wrote in message
oups.com...
Back to the reasons for the grease: Jay, are you talking about 1/8" thick
layers of burned, dried oil? If yes, and it's beneath the dipstick or oil
cap, perhaps the prior owner was a slob. Get yourself a can of spray
degreaser from an auto supply place. They come with a tube so you can
direct
the spray more precisely. Be sure to read the label - some of these
products
aren't safe for plastics, so you'll want to watch where the spray goes.

If the grease is everywhere, it's important that you find the reason.
Might
mean a leaking gasket or something. For that, you'll want to get the
motor
totally clean so you can see any further seepage. It might be worth
paying
an outboard repair shop to do this.

Are you saying that all your wires are also covered with grease? Exactly
what type of motor is this? How old? 2-stroke or 4-stroke? Brand name?

There is a thin coat of oil over most of the surface of the motor
including wiring. I have a feeling that the oil is coming from the
leaky oil reservior that is inside the motor. The motor is a 1995
Mercury Marine 2-stroke 115hp outboard motor that has an oil injection
system. According to past messages posted in this message board about
Mercury outboard that has oil injection system, the cap of the oil
reservior (that is inside the motor) may leak oil when we tile up the
motor. This happens to my motor when I tile up the motor. The leaked
oil gets soaked into the foam, and gets transferred to other parts of
the motor. Moreover, I am not sure if the oil injection system works
or not. I will find out next spring when I run the boat. For now, I
intend to get around with these two problems by only half filling the
oil reservior to avoid leaking oil, and mixing engine oil into the fuel
(just in case the oil injection system doesn't work). When I know the
status of the oil injection system, I will know what to do. For now, I
have this oilly surface that I probably need to clean up. This is
really not that bad. But I have a feeling that I may not want the oil
to keep soaking the rubber surface for a long time. If I am going to
clean the oil from the rubber surface, I may as well do the whole area
all at once.

Jay Chan


You bought an engine without knowing if the oil injection worked. I won't
even ask why.