Is another 100hp realy worth it?

[j_k_bisson]

Sitting here this morning and pondering a desicion I made last year when I was decising to repower my boat. I decided to go with a 1987 Evinrude 225HP outboard instead of rebuilding the 1991 Force 120hp that was on the boat. My thinking that the 120 was a bit under power and not really worth the effort to rebuild. Even if it was only a scored cylinder that was wrong with the Force. The Evinrude got a complete resto rebuild including re-ring it.

I rebuild the Evinrude and installed over the winter and finally got all the bugs out of it. It added 200 lbs to the transom so the boat sits lower in the water. With the Evinrude I got 8 more MPH over the Force. But my gas consumption has gone way up with the Evinrude. So this leaves me think if it was really worth it to upgrade the Hp by 100 with the trade off of being less econimcal, more weight to the boat. The plus side is that the boat takes off like a jet! But I fish, not water ski behind this thing. So my normal operating speeds are 12-22 mph. Anything more and the waves will destory the hull. 4-5ftr's average day of fishing.

Or maybe I have something wrong with the Evinrude set up. I heard that these years of motor the jetting was being played with quite a bit. I was running a more pitch prop on the Evinrude orginally, but my mid range cruising the motor loaded up with fuel due to to much load on the motor. If I changed the prop pitch back up and started to lean out the jetting wont this fix the sputting/kicking issues. But wont I be running my motor lean? Isn't this a bad condition for these motors?

These are thoughts that trouble me in my spare time. I'm sure everyone has a few when it comes to their boat. These are mine.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Is another 100hp realy worth it?

A 120HP on a 2002 Trophy is nuts.

Its not about the speed. It's all about having the HP when you need it. Run a following sea any distance and you'll wish you had more than you do now. Beat your way thru 10-15 miles of true 4-5' seas and you'll wish you had more yet.

Your cruise speed is awfully low as well which is probably adding to your "destroying the hull" feeling. I have a 22' boat and my cruise speed under average conditons is ~ 31 mph. Anything less, and the I have too much hull in the water and the ride quailty takes a noise dive.

 

[j_k_bisson]

Re: Is another 100hp realy worth it?

Seeing I only fish in the Great Lakes, the HP is not really an issue. The waves are packed closely together, average 10-15' from tip to tip. So 31mph in 4-5' speed bumps is not really common here.

I did some research this afternoon and found that Evinrude did a ton on adjusting to the carb jetting in these years of motors. Unfortunately 1988-1990 the carbs and jets stayed the same. How do I know If I have big bore looper carbs. What is the bore size. All the part numbers on the carb bodies are not coming up in the OMC system. They are Merc numbers.

 

[steelespike]

Re: Is another 100hp realy worth it?

The 225 will use close to double the gas. at about 10 gph more at wot.
Be sure the motor is as high as possible on the transom. and is operating near the top of its rpm range at wot.