1998 Mercury 200 EFI Mechanical Damage Rebuild

[Bigwrench]

This will be interesting, are you going to get the "other" boat ready so you can fish?
Rodney

I wish I could but it looks like this one is gonna take the most money to get together. Tammy swears she wont ride in the tin rig no matter what since she thinks it is too small and unstable lol I so put the tin rig on hold for awhile.
Gonna have to get this one going before the May Trip one way or another. Got the powerhead stripped down and off the boat now (did it at work with the motor hoist). Ended up using one head bolt on one side and another bolt hole (Starter Mount ) to attach the chain to for lifting purposes ). The hole in top of the flywheel is threaded and is 1 1/2" across , so I got the slick idea id make my own lifting tool out of a 1 1/2" pipe or pipe fitting so tried that and the threads were different (finer than NPT) so maybe more research can be done for a cheap alternative to a homemade lifting tool. But either way it's 1 1/2" fine thread something lol

Going to take it home and get ity set up in the garage and start getting down to the nitty gritty tonight and tomorrow.

Ill update with a lot more pictures and progress tonight.

[bassindude]

Looking Great Rick!! Gonna run like a dream when you are done.  Sure wish I had your energy.

Jim

[Oldfart9999]

Looking Great Rick!! Gonna run like a dream when you are done.  Sure wish I had your energy.

Jim

Isn't always the energy level, it's desperation to wet a line.
Progress being made Rick, progress being made.
Rodney

[hughesjasonk]

You definitely melted a piston on the #6. Looks like you were not getting enough fuel and detonated. Since you have it all apart i recommend that you ceramic coat the piston crowns

[Mike Cork]

Simply awesome thread!

[Bigwrench]

Ok I decided to take the boat into work on Saturday and use the engine hoist to remove the powerhead. 
  Everything that is on the block has to come off for my purposes (complete tear down to the block and rebuild) because I had the cylinder damage so everything had to come off.
There are a ton of wires in this thing and basically I used a sharpie to mark ones I wasn't sure about , just in case

I removed as much of the wiring and ignition components as I could leaving what I could attached .
Storage box.




Got it down to the block and used the engine hoist to lift it off and set in the back of my truck on a pallet

Once I had it home I backed the truck into our garage and rolled a utility tool cart up to the tailgate and slid pallet and all off onto the cart. Rolled it to where I planned on working and got creative with the ratchet straps hooked into casting holes on the block .

Just started taking everything off and laying it out so I can remember how it goes back together
Reed Valve assembly block


End caps

Had to run out and buy a cheap steering wheel puller set to pull the flywheel since I forgot all 3 of my others at work lol

Stator

Ignition advance unit

[Bigwrench]

Ok here's where I throw in a couple screw ups lol
In the last photo above below the ignition advance unit there is a Top End Cap and the service manual says " Remove the upper end cap and lower end cap from the crankshaft "
Top cap before removal attempt

I removed the bolts from the lower cap and tapped it with a screwdriver plastic handle and it popped free and the top end cap wasn't so forgiving and I still can't tell you how I did it but it came apart in 3 pieces lol

I tapped it twice with the screw driver and then gently pried on the corner point and it snapped and I was like "oh crap" but by then it was damaged and I wasn't so gentle with it and here's the result

Supposed to look like this

Says it is replaced as an assembly so hopefully it's still available.
So anyways that's a big screw up lol so BE CAREFUL with that top cap! I think if I had removed the crankcase cover from the block FIRST I may have been able to save it and not run into this trouble , this process is actually after removal of the crank cover according to the manual. Edit: ...... I did jump the gun here and for future reference always remove the case half FIRST before attempting to remove the top bearing cap
Note
When I removed the crankcase cover one of the crankcase sealing rings was broken and fell out I lifted it straight up and believe it was already broken
Once that was removed

I was able to access the Rod bearing caps and I marked each of them for location and direction with a dremel engraver and also a black sharpie just so I could see it easier. 

Note
Do not rotate the crankshaft counterclockwise from the flywheel end while the crankcase cover is removed or you will break the remaining crankcase sealing rings lol.

Removed all 6 Pistons , connecting rods, Rod bearing sets and Crankshaft assembly and laid them out for reference.

The good news is the crankshaft looks beautiful but will have to figure out the end cap deal to know for sure if it can be reused

Once all that was done it was time to get down to the block damage
I started out with a cupped wire wheel on a high speed drill to knock off as much aluminum as I could from the damaged #6 cylinder wall (I don't want that aluminum embedded in my cylinder hone).

