Was hoping to ask Sheldon a question but he shows up as “member not found” now.
For anyone else who might know, I noticed my 115 merc pro xs 4 stroke (2018) was making a weird noise. Upon closer inspection it looks like it’s bubbling exhaust out from the seam where lower unit meets midsection.
Doesn’t seem to be affecting anything… But also doesn’t seem normal. Anybody seen this before?
i saw that he was still replying to threads as “member not found”.
He might be taking a little break. I know he was experiencing several errors when posting and replying to the site and it was very frustrating. Hopefully he’s back soon!!! We’d be lost without Sheldon’s expertise and knowledge! 
he texted me a couple days ago and said he left the building!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I know he is super busy at work right now. I don’t think he got the boot.
I texted him and from the sounds of it, he is taking a break. Lets hope it’s not for good. He mentioned the getting booted and the bot stuff. He is a great guy and if he does not return, the group has lost a great resource. KPE I mentioned to him you were asking a question so if he has a way to reach you look for that.
I consider myself a moderate user of this site and don’t have a lot of the personal connections that many in this community have. So what am I missing? “Bot stuff?” what does that mean? I love reading his posts and I know he didn’t shy away from sharing his opinion, but I always thought even his opinionated stuff was pretty harmless, where does a bot come in?
I think he was talking about when your asked to see if your a human or the lag between posting something and the inability to quote things easily. We have all had issues with it at times. Imagine a guy like him trying to help with questions and having to rewrite it a bunch of times. He was not booted he walked to the door. KPE he said someone was PM’ing you.
Thanks all I did find a way to get in touch with him
I texted him and from the sounds of it, he is taking a break. Lets hope it’s not for good. He mentioned the getting booted and the bot stuff. He is a great guy and if he does not return, the group has lost a great resource. KPE I mentioned to him you were asking a question so if he has a way to reach you look for that.
Bingo, he is out for now by his choice, he wasn’t booted or given a time out. He got tired of having problems posting and some other issues. He can be found around the internet yet. Anybody who needs his help shoot me a pm with contact info and i’ll get ya hooked up.
ib1 has left the building! 
Sheldon is a great one to call on a Friday night when I’m in the garage. Many times I’ve drank with him over the phone until way to late.
Sheldon is fine but very, very busy. I was in the area so I stopped and chatted with him at his shop late last Friday afternoon. I think there was 7 or 8 boats in his lot and 4 outboards inside that all needed work. He is burning the candle at both ends.
Well, spoke to Sheldon, did some troubleshooting, looks like base gasket and oil pan gasket, again. On a motor with less than 200 hrs on it. Needless to say I’m completely dejected with Mercury marine and when this motor gives up the ghost for good I’m going Yamaha and not turning back.
I’m likely going to make the trip down to Iowa to get this one fixed since 61 marine already assured me that their warranty work was only good for 12 months, and of course my factory warranty as my is well out. Not a happy merc customer right now. Haven’t spoken to them yet, but last time even though they covered the work they wouldn’t speak to me at all only a shop or dealer.
KPE I feel your pain I have a Mercury now been good but had a Yamaha that the rod bearing went out after 12 hours run time. There warranty dept. was no fun either. Iowaboy is awesome hope it goes well for you.
Sheldon is fine but very, very busy. I was in the area so I stopped and chatted with him at his shop late last Friday afternoon. I think there was 7 or 8 boats in his lot and 4 outboards inside that all needed work. He is burning the candle at both ends.
There is sooo much irony in that statement.
Well, Mercury Marine has this to say:
“I can see this was done in 2021, base gasket and oil pan gasket, and covered under warranty. Mercury marine will not assist with any coverage at this point as the motor is nearly 2 years out of warranty”.
“What about these base gaskets, is there a recall or a revised part to address this well-known issue?”
“No”
Yikes. I’m going to work with Sheldon on this unless 61 marine wants to re-think their stance on the work they did. By the way, this work was done at 120 engine hours, and now have about 150 on it. $2500 worth of engine work every 30 hours is an absurd cost of ownership. I liked this engine a lot for the first 3 years I owned it.
Good news, Iowaboy talked me off of a ledge here. He’s not confident it’s my base gasket again, we ran through some telephone troubleshooting and I did some things exactly as he told me. Back in action!
Was was seeing water just from the very opening of the drain plug, but the ugly oil in the crank was full of gas. My injectors appear to be leaking down a bit due to age + all of the cold water running I do. I got things tidied up for now and I’ll be shipping them down to Iowaboy for a thorough cleaning and service after we get back from our memorial day trip. He very likely saved me a hefty diagnostic bill and also saved my family’s boating during memorial day weekend!
KPE that’s great news! Iowa boy rocks!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
