What would you do?

[big boat little motor]

Earlier this season I had picked up a new to me 97 Lowe 19' deck boat with a 89 Johnson 88spl outboard from a friend of mine that had recently upgraded to new 26' sea ray. I knew when I bought this boat that it had been used but reasonably well maintained. This is our first boat and from reading the boards I have learned a great deal about my new found love. The motor is starting to show its age an is now running in the mid 90 lbs of compression per cylinder. Given the fact that my hull is rated for 130 HP and the 88 even making optimum power would be underpowered for this hull makes me believe thatrebuilding this motor this winter seems like throwing good money after bad.

I tell you all this to help frame a question I would like to ask you all. Would you look at an older 120-130 HP motor that is in decent shape (110+ compression and otherwise mechanically sound) that can be had for next to nothing or am I better off spending what I spent on the whole set-up ($4000) and dropping the money on a used but newer motor?

Thanks
Jason

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: What would you do?

i would first do a decarb on the 88 and see if you can get compression up. that 89 88 is not old, it is just broken in good. worth 1,000 -1,400. with the compression up.

Decarb, take a can of seafoam put 3/4 of it in the gas tank, with only 1 gallon of premixed gas. put the rest in a spray bottle. start the engine, and let it come up to temperature. then remove plugs, and them some real good shot of seafoam into the cylinders, replace plugs, let sit 15 minutes. restart, and spray the rest of the seafoam into the carbs, so the the motor almost stalls, wait and repeat until the seafoam is gone.then take for a wide open spin. then put in new plugs, ad premixed gas to the tank, and take it for a wide open throttle spin. it is going to smoke like a house on fire, during this process.

afterwards compression.recheck