Using a real light oil I coated the cylinder and started honing just taking a few light passes to get an idea what I was looking at


On this particular hone there are 2 stones and 2 felt wipers and they are placed opposite of each other in the body of the hone and adjusted with the big knob for contact and then the little knob is used to fine tune the expansion to take the minimal amount of material off.
This is a very tedious and messy process and it is best to take your time , take a whole bunch of light passes, keeping the hone moving with the drill and also up and down in the bore as a piston moves , then stop, clean the cylinder and check your progress often . After every pass recheck and wipe down & re lube the cylinder before beginning and either spray lubricant into the cylinder as you hone or have an assistant do that for you but the main thing is never run the hone in a dry cylinder , lubricant is crucial ! The goal here is to remove as much of the damage as possible and to remove as little material as necessary.

You are looking for a cross hatched non uniformed pattern on the walls.

Different stages of the process , as you can see I checked often



Pay real close attention to the thrust sides of the cylinder

I had my helper wipe out the cylinder walls because his hands were smaller

Once I was happy with # 6 I real "fast and quick" lightly honed the other 5 cylinders and to satisfy my curiosity and make sure there were no unexpected issues. Final cross hatch pattern will be cut in before assembly


I used a cordless Dewalt drill on low speed and also I set the clutch about halfway just in case something locked up , I'd rather the clutch kick in if a stone broke for some reason than to damage the cylinder more.
Tomorrow the block is going in to work with me and I will hot tank agitate it for a few hours and really make sure the block is clean and bare and then I will take measurements of the walls and see where I'm at. Maybe I'll get lucky ? "Crossing Fingers"
Stay tuned and thanks for following along.

[merc1997]

have you micced # 6 to see where you are at on bore size now?  be sure to keep the rod caps with the rod, as marine rods have a cracked cap.  also, be sure to replace the rod bolts.

i am not for sure how much wear there can be in a cylinder before you need to bore and go up in piston size.  that is the reason i was asking about actual bore size after the hone job.  could be within tolerance and all you will need is just one new piston, plus the complete ring set.

oh yeah, and the main cap .

bo

[Bigwrench]

have you micced # 6 to see where you are at on bore size now?  be sure to keep the rod caps with the rod, as marine rods have a cracked cap.  also, be sure to replace the rod bolts.

i am not for sure how much wear there can be in a cylinder before you need to bore and go up in piston size.  that is the reason i was asking about actual bore size after the hone job.  could be within tolerance and all you will need is just one new piston, plus the complete ring set.

oh yeah, and the main cap .

bo

Lol not yet Bo , I don't have a big enough inside mic to get a good reading or a bore gauge set anymore either lol. We just don't rebuild em like we used to anymore. I'm gonna see if one is available between our 3 dealerships tomorrow while the block is in the hot tank and if not I'll probably buy a single T mic and one outside mic to cover my sizes at least.  Looks like that end cap is $46 without the bearing lol

I'm hoping I'll get by without having it bored out , been looking at that wiseco site and they have several oversizes available. Mercury only sells STD and .015 over . The over sized ones are much higher lol , so hopefully I can get by with just 1 over size and the rest standard.
Also talks about .030 over or resleeving the block like you mentioned but not showing .030 over Pistons or even sleeves on their parts catalog.

[Oldfart9999]

Gee, reminds me of rebuilding snowmobile engines. The last one I drove had parts taken from the warranty bucket, crank case, jugs, crank and heads cleaned them up, honed the jugs, cleaned the ports up, popped in new slugs with rings, gaskets and went sledding, won a few races too.
Hope you don't need to bore Rick! Progress, there is progress.
Rodney 

[caddyjoe77]

Rick, man oh man what a great thresd!! I did not see this until this morning.  Great pics and you are progressing along nicely!!

Im sure you'll have her running again in no time. 

[Bigwrench]

Not a lot to report tonight except I put the block in the parts washer and let it run for around 4 hours at 180 degrees. Removed all the old gasket material and cleaned up all gasket surfaces .




Coated the cylinder walls with a light oil to prevent any rusting .

A few things to note , I have to purchase a inside micrometer set 0-6" which I found online for $26 . An outside mic in the 3-4" range can get pricey but also found a 4 piece set from 0-4" for $96. Will be purchasing them tomorrow so probably a few days for a good status update from me .

