Was just jawboning with my brother in law over a breski...ad wondered whether if the 40 can be converted to 20 - and we could show Smokey the Bear the repair bill and cert from the local shop that the motor was converted down to 20.
details: Have a 2003 40 HP Merc elec start, remote and a 9.9 kicker on a 16 ft boat. Runs great, but the local lake I fish on has 20 HP max...and the kicker really doesn't move the boat much (plus it's a pain to operate). Looked at selling the 2 engines and buying a 20 HP...but the cost of doing that was $2,500 ($4K for 20 HP, $500 work, rebate on the 40 and the 9.9 = $2K).
There are few other good lakes around, so I really don't mind permanent mod to 20...but it would be great if I could just chuck parts (smaller carb?) in my basement and retro back to 40 when I sold it...or perhaps moved to somewhere that the 40 would make sense.
Thanks for any advice.
details: Have a 2003 40 HP Merc elec start, remote and a 9.9 kicker on a 16 ft boat. Runs great, but the local lake I fish on has 20 HP max...and the kicker really doesn't move the boat much (plus it's a pain to operate). Looked at selling the 2 engines and buying a 20 HP...but the cost of doing that was $2,500 ($4K for 20 HP, $500 work, rebate on the 40 and the 9.9 = $2K).
There are few other good lakes around, so I really don't mind permanent mod to 20...but it would be great if I could just chuck parts (smaller carb?) in my basement and retro back to 40 when I sold it...or perhaps moved to somewhere that the 40 would make sense.
Thanks for any advice.
