Over the years I have run into 4 or 5 motors that have been covered in a “goop.”
The stuff has the consistency of glue and it’s always the powerhead and components some prior owner has sprayed them down with to protect from corrosion. It doesnt wipe off easily but it does a good job of keeping everything loose and protecting from salt and corrosion.
What is this stuff? I wiped some off the exhaust bypass cover to show the difference. This 1983 70hp Johnson was a lightly used salt motor and you wouldn’t have known it had lived its life on the back of a Boston whaler on the ocean year after year, unless you saw the few barnacles on the trim pin holes. Everything else on the motor came apart like butter.