1997 gl 150 rod gone through the front half

[Nitro25]

^^^this. Gotta match perfect ,if u can feel any kind of edge it wrong,, also kinda sounds like someone put to much torque on torque to yield bolts and stretched em to far? A tty bolt will snap at the head everytime

Yeah ... That's kinda the same gut thing I got too. Over torqued, or even reusing old rod bolts and torquing them a second time. Both snapping at the head sounds like stress, or bad material, maybe aftermarket product.

D.

[TEXAS20225]

i know nothing about rebuilding any omc stuff!!! but i have rebuilt over 400 merc motors and reusing the rod bolts is common place and i have never ever had a rod bolt snap off ever . maybe omc quality is not so much. some of the motors ive rebuilt are still running after ten years . ive discovered the primary factor in outboard rebuild for longevity is who did the machine work!!!! and i never reuse pistons (they can have loose locator pins and you will never know it till it unravels) or bearings, always clean injectors, rebuild poppet and pulse pump, new switch boxs, reeds so its a complete job and of course a new water pump( whole thing)

[powerabout]

cheap high tensile steel bolts just snap as they wont stretch

[phillnjack]

( to TEXAS 20225 ) Ricky means it had 1 brand new sleeve put in and rings on all the rest of the pistons too.. I dont the new sleeve was even honed in correctly and none of the other holes have been honed while it was apart .. new sleeve put in completely pissed. so much so the ar soles who done the job missed the idle relief by the exhaust so drilled into the alloy to save putting the sleeve right !!!!! absolutely disgusting how they rebuilt this motor.. this terrible disgusting work was done by RAISIN RIVER MARINE LTD south Lancaster Ontario... Avoid this place like the plague. they done a real botch job on this motor.. rtv bunging up water passages too... he has all these things not just documented but on video has it is/was coming apart, you name its wrong.. plug the engine is full of black gungy crap, not even cleaned out correctly.

[TEXAS20225]

wow ive never stooped to such tactics even when i started rebuilding a long long time ago. i did however earn my stripes buy paying for 5 rebuilds (out of my pocket)in a row from the same machine shop only to send a couple of the blown blocks to Jim ruck and he called me up and said i dont know who did this machine work but his keys to his shop need to be removed from him and him run out of town its the worst machine work ive ever seen . so that was a role call for me as this was my last resort in machine shops in dfw area no one could do it right , he did my work for along time then i got so busy he could not keep up enter James Perry a very likable guy and super knowledgeable as he built motors also so he started doing mine and jim sold out to some sewing machine mechanic he only did two of mine which i promptly sent to Perry, he fixed them both, i deducted Perrys charge from rucks bill and the rest is history , james turned out over the years to be in class all by him self he is by far the best machine shop man ive ever had bar none but he is getting older, ive been old for 15 years so its time for the next generation of mota men sorry to hear that u had such a terrible experience i know that feeling well especially when ur hit in the wallet so hard

[Merc 2.5]

Yes james still has sum yrs in front of him but he will have to do outboards full time to even try to keep up ,, I really hope his neighbor (apprentice) takes over or they open a shop together , james been training him long time now , between. Both of them ,they could put out sum blocks. I know theres people out there that know what they doin but , like tex says. hes in a league of his own , very very smart guy and good with his tools