Decisions... what would you do?

[Kpangle]

Blew a power head last Saturday on my 2013 Merc 250 pro XS. Lowest cylinder on the port side, blew a hole in the side of the block. Nothing else on the exterior appears damaged. At this time I don’t know about anything else internally. Model # 1251P73BD, serial #2B009502.

Dealer priced a new powerhead installed at $9,457.14. Re-manufactured powerhead $8,128.75 installed. Or a new 4 stroke merc 250 and waiting on price...

Both part powerheads only have a 1 year warranty. New 4 stroke is back ordered. One customer in the Northwest ordered a 4 stroke in November and is still waiting.

Dont want to wait months for a new engine otherwise I would seriously consider going new. Leaning towards the RE-manufactured powerhead (available in Wisconsin) to save $1,300 over the new powerhead since both come with same 1 year warranty.

Dealer has only seen pics and won’t see the motor until Friday when I drive 4.5 hours to get it there. Hopefully they can put a computer on it and see why it failed.

This is is my first experience with this issue. Are the RE-manufactured parts as good as a new one? Looking for some advice.

Thank you!

[Stroker3.2XS]

I would buy the new powerhead because it is new. No guessing what it looks like, what originally went wrong with it, etc..

[Jtreed99]

Yours sounds like a cold seize, if you don’t have smartcraft I would get one installed at the same time as the powerhead. You are only saving about 15% which while significant isn’t huge if you are planning on keeping the boat for quite some time. That being said if the rebuilt powerhead is from mercury I could be wrong but I understood that only the block is remanned and the rest of the parts are new so in that case it wouldn’t bother me a bit to get the rebuilt one.

[Savage]

PM sent.

[SilverFox579]

I would buy the new powerhead because it is new. No guessing what it looks like, what originally went wrong with it, etc..

What I'd do as well and have the peace of mind knowing everything is new.

[JAZII]

reman from Merc

BUT shop that price you got!

* reman from Merc the block is SEASONED! new from Merc could still have block issues, known to have crack failures.

[EuropeanAM]

known to have crack failures.

Not sure what empirical data that comment is based on... but it's actually pretty rare. Perhaps even extremely rare.

[JAZII]

Not sure what empirical data that comment is based on... but it's actually pretty rare. Perhaps even extremely rare.

I didn't mean there is a HIGH failure rate. I was just stating because it was a new block, no guaranties it couldn't fail. There has been documented block failures on the Opti due to casting issues.

What I was trying to say, is I would be more comfortable with the Mercury REMAN with one year warranty for less money.

[alli ss]

Did you dunk it coming off plane? Remember that particular cyl is below the bottom of the cowl just for reference. If the water is that high on the outside its that high on the inside

[Kpangle]

No, calm water. Blast off first thing in the morning at a local tournament. While waiting to go, I let it warm up until the thermostat cycled a couple times. Didn’t get 1/4 of a mile and it went.

[06 SB]

No, calm water. Blast off first thing in the morning at a local tournament. While waiting to go, I let it warm up until the thermostat cycled a couple times. Didn’t get 1/4 of a mile and it went.

That sounds like a cold seizure. Did you see the temperature on a Smartcraft gauge or did you just go by time?

[Kpangle]

All on the smartcraft as i’ve Done a hundred times. They are supposed to tear into the mtr this week and let me know what happened - if anything shows on the computer.

[6xd]

No, calm water. Blast off first thing in the morning at a local tournament. While waiting to go, I let it warm up until the thermostat cycled a couple times. Didn’t get 1/4 of a mile and it went.

Mine did same thing, been waiting 6 weeks and counting on new powerhead. At least mine is under warranty.

[EuropeanAM]

No, calm water. Blast off first thing in the morning at a local tournament. While waiting to go, I let it warm up until the thermostat cycled a couple times. Didn’t get 1/4 of a mile and it went.

Out of curiousity- what were the water temps? How long did it take to get on plane?

[Kpangle]

Water temp was 59 degrees. Came up on plane great as it always had.

The only thing that was out of the ordinary was three weeks earlier during a tournament on the Columbia River we got caught up river when high winds came in. We had 8’ + swells and unlike other days on the Columbia waves were beating from all sides. Never seen it like that and in 30 years of fishing the river and the first time I was frightened. Made it back... however, three times while climbing waves the merc would lug down and almost die on me. I was able to keep it going and eventually had to go harder to keep the rpms up to avoid it dying in rough water.

Mechanic called me today with the news. Said I broke it up pretty bad. Parts everywhere he said. He asked me the same thing about getting on plane or any other issues prior to blowing it. I told him ran fine then told him about the river incident and he said that was the beginning of the end... he said what I was feeling was the motor trying to seize then. He said I was lucky I didn’t break down in that rough water... The end result and cost would have been the same regardless when it blew.

Considering trading in for a new boat and new merc 4 stroke and getting the platinum warranty.

[EuropeanAM]

Based solely on the info provided, I believe your Tech is likely correct.

Very good that it didn't shut down completely in that rough water- as the cost of that could have been significantly higher. That's one thing to be thankful for, at least.