What a piston is NOT supposed to look like

[dpage70]

Here's what is left of my piston. I had a guy take it apart to tell me what all was broken so I would know how much to save up and he brought me this today. I almost hit the floor when I saw this

[Everlytriton]

Holy chit. WTF caused that to happen...a grenade?

[buzzking]

[cowboy38231]

I think someone must be running around KY and TN doing a little sabotage on outboards. Here was mine a couple months ago.

[dave67GT]

wow! What the crap.

[Slow Rollin]

I feel for ya. Hopefully you can get it repaired soon.

[dpage70]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Everlytriton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Holy chit. WTF caused that to happen...a grenade? </TD></TR></TABLE>

He said that something caused it to run lean. he said it had a blown head gasket on the inside of the gasket around the water jacket which there is no way to see and could cause a gas build up or it could have happened when I ran the first tank of gas out which scared the hell out of me.

[Everlytriton]

That sucks. Hope you get back on the water soon.

[CaymasRodney]

Guys, we see that all the time at the shop and it still makes me sick to my stomach, it has happened to me several times over the years. It even happened to me when i was showing a customer how to drive a Triton once

[dpage70]

I'm sure you all do see it a lot Rodney but that was a first time for me. I did get lucky though and the piston and the sleeve were the only things hurt.

[CaymasRodney]

Thats good then, replacing one piston is a whole lot cheaper than a block. We just sold a buddy of mine a new block for his 200 EFI and i think it was right at 6300.00, they get costley when you have to replace the whole block.

[87GT183]

Looks like a reed valve got it Thats happened to my 90 200 Rude.

[Brian Craft]

My Merc looks just like yours did cowboy. Hopefully I'll just need one piston and a sleeve

[Brian Craft]

Here's mine

[dpage70]

All 3 look about the same. maybe it's something in the water.

The reeds didn't do it they're all still there and still look brand new.

[fishinbrad]

Look the same as mine too! Er - I mean 2 of mine... Same thing - different result... One piston MELTED, one seized and cracked the cylinder, and 2 holes in the block...

[cowboy38231]

I was able to just bore mine 30 over and replace the piston, rings and bearings. Had the rest honed. And bought a set of used heads cause I didn't really like the looks of the scuffed up one. Supposed to get it back tomorrow. But he's been saying that for a month. I think my total cost is about $1400. Beats buying a new one I guess. Good luck with yours.

[Clint S]

wish i had the pictures from mine.....i blew a hole in the side of my block about 2"x4".....turned my ETEC into an external combustion engine. hahahah

[tnjavelin]

Wow! That's nasty! Looks like some serious detonation went on there.

[artcarney_agr]

Thanks for the nightmares guys...it's gonna be hard to sleep tonight... especially knowing I have a motor that's about the same model as one of those shown above...