old school boat motors

[silentneko]

hey guys a friend of mine has an old, maybe late 50's early 60's, 50 hp merc on an old aluminum boat someone gave him, I don't think it has ran in many years maybe even decades but supposedly ran fine the last time they used it before they stuck it in the garage.
anyway he might be getting rid of the motor for one reason or another so I'm thinking it would be cool to hang off a boat I might build later.
is it worth it? where can I find info on these engines? weight? parts? manuels? controls?
were these reliable engines? fuel efficent?
thanks for any help guys.

[mcchaddy]

Photo's if you can.

My dad use to have a late 60's early 70's 50hp merc on an old bondwood boat we had. It was pull start and I can only remember it breaking down once. I wish I had the chance to get hold of it. There is plenty of info on the internet about them. Even the Mercury website has information on them. You can even get old manuals for them still.

[silentneko]

I can't take a picture cause the boat is in south florida and I'm up in lakeland now, but it looked like this picture I found on oldmercs.com. and I think it was an electric start.

[Boatmik]

Aaaaah - looking at those pics I can almost smell the two-stroke!

MIK

[DavidG]

See (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MERCURY-OUTBOARD-MOTOR-MANUAL-50-175-H-P-1965-1977_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ26453QQihZ014QQitemZ330184258759QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD2V)

[markharrison]

I know it sounds bizarre, but old outboards are collectible and worth money. They also look "right" on the correct boat, if you know what I mean.

We had a variety of Mercury motors on boats and only ever had one problem, and that was with an electric starter motor. These things were very well made.

[soundman]

Ahh I love the smell of two stroke in the morning:D
See if you can get a manual from clymer...
try ebay.

cheers

[AV Elec]

where can I find info on these engines? weight? parts? manuels? controls?
were these reliable engines? fuel efficent?
thanks for any help guys.

I have a box of old exploded parts manuals for old outboards. Let me know the year and model number. If I have that one I will send it to you for COD for the cost of the postage only. They are very light - postage would be cheap:U

Otherwise EBAY is your friend.

[PhilW]

All this reminiscing about outboards. On a range of boats in my past from fishing dingys, speedboats and aux on small yachts, the reason for a larger right arm is the amount of pulling on the damn starter cord when they decided to have some down time. Often after the anchor was up and there was a wind/tide taking us somewhere where we should not go. sigh....

[luggerite]

All this reminiscing about outboards. On a range of boats in my past from fishing dingys, speedboats and aux on small yachts, the reason for a larger right arm is the amount of pulling on the damn starter cord when they decided to have some down time. Often after the anchor was up and there was a wind/tide taking us somewhere where we should not go. sigh....
The killer was when you were sensible and started the motor BEFORE you started pulling up the anchor. Then when all is on board, you go to put it in gear, it's oiled up and stops.... and won't start again. Back down with the anchor, start the whole process all over again... Happy times!

[weisyboy]

should be great mate we have 2 old merc blue band 50hp motors on a 21 footer we built run like a dream start first time everytime.:2tsup:

[Vernr]

Nothing better than some of those old motors.......especially if they are in good condition!! Far more reliable (and 'fixable') than some of the modern computer chipped, fuel injected, money eating models!!!

[PAR]

I'm just above Orlando, about an hour away from that engine. If you don't want it, give me a call, I'll take it. Contact me through email.