i recently experience a drop in performance both at the hole shot which shot the nose of the boat straight up and struggled to plane under load. while at wot the boat seemed to be plowing as the spray was beside me of the side and slight forward. she didn't seem to have the lift to get completely on pad. the wot rpms were around 5430 which normally were around 5560-5600. the engine sounded fine but she wasn't performing as normal. so when i got home i started my investigations. thinking i had a compressor issue due to an overheat on it last season i started there. i pulled the end cap to see if i had any signs or metal in the housing. it was clean and the rod and bearings looked good. however i did notice the wear on the end cap shaft. see picture of wear. after that inspection and reinstalled i started a compression test. at that point i started with #6. as soon as i put my hand on the plug wire it slide off. i suspect the issue was the loose plug wire. i inspected the plug ,cleaned it gently , and installed to torq specs. i cleaned the plug wire end cap and pushed it back on with that tight snap feel. my question is : is the wear on the compressor end cap normal or do i need to go ahead and replace the compressor with the new updated black one from mercury. mine is that bronze color one with 285 hours on it? the engine serial number is as follows 1225p73ed