are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

[jzemp]

Question for yall who are more experienced than me. Are the old evinrude 75 horse starflite 2 good engines? Did they have any common problems? Its probobally a 1957-60? maybe? Thanks

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Best I can say is they were good in their day.Very heavy and VERY thirsty.And now they and their parts are very scarce and expensive.I would think owning one would be an ongoing project to keep running.

DHP

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Starflite II is a 1960. Has a simple magneto ignition system and a simple downdraft carburetor. Lower unit gears/bearings/shaft were redesigned soon after. It has a hot-water heated automatic choke that never did work worth a durn, so you usually have to choke/unchoke it by hand. As I recall, it has adjustable high speed jets that are hard to get right and it will guzzle gas like you won't believe. I had one back when gas was cheap and still couldn't afford to run it.

Other than this nit-picking, it is a good reliable motor, state of the art for it's day and sort of popular in the world of those who collect such things. But don't make that make you think it's worth a lot of money.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Thanks, so if it hasn't run since 2000, am I better off to not sink my money into it? Or maybe sink my money into the Johnson super sea horse. I think its a 75 horse power too. Which one will perform better and get better gas mileage? Thanks

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Thanks, so if it hasn't run since 2000, am I better off to not sink my money into it? Or maybe sink my money into the Johnson super sea horse. I think its a 75 horse power too. Which one will perform better and get better gas mileage? Thanks

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Starflite II is a 1960. Has a simple magneto ignition system and a simple downdraft carburetor. Lower unit gears/bearings/shaft were redesigned soon after. It has a hot-water heated automatic choke that never did work worth a durn, so you usually have to choke/unchoke it by hand. As I recall, it has adjustable high speed jets that are hard to get right and it will guzzle gas like you won't believe. I had one back when gas was cheap and still couldn't afford to run it.

Other than this nit-picking, it is a good reliable motor, state of the art for it's day and sort of popular in the world of those who collect such things. But don't make that make you think it's worth a lot of money.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Thanks, so if it hasn't run since 2000, am I better off to not sink my money into it? Or maybe sink my money into the Johnson super sea horse. I think its a 75 horse power too. Which one will perform better and get better gas mileage? Thanks

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

There's not a huge difference. The newer one will have fixed high speed jets in the carb and the improved lower unit. It seems like they get better mileage, but a lot of that is probably due to not being able to improperly "adjust" the carb. I believe it also has better bearings in the powerhead.

Actually it more or less depends on which one is in the better physical condition

 

[steelespike]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

There is some of those older 1960s motors that are difficult to get distributor parts for a friend paid $35 for a used cap or rotor about 6 years ago.

 

[jimmbo]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

The V4 75 only had 2 gearcases, the first was the mechanical shift, and then in 1962 the (im)famous electric shift became an option Both were rather small for the hp and had an odd ratio of 20:23 turning props that were smaller in diameter than the ones used on the 25hp, 30hp, and 40hp big twin engines

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

Thanks. I will see if I can track down a manual for the engine(s). I really appreciate all your info on answering my questions. Thanks, Sincerely.

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

It took me awhile to find proof, but the V4-75 was indeed offered with the so called heavy duty gearcase, which was actually the fat-fifty lower unit. Evinrude heavy duty model numbers for 1965 were 75532 for short shaft and 75533 for long shaft. Johnson numbers for their versions were V4H / V4HL-17.

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

It was also offered on the 60 and 65 horse motors for several years.

 

[jimmbo]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

I thought the Heavy duty case was only offered on the 60 hp V4s. I was wwwwron.... I mean I was mistaken.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

It took me awhile to find proof, but the V4-75 was indeed offered with the so called heavy duty gearcase, which was actually the fat-fifty lower unit. Evinrude heavy duty model numbers for 1965 were 75532 for short shaft and 75533 for long shaft. Johnson numbers for their versions were V4H / V4HL-17.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

To F.R. (lieutenant)
My johnson super sea horse has the model number like you described, V4HL-17S. Now is there a difference with the "S" at the end of the model #? Are you telling me that I have the "heavy duty" lower drive? I'm not real good on the computer, I tried looking at ken cook.com and am havng a tough time locating anything on the Johnson, like the exact year. The serial number is J2518298. Any more help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jon

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

The "S" is only important when ordering parts. It identifies any mid-year changes that may have been made, if any.

Does the lower half of the lower unit (skeg/fin) come off with a whole bunch of screws as shown in the parts breakdown? That is the Heavy Duty unit if it does. The torpedo-shaped bottom on the standard one is all one piece with a seam just above the torpedo.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

mine is not the one pictured in that picture. Mine has 4 bolts on each side going up the past the "torpedo" about 6 inches above the top of the "torpedo". Hope that helps. The one pictured is a "heavy duty?" or not.

 

[F_R]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

The previous picture was the heavy duty. This is the standard gearcase. Of course, somebody could have changed it.

 

[jzemp]

Re: are the old 75 horsepower evinrude starflite 2 good engines?

The previous picture was the heavy duty. This is the standard gearcase. Of course, somebody could have changed it.