Your Motor is Toast!

It’s never a great day when your outboard mechanic shakes their head and says “Your motor is toast!” Those were his words last November after a diagnostic test that revealed that three out of four cylinders on my 2005 Yamaha 150 did not even rank on a compression test.

This is bad news any day, but even worse following a global pandemic that impacted supply chains everywhere. Finding a new outboard would be both difficult and expensive. “What would you do if this were your engine?” I asked my mechanic Brian Ackel (Brian’s Outboards). “If you buy a new engine I will rebuild this one and sell it” was his answer. So that was my answer as well… “Rebuild this one!”

And the fun began…

The first step is to disassemble the engine so that the engine block can be sent to a specialist who will clean up the blown out engine block, rebuild it, and its internal parts. I am not a mechanic so I can’t really even explain what is done or to what… However, here’s what a google search tells me:

An engine block contains the main components of an internal engine. It houses the water cooling system, crankcase, and cylinders and their components. The use of metal in its construction gives it strength and the ability to efficiently transfer heat from the combustion process to the main cooling system.

So apparently, my entire engine block was rebuilt inside and out. As Brian says, it will be better than new!

Of course, that’s just the beginning. As it turns out, the exhaust element of the engine was a mess and so was the lower unit! Basically, the whole engine!!!!!