start compared to the 115 Pro XS 4 stroke I had. It it also stumbles a bit when coming out of the hole. Idle seems fine and it runs strong. The place where I bought it does an "operational check out" to make sure everything works and is "with in specs" per the service guy. He didn't say the did the 300 hour service so I take it that they didn't. I think I'm going to go ahead and do the things that would need to be done at 300 hours to make me feel better. I've looked at the manuals that came with the boat/motor. I'm guessing spark plugs, water pump, fuel water seperator to start. I'm guessing there are several filters for fuel and such that need to be changed as well...any idea what/where they are? What else needs to be done? I kinda got spoiled with the 4 strokes, they are easy to maintain! I'm still looking around for an actual service manual but haven't found one yet. Thanks in advance for any advice!

[SilverFox579]

Maintenance topic in FAQ above

Be sure to check your battery, you need 800CCA minimum for engine alone, no accessories. As I mentioned in your other post, a weak or undersized battery can lead to slow starts. There's a FAQ topic about batteries too.

[MattVT18]

Just to update - I did the things mentioned in the FAQ above. Changed plugs (old ones looked very old and gap was WAY too much), water pump (again, worn out), air filter, fuel filter (don't know how old it was, sticker was old style from what I can tell), lower unit lube and cleaned the water strainer (almost completely blocked). All I can say is wow! The motor is a different animal now. The stumble on take off is gone, hole shot improved, mid range throttle is punchier and top end is stronger. When I picked the boat up, the motor seemed way to low. I raised it to the recommendations found in the Phoenix forum and couldn't keep water pressure above 8 psi or so. Now I'm getting 15+ psi and the boat performs like it should. Thanks again for all the knowledge shared on here, hopefully one day I'll be able to contribute a little to someone!

[SilverFox579]