Now on to the nitty gritty , we have decided that our budget for this project is $2500 which also will include a bench seat cover and possibly carpet (not that much of a priority) and a windshield . If I can keep the rebuild costs at a minimum that is. But the idea is to rebuild the engine and then if anything left over add some bling.

So far for the parts list
Complete rebuild :
-Complete gasket set , most kits do not have head gaskets included. There are kits out there with ALL the gaskets, seals, bearings and Pistons called "complete rebuild kits". So that is an option. But one piston may have to be purchased to do #6 separately.
- 1 Cylinder head
- Top bearing cap (Dangit lol)
- 7 Crankcase sealing rings
- 2 thermostats
- 12 Rod cap bolts ?
- 23 head bolts ?
- Reed Block assembly ?
- Water Pump

Minimal rebuild and reseal :
  1 piston, 1 cylinder head, complete set of rings, gasket set, head gaskets, top cap (dangit lol), crank sealing rings, head bolts and Rod bolts , water pump, thermostats, Rod bearings only.

So whatcha think ? Forgetting anything?

    Also depending on the bore size there may be machine shop charges.

The goal for us is to repair the motor , get the boat back in decent shape and retain as much value as possible so we can trade it off or sell it outright in a couple years for another Ranger.
So thoughts ?

[Princeton_Man]

Brother, I wish I had your skills and ability. 

[Bigwrench]

Brother, I wish I had your skills and ability. 

me too cause I'd beg you to do it lol. I feel stretched thin now and this is just something I didn't need on my overfull plate right now. But the show must go on lol.

[Princeton_Man]

You doing this and posting all the steps should help all of us to better understand why a rebuilt powerhead costs as much as it does.

[merc1997]

Not a lot to report tonight except I put the block in the parts washer and let it run for around 4 hours at 180 degrees. Removed all the old gasket material and cleaned up all gasket surfaces .




Coated the cylinder walls with a light oil to prevent any rusting .

A few things to note , I have to purchase a inside micrometer set 0-6" which I found online for $26 . An outside mic in the 3-4" range can get pricey but also found a 4 piece set from 0-4" for $96. Will be purchasing them tomorrow so probably a few days for a good status update from me .

Now on to the nitty gritty , we have decided that our budget for this project is 4K which also will include a bench seat cover and possibly carpet (not that much of a priority) and a windshield .

So far for the parts list
Complete rebuild :
-Complete gasket set , most kits do not have head gaskets included. There are kits out there with ALL the gaskets, seals, bearings and Pistons called "complete rebuild kits". So that is an option. But one piston may have to be purchased to do #6 separately.
- 1 Cylinder head
- Top bearing cap (Dangit lol)
- 7 Crankcase sealing rings
- 2 thermostats
- 12 Rod cap bolts ?
- 23 head bolts ?
- Reed Block assembly ?
- Water Pump

Minimal rebuild and reseal :
  1 piston, 1 cylinder head, complete set of rings, gasket set, head gaskets, top cap (dangit lol), crank sealing rings, head bolts and Rod bolts , water pump, thermostats, Rod bearings only.

So whatcha think ? Forgetting anything?

    Also depending on the bore size there may be machine shop charges.

The goal for us is to repair the motor , get the boat back in decent shape and retain as much value as possible so we can trade it off or sell it outright in a couple years for another Ranger.
So thoughts ?

i would replace the reeds with HP plastic reeds.  boysen and another company make them.  good insurance to not suck a metal reed through the engine.  you will like the performance too.

bo

[Bigwrench]

I had a few things to do today and figured I'd just head into the shop , finish them up and work on getting the block measurements taken.
Earlier in the week I ordered a 4 piece outside Mic set
and a 0-6" inside mic set from my local Fisher Auto parts.

The cost was about the same as ordering online but no shipping charges and I can usually work them for a veterans discount as well as a frequent purchaser discount
  For anyone that has never used these tools the inside mic is a spring loaded gage that extends out against the cylinder walls and you rotate the knob at the base of the handle to lock it in place. They can be tricky to use and need to be perfectly centered (perpendicular ? & square) in the cylinder wall to get an accurate reading.
To achieve this I took a depth mic gage and marked lines with a sharpie at the same depth midway through the piston travel (stroke) area on the thrust sides and the non thrust sides and then again at the bottom of the stroke in the same manner.

This gave me 8 reference marks at 2 locations to use while taking the measurements.

  Taking measurements at these locations making sure my gage was perfectly square in the bore

Once I was satisfied I had the best measurement possible I then placed the T gage in the 3-4" outside mic and measured it as well

This is tedious work and I find it easier to lay the mic down flat to  get the best measurements with just 2 hands .
I actually measured probably 12 times total - 3 at each of the 4 locations and averaged my readings .

I measured all cylinders and was within specs for STD Pistons on 1-5 with 3.504" ( + or - .003")

On #6 where the damage was,  I was in between STD and .015 over with 3.510" avg

Another highlight of my day was I got to talk to Bo today and we kicked ideas back and forth , he is a fount of information and if you ever wanna learn something give him a call ! As always it was a pleasure and thank you for your time brother !
The diagnosis at this point is I will replace 1-5 Pistons STD that come in a complete rebuild kit

will bore #6 .020" over , purchase 1 wiseco piston 20 over which comes with rings. 1 cylinder head , 1 main top cap (dang it lol) and new carbon fiber reed set from Boyesen.  Gonna get everything ordered this weekend and then take the block into a local machine shop and tell em what I need done.  Stay tuned.

[Oldfart9999]

I'd like to ask a dumb question if I may. Why buy the 5 pistons, thought you said they were good?
Rodney

[Bigwrench]

I'd like to ask a dumb question if I may. Why buy the 5 pistons, thought you said they were good?
Rodney

I Didn't want to just take a chance with the one piston after going this far into it and figured I might as well buy the kit since it has everything in it instead of purchasing everything separately. More I thought about it the more it worried me just doing the one. 
  The block has to be bored anyway so I figured if I'm going that far I might as well do a complete rebuild. Hopefully the machine shop won't charge much , should know more this week.

[fishinfranklin]

Rick GREAT job!! I would like to mention one thing to you so you do not spend all this money and ended up right back where you started with a burnt piston. I highly recommend that you get the injectors cleaned and flow checked and send the ecm off and get it rebuilt. Most likely you had a driver in it go bad and stop pulsing that injector and that's why it melted the piston. I say this from it happening to me on my first rebuild on a efi engine.

[Princeton_Man]

I Didn't want to just take a chance with the one piston after going this far into it and figured I might as well buy the kit since it has everything in it instead of purchasing everything separately. More I thought about it the more it worried me just doing the one. 
  The block has to be bored anyway so I figured if I'm going that far I might as well do a complete rebuild. Hopefully the machine shop won't charge much , should know more this week.

One thing I learned early about you Rick, is you don't do anything halfway. I don't hink you even own a roll of duct tape.

Anything you set out to repair and repaired right. No shortcuts. Awesome!

[Bigwrench]

Rick GREAT job!! I would like to mention one thing to you so you do not spend all this money and ended up right back where you started with a burnt piston. I highly recommend that you get the injectors cleaned and flow checked and send the ecm off and get it rebuilt. Most likely you had a driver in it go bad and stop pulsing that injector and that's why it melted the piston. I say this from it happening to me on my first rebuild on a efi engine.

Where would you get something like that done ? I have the means of flow testing injectors but the ECM is another story.

[Bigwrench]

One thing I learned early about you Rick, is you don't do anything halfway. I don't hink you even own a roll of duct tape.

Anything you set out to repair and repaired right. No shortcuts. Awesome!

Lol I got duct tape somewhere .

[fishinfranklin]

There is few places that rebuild them, I will get you a number from work today, replace them screens when you clean and flow the injectors ,

[merc1997]

Rick GREAT job!! I would like to mention one thing to you so you do not spend all this money and ended up right back where you started with a burnt piston. I highly recommend that you get the injectors cleaned and flow checked and send the ecm off and get it rebuilt. Most likely you had a driver in it go bad and stop pulsing that injector and that's why it melted the piston. I say this from it happening to me on my first rebuild on a efi engine.

if you looked at the pics, you would see that the problem began with a head gasket failure.  fuel delivery failure will do more damage.  also, rick stated that the problem began with surging, which is certainly indicative of water going into a cylinder.  yep, as you stated, many efi's have a fuel delivery failure that can be traced back to either the ecm or simply a bad connection at the main power plug on the block.

the thing i would be worried about is why the head gasket let go, and they seem to do with regularity on the later efi's that have the low pressure, high volume water pump.

anyway, if it was fuel related, and the piston melted ahead of the head gasket, the head gasket would have the failure start on the same side as the damaged piston instead of the gasket failure beginning in the middle cylinder.  debris will swap holes through the cylinder ports.  if you have ever seen motors that have sucked a reed, most often the real damage ends up in another cylinder.

good thoughts about fuel delivery.

bo