1988 Four winns 180 horizon, were these OMC or Mercruisers

[Newbie@boats]

I’m looking at an 88 Fourwinns 180 horizon.

It has a 5.7 merc, w/ a mercrusier out drive.

From everything I’ve gathered online these boats either came with an outboard engine or a OMC engine/drive. Person is not the original owner so they aren’t sure. Did someone possibly swap out the OMC for the merc, or did it come factory that way?

 

[matt167]

4 winns of the time was Brunswick I think by that time which mercury was/ is a part of. I have an 86 Freedom 160 as a parts boat and it’s a 3.0 mercruiser. Few were OMC but i think older

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... With a boat that old, it don't matter what it was,....
What matters is what shape it's in now,.....

 

[Scott06]

Ayuh,..... With a boat that old, it don't matter what it was,....
What matters is what shape it's in now,.....

And if they did do a merc swap it would be an upgrade in terms of parts availability

 

[Newbie@boats]

Thanks for the info. The seats are showing age. But owner claims floors solid with no soft spots and engine runs great.

I’m not a fan of swaps because you truly never know if they’re done right. IMO.

Might be worth the 45 min ride to check it out.

 

[Scott06]

Thanks for the info. The seats are showing age. But owner claims floors solid with no soft spots and engine runs great.

I’m not a fan of swaps because you truly never know if they’re done right. IMO.

Might be worth the 45 min ride to check it out.

Your biggest concern should be stringer and transom rot.

Would also look out if some one put a new deck over an older rotten deck. Nothing wrong if some one did a proper repair to deck, stringers or transom, just see a lot of half azzed stuff.

even if they didnt swap the drivetrain would expect that something 35 years old has had major work done as some point. You should be able to see if quality work was done or not. Boats are relatively plug and play swaps anyways

 

[matt167]

Take a look at the gauges. My 86 Freedom 160 has Mercury marine gauges and I’m 90% sure they are original..

Fwiw I bought my rotten parts boat ( the freedom 160 ) because it has a mint running 3.0l and alpha one. Which will be a good replacement for the MC1 and 2.5L in my 72 StarCraft… swaps are common and make sense in many cases

 

[Newbie@boats]

Thanks for the info. Basically I’m looking for an inexpensive boat for the family. I’ve owned 10+ boats previously but they weren’t geared towards taking a 3 year old and 5 year old out. Mainly bass boats or Bayliner trophy’s.

This would be more of a trail to see how the kids like it and how it works out before spending any kind of decent money for a much nicer and newer boat.

 

[Lou C]

OMC bought Four Winns & a few other companies around 1986 so many older Four Winns & Chris Crafts have OMC Cobra power. From like 86-96 or so. I would not be concerned about a Cobra to Merc conversion because it’s pretty straightforward no transom work needed.