Thank you,means a lot to me.I busted my hump cleaning it i mean for many man hrs.I took off the 20hp plate under the lower cowl and to my surprise there was what's called mud daubers we call them here in fl.They take mud and build nests with it,they look like wasps but are harmless.There was quite a bit caked up under the plate but it wasn't harming anything thank God.When i say i cleaned it i mean i cleaned every milk and cranny,crevice i could reach to clean,every hole,everything i could get to.I cleaned i can't tell you how much old grease off this thing,wow.I used dawn soap to clean the whole outboard.I used a whole huge bottle in a spray bottle.It was worth every minute.Pappy said:You did a fantastic job on that engine!
As far as the all in one shifter,i love it and think that is what makes the mercs special. that is the best feature to me.I have never once had any issues.This engine shifts like butter,i mean really silky smooth,no grinding or any force needed like the new 20hp 4stroke merc i had,that takes some force to shift, but it wasn't broke in one bit yet to be fair.
As far as the fuel air mixture it was around 1 1/2 turns out from seated and i notched it back i mean a tiny hair towards the rich side to be safe and it runs like a sewing machine.It is a 50:1 engine and that is what i'm going to run because since i'm using full synthetic on it i'm hoping it will run cleaner but i won't skimp out on the oil especially after all the work i did to it.I also use lucus stabilizer in my non ethanol gas and ring free.When i started taking off the original stuff it all like just crumbled to pieces,especially the coils,they just fell apart.All the wires were corroded and need to be replaced,Plus they were the wrong length wires and wrong coils so i made sure everything on this is as perfect as it can get.I'm very anal when it comes to maintenance and making sure everything is up to par.I believe in doing it right the first time.