Location: Minneapolis, MN | Do your homework before you buy that motor to be sure you are going to be happy with it. You may want go get the serial number and call Mercury direct. Ask them if they have paid for any major warranty work on that motor. I have a 2000 150 opti. The 135 is essentially a detuned 150. You can only run 87 octane pure gas in that motor. If the original owner ran high octane gas or gas that had an additve in it, it _may_ cause problems with the motor in time. There are a very limited number of dealers who really know how to work on that motor. A dealer has to pay Mercury $6,500 to buy the computer that connects with that motor to help them diagnose any problems. If the dealer doesn't see a lot of Opti's they are not going to make a $6,500 investment. My boat has been to a couple dealers that didn't have the computer (DDT) and it was like playing a game of elimination to figure out what was wrong. The NGK plugs in that motor run $12 each. It gets outstanding gas mileage _unless_ you run it WOT all the time. At WOT the EFI and the Opti have similar fuel consumption. The small block (135, 150 and 175) optis appear to be more reliable then the big blocks. However, I spent $1200 on a 3 year extended warranty for mine because I fear the problems people have had with fuel rails on the small blocks. I personally would not buy a opti that did not have at least a year of warranty remaining that is transferable. |
