2012 mercury 150hp 4 stroke

[RichardJ]

Last year I purchased a 2012 Tracker Targa with a 150 HP Mercury 4 Stroke motor. I love the whole boat & motor package. The motor is quiet, has plenty of power for me & still trolls down real nice. Last weekend I was out on the Mississippi with the family just cruising around about 30 MPH and my motor blew up. This is only the second season on this motor. I have only owned it for a year and a half. I am wondering if any one out there has had similar problems with the new Mercury 150 HP Four Stroke motor?

[GregPavlov]

I'm sure some people have: a lot of these motors are going out the door. And I'm sure a lot of them will still be running 15-20 years from now: it looks like a heck of a good design.

[RichardJ]

Greg-I agree, I really like the motor. I did a lot of research before buying & I had no concerns when I purchased. I have searched the net & not found much for bad info on this motor. I am just hoping there is not a common problem with the power head. Thanks for chiming in!

[Born 2 fish]

Wow that sucks I'm interested to here more keep us informed.

[yarcraft91]

While it's not nice that the motor failed, it's nice that it happened during the warranty period. Hope you get back on the water soon.

[GeorgeJr]

Blew up.... What does that mean. Tossed a rod out the block and burned a cyl or? Do you have a idea how many hours and if the oil/filter was changed?

Just wondering if you were the orig owner and how you broke the motor in. Not that this would be a reason for it to send the unit back for major repair this early but just wondering. I did 9 min under 4500 and 1 min at full wide open for the first few hours as noted in the manual and no major WOT after that till done (well never run WOT for very long anyways). I've heard these and any motor if not broke in correctly could cause gas bypass the rings and you do see trollers who start out trolling with new big motors have postings that the motor "it is creating oil". I know all of our new farm tractors (John Deere) the dealer runs on the machine to complete break in on the engine so when we are in the fields we don't need to worry about what speed we are holding. I also have talked to a few engine builders one who make race engines for nascar and others who have exact processes on break in. All my cars I buy new get broken in as well to seat the rings (which with current MFG tolerances is the main point of break in) of which easy wind up in 2nd to 50 MPH and decelerate with back pressure in 2nd as a example of part of the process... Can't do that on a boat of course.

I have a 2014 Crestliner 1850 SST with a Merc 150 Four Stroke (Non supercharged assuming that is what you have as well). Very quiet indeed and noted by a friend I took fishing as his lower unit had water due to fishing line taking out the prop seal and he has a Opti 150 to compare to it.

I did a bunch of research prior to pulling the trigger on my boat/motor purchase and yours is the first to note this that I have read. Any noted noise, or concern prior to the "blew up" problem?

For those interested with a 19p Tempest Pro SS prop I can get 51 mpg on a 3000 lb plus 3 bodies on board. I'm running a 4 blade Rev 4 now and getting 45.2 MPH at max RPM so I'm going to swap to a 19 Rev 4 after doing some skiing behind this prop to check it out. Boat is 19'9" in length as it has a extended transom.

Thankfully covered I'm sure but makes you rethink what went wrong.

[crosbystick]

We have numerous 150's out there with no problem's what so ever !

[RichardJ]

I did purchase this boat & motor new. I ran it through the break-in period and had it properly serviced. I wanted to keep my warranty in tack and now I am glad about that...... Mercury is replacing the motor.

When I said the motor blew up I meant both sides of the engine case had holes 1' x 4' and you can look right through the motor. It happened with out warning- no noises, no temp change, no sign of a problem at all........ it just blew up. I was not even full throttle and the computer proved that when they hooked it up at the dealer.

I talked to the dealer yesterday and they thought it may have been a bad piston. Mercury is replacing the motor. I am sure they will research this motor to see what happened. When stuff like this happens it is not good for anyone.... dealers, manufactures or consumers. One thing I am glad about is that I am not finding this to be a widespread problem. It seems to be an isolated defect which I understand can happen when there is a huge amount of motors out there.

With the internet & today's technology it makes it easier for us consumers to research equipment. Thanks for the replies & posts!

Right now I am just looking forward to getting back on the water soon. Going to lake Kabetogama on Sept 3rd to catch some "eyes"........

[Jacob's Dream]

Originally Posted by GeorgeJr

For those interested with a 19p Tempest Pro SS prop I can get 51 mpg on a 3000 lb plus 3 bodies on board. I'm running a 4 blade Rev 4 now and getting 45.2 MPH at max RPM so I'm going to swap to a 19 Rev 4 after doing some skiing behind this prop to check it out. Boat is 19'9" in length as it has a extended transom..

Was that a 17 pitch Rev 4 that you got 45.2mph at max RPM?

[GeorgeJr]

Nothing like seeing metal go flying while underway car / truck or boat. ;-) Glad you were able to make it back to shore and it is covered. Keep us posted what they find after teardown... Also check about having a new warranty start at the point the new motor is installed. Merc should be able to extend this w/o too much problem or discount extended factory coverage. No one makes a 100% perfect engine and problems do happen, what separates the good from the bad overall experiance is the support you get when something doesn't go right.

Originally Posted by Jacob's Dream

Was that a 17 pitch Rev 4 that you got 45.2mph at max RPM?

Yes New prop I am trying is the merc Rev 4 in a 17 pitch. 45.2 on GPS running 19'9" around 3000 lb boat with a family of 4 (two kids and 2 adults so around 3400 lbs total).

The Tempest Plus 19p I was getting 51 running w/o the trolling motor and battery and some other fishing gear. RPM were around 5650 (really need to get that merc monitor cause reading while flying isn't easy). Both of these props don't slip much with this set-up. Salesman stated that the motor won't give full RPM till after 20 hrs but not 100% sure that is true but I do know the 17p Rev 4 did run up at or near Max.

After I get a chance to get pulled up on 1 ski a few times with the 17 Rev 4 (need a driver my spotter won't drive ;-)) will determine if I decide to try the 19. I also like not having the PVS plugs open on the Rev 4 as kids ski around the speed the prop goes from venting to hooking all the way up. On the Tempest Plus I had the medium or similar openings and at around 19-21 you would hear the engine change pitch of sound and that was the indicator to throttle back or you would start accelerating up to your new speed. This was around 3k on the RPMs

With a Walleye type AL hull I am finding smother thru 3 ft chop on Winnebago, quicker to plane and plane slightly lower speed or at least seems to be. Less bow lift to plane as well. Wasn't that I was unhappy with the Tempest Plus (keeping it as a back-up) but prop guy and research told me Rev 4 might be even better.

Note I have the SST version of the sportfish hull which is a extended transom which steps up the transom and moves the motor back 1 ft. So my set-up and a standard transom of similar boat might act a bit differently. If you can prop swap try a rev 4 if you like the tempest plus IMO.