1987 Mercury Black Max 200 HP

I'm looking for any information good or bad on a 200 HP Mercury Black Max. Has there any problems with the motor in the past. And does anyone have suggestion on keeping it performing well. As of now the motor seem pretty mechanical sound, I was told by the previous owner it has over 4 thousand dollars work done to it. Supposedly it has a new power pack and the head are stell not aliumium.

[jeffman]

I think you mean STEEL! (Which I doubt)
This is a good dependable motor. You might want to run a good Mercury carbon remover thru it to clean out some of the gunk that could be sticking a ring or to clean the carbon off the pistons.

JackL

Thanks for all the advise you've given me. I will definetly try what you've told me.

[catfishtonyd]

If he has put that much money in it, it's either a new powerhead, or it's been hopped up. Since he mentioned the heads, I'd be concerned that he may have put high compression heads on it. If he has, you MAY need to run high octane gas. If the compression has been raised high enough, 'regular" gas will burn a piston. The fact that the oil injection has been disabled makes this seem even more posible. I would ask.

Yes. Any of the carbed V-6's are good motors. I don't know much about the newer ones, but those old carb motors run great.

[crhye250r]

Excellent, strong running motors. As long as you run them regularly and keep the carbs good and clean they will do very very well. I am a fan of these motors, in fact I am looking for one to replace our Johnson 175 XP. You need to run a compression check and find out what it is, and adjust your octane accordingly. This should be a primary concern, you don't want detonation. As I said, clean the carbs, give everything a once over, check compression, adjust accordingly, and you will have an awesome motor that will suprise you with its power.