This is a Johnson 6hp, 1986.
There is an exhaust leak of some sort. It seems to be coming from the areas indicated with the yellow arrows in the pic. It really seems as if it’s passing through the steering shaft. The engine will stifle and run terrible if I leave the cowl on, but if I remove it, it runs decent.
Any suggestions on how to find out the problem, other than just rip it apart? I’m a rookie at working on these things.
I do not know if this matters, but the gear shift knob does not shift into reverse. Seems like it is in the same place as the exhaust leak, and I was told that someone bumped it a while back (previous owner). Not sure what happened other than the shift knob got jammed in a little, if you try to put it in reverse, it hits the lower cowl and you can tell something inside is jammed up.
I wasn’t going to fiddle with the reverse for now but if I have to remove any of this, or if it’s related, I’ll try to fix it.
Does this help?
Any suggestions?
Hey Redfish Matt. There is a great website for boat engine repair. Marineengine.com This site has a wealth of information on all types of marine engines. You can search with your problem or ask your own question and wait for responses. Let us know how you do.
Dorado II
Carolina Skiff 25DLV
Probably the bottom powerhead gasket. Its pretty common for the exhaust to leak out on an older small outboard like that. Most of the time its a pretty dead giveaway because it’ll run like crap with the cowl on and pick up as soon as you remove it. You have to pull the powerhead and replace it, not too big of a job. If you are concerned at all about doing it, I would take it to somebody, though.
'06 Mckee Craft
184 Marathon
DF140 Suzuki
Had the same thing happen to my 7.5 Johnson stored in my shop. I HATE MUD DAUBBERS 
and those small HOLE PLUGGING WASPS, DEATH to them all!!! Took me over an hour to clean, flush, and blow out exhaust. Took me over an hour to diagnose my 4 wheeler carb issues , one of those hole plugging bass turds plugged the carb vent hose under the seat. They are evil 
. Have to cover all my air tool inlets, etc. PITA
I’m on Marineengine.com and iBoats.com as well. Marineengine is down for the past couple days though.
I’ll look into pulling the powerhead later, but I may be buying a different motor soon anyhow (larger).
Having never pulled the powerhead, I really wouldn’t know where to start. Is this a two-hour job, or a potential half-day sort of thing?..
Normally no more than a couple hours to pull the powerhead, scrape old gasket and reinstall powerhead with new gasket. Some of the bolts may be tricky to find and maybe the shift linkage going down to the lower unit could be a PITA.
'06 Mckee Craft
184 Marathon
DF140 Suzuki
The shift linkage is already goofed, the motor won’t shift into reverse. I just tolerate it right now but if I rip into it, I may try to fix it.
It may be related. I’ve read that on older Johnsons, the shift boot getting messed up can cause this. I speak blindly here, I have really no idea what’s inside the middle section.
The thing runs fine with the cowl off. That will probably do me for the summer lol.