Oil on plugs.

[ChasinFins]

Hey everyone,
I was out fishing today with my 4 stroke Mercury 9.9hp motor. It was giving me some attitude, and wouldn't run for longer than 4-5 min before dieing. I brought it home and went through the fuel lines and inline filter and it was plugged! Barely any fuel would've gotten through. So I cleaned it all out, it was rotted tube from inside the fuel tank where it sucks it up and out to motor. My worry is did it do anything to my motor? I pulled the plugs and attached pics of them below. They are old plugs that should of been changed awhile ago. But I'm worried that there was so much oil present on the plugs, is that normal? Do I have bigger problems? Also when I was "milking" her back to the ramp I had to partially choke it, would that cause this on the plugs? Thanks for any input!
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[mtncat1]

the plugs look fine , the reason you had to choke it was because it wasn't getting enough fuel due to the plugged filter . i would be very surprised if you damaged your motor . p/s te oil on the threaded portion of the plug is normal carbon build up. when reading a plug you are looking at the porcelain (white part) and the tip of the electrode.
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[ChasinFins]

That makes me feel better mtncat! Thank you. Being too nervous I guess. She's an old boat but I love her, haha. I just thought that was too much on the plug threads. I put some new ones in. Thanks again!
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[mtncat1]

I am a mechanic by trade and I am happy to help[fishin]
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[fish_hntr]

[quote ChasinFins]Hey everyone,
I was out fishing today with my 4 stroke Mercury 9.9hp motor. It was giving me some attitude, and wouldn't run for longer than 4-5 min before dieing. I brought it home and went through the fuel lines and inline filter and it was plugged! Barely any fuel would've gotten through. So I cleaned it all out, it was rotted tube from inside the fuel tank where it sucks it up and out to motor. My worry is did it do anything to my motor? I pulled the plugs and attached pics of them below. They are old plugs that should of been changed awhile ago. But I'm worried that there was so much oil present on the plugs, is that normal? Do I have bigger problems? Also when I was "milking" her back to the ramp I had to partially choke it, would that cause this on the plugs? Thanks for any input![/quote]

No damage to worry about, but as a rule of thumb you want to replace the plug(s) annually and filter every 2 years, it's cheap and easy to do and will increase efficiency.
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