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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | My boss recently lost a cylinder or two in his 2 stroke Merc 150(2003ish). The motor has very few hours on it but that is immaterial at this point. He asked me whether he should fix this power head, get a new power head, or buy a new motor. I am going to assumne the power head is shot, and I'm also pretty sure that a new power head is in the $4,000.00-$6,000 range. I know a new Merc opti or E-tec will run him $12-13k(or so) rigged, with a 4 stroke slightly more. I was just wondering what the opinion of replacing a power head on one of these motors is vs. purchasing a new motor with warranty, and updated features. Not sure what I'd do. If it were mine and I chose not to rebuild the old one, I'd drop an e-tec, Yam 4 stroke or Opti on the back, in that order, but that's me. Just not sure that boat is worth repowering(not sure of the brand, 10 year old fiberglass deck boat) Suggestions?
Edited by Reef Hawg 4/25/2013 9:12 PM
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Wow...didn't realize the Optis were that high. Ed's Marine has them for quite a bit less than that, but I have no idea what you can get them around here for. What about finding a later model unit from a re-power maybe? Seems like the boat would have to VERY sentimental to him in order to justify that sort of cash outlay though, for a new motor. What year is the hull?
Guess I'd probably get an estimate to fix the thing. Maybe it's not all bad, and he can get by for $3-4K. Tough call, but it doesn't seem like he'd ever get his money out of a new one, if the hull is about the same age as the current engine...
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I agree. Yeah, I might be a bit high on the price of the new Opti, but even at 11k, that's twice the cost of rebuild. The boat is 2003 or 2004, and in great cond. Doubt highly sentimental, but something he has to/wants to fix/repower either way. I like the idea of a used, but not sure I'd steer him that way. Perhaps I can help him find a demo, or perhaps a motor that was on a totaled boat etc. I'm sure not easy to find, but he's in no big hurry either.
Edited by Reef Hawg 4/25/2013 10:21 PM
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Posts: 2097
| Its weