I like tinkering with old OMC's, often the 18-20-25's from the 1960's and early 1970's. I have a 1961 18HP Johnson on a butt-ugly 1960 14' Starcraft V-hull as my "old reliable" so I can get on the water whenever. My buddy has a much newer 30HP Evinrude on a much newer boat (16'trihull). I finished a tuneup on a neighbor's old 25HP and wanted to run some Seafoam through it to decarb and tune. I swapped motors on "old reliable" and since the cowl was still at my neighbor's I threw on an old, beat-up, cracked, ugly-as-sin 18HP cowl I had kicking around.<br />That baby flew! Just me in the boat, one gallon of Seafoam mix in the tank, no gear at all. I idle back through the "no wake" to the ramp when my buddy shows up with the nice 30HP rig with his kid to do some tubing. Big guy, pretty big kid, cooler, anchor, etc. He made a disparaging remark about "old reliable" (as usual). I asked him if he would pace me to the picnic beach and let me know what I'm getting for speed according to his speedometer.
