Repower Options

[peterb]

I have a 1992 Sunbird center console in decent shape and my 1991 150 HP Johnson just bit the farm. My boat documentation says that my transom can support up to a 175 HP engine. I have 3 options (as far as I know). <br />1. Rebuild the engine. I was quoted a price of close to $5k. To spend that money on an engine that books for half that value does not seem to make too much sense.<br />2. Buy a new engine. I have seen decent deals for year old plus new engines. Average price seems to be around $8k, plus install. <br />3. Buy a rebuilt engine. I was quoted prices of $3,500 for a Johnson 1991 150 hp, $4,100 for a 1994 Johnson 175 Ocean Runner and $4,500 for a 1997 Johnson 175 Ocean Runner. Also, he will give me $400 for my old engine. All 3 engines have carb's. The guy who rebuilds & sells these engines uses new OMC power heads and offers a 90 day warrantee. He has given me several customer references. The one interesting thing that he told me is that he will not warrantee the variable rate oil injection setup. He feels that they can be faulty & be blamed for most blown Johnson engines. He wants you to manually mix the oil with the gas. Mostly becuase of the year and size I have been leaning towards the 1997 engine. When I told this to the guy he said fine, but it is his opinion that a 1991 OMC product is built stronger than the 1997 OMC product.<br /><br />Right now I am leaning towards option number 3. What do you gearheads out there think? How many hours should I be able to expect out of a rebuilt engine? I would greatly appreciate any opinions out there.<br /><br />Thanks

 

[Hooty]

Re: Repower Options

Yo, Senor Boyle,<br />Let me say first, I hope you get a lot of responses to this inquiry because it's an excellent question. <br />I'd say the first thing I would be concerned about is the quality of the re-build. Check his references. <br />I don't know if the '91 is a better engine than the '97 or not. Someone else may answer that. Have any of these engines seen salt water duty? I understand the re-builder not warranting the VRO. I prefer pre-mix.<br />How many hours should you expect out of a re-built engine? That depends on the manitance the engine gets. A well mainitained engine should last maybe a thousand hours.<br />I don't know how in-line those prices are but they look pretty reasonable to me.<br />Anybody else?? <br /><br />g'luck & c/6<br /><br />Hooty

 

[BKool68]

Re: Repower Options

What is wrong with your motor? Is the same guy gonna rebuild yours for $5K but sell you another rebuild for $4K? Sounds funny.

 

[peterb]

Re: Repower Options

A marina that I asked for a 2nd opinion offered to do the rebuild for $5k. Somehow it appears that saltwater got into the engine. <br /><br />The buying of a rebuilt engine is from a guy who has setup a nice little business on the side.

 

[almost retired again]

Re: Repower Options

Hello Mr. Boyl,<br />It's not a very hard job to buy a rebuilt short block and take your external parts off to put on the rebuilt. 5K is more than I would want to spend also. Some of the rebuilders out there will sell one for a whole lot less than 5K and give a 1 year no fault warranty on it to boot. I think that most of these prices are 1/2 or less than what you have quoted. I think that I have a couple of these ads on my desk. If you want e-Mail me @ janmac@yhti.net and i'll give you the adresses and phone no.s

 

[BKool68]

Re: Repower Options

Depending on what is bad I have rebuilt motors for under $300. You only need to fix what is wrong. Where in NJ are you? I am starting to do some side work myself. I put a piston in a friends 97 225 Johnson and it is running great for over 40 hours now. He keeps trying to send me work.

 

[Dhadley]

Re: Repower Options

If you are getting water in the number one cylinder, thats the glue seam leak and it can be repaired. 5K is way too much to fix the leak and rebuild the motor unless its sat around with water in it and the crank is shot. <br /><br />Good luck!

 

[warlord69]

Re: Repower Options

I'm not a salesman or nothing like that but if you check with ALMAR'S Marine in Delaware I'll bet you could find a great deal there. They seem to have the cheapest prices around on new and rebuilt outboards.they have ads in the salty dog and boat shopper magazine,I personally have been there and when I need an engine thats where I'll be going.......hope that helps

 

[Dhadley]

Re: Repower Options

Another thing that you mentioned --"The guy who rebuilds & sells these engines uses new OMC power heads". He might, but I doubt it.<br /><br />Good luck!

 

[BKool68]

Re: Repower Options

Almar's deals with Mercuy outboards so you would also need to rerig the controls.