Re: '85 Evinrude
Like JB says, an on the water demo is about the only way to really eval a motor. With a good water test, that motor's worth $800-$1100 with controls, depending on wear.<br /><br />If a water test is not possible, compression test (all cylinders within 6psi of each other), check the lower unit fluid (shouldn't be cloudy or "milky", but can easily be faked by drain/refill), check for spark on all 4 cylinders & take someone with you who's familiar with outboards. You're taking a significant chance - service departments are backed up this time of year. You'll wait & pay a lot if something's wrong, and you won't know until you own it. Make your price reflect it - if good compression, spark, LU fluid, full skeg, nice and clean with no obvious problems that motor's worth about $350-$400 to me with controls.<br /><br />If you can't check compression, minimal test is to wind a rope around the emergency pulley and pull it through all four cylinders several times fast, trying to 'feel' whether the 'pop' from each cylinder feels the same. Also check the lower unit fluid as above. If it passes these tests, it's worth about $200-250. It's real easy to miss a bad cylinder with the rope test - it's better for buyer and seller if you do a compression test with gauge & the starter motor. If I feel a low cylinder, a motor that old is a parts motor, worth about $100 minus controls.<br /><br />My five cents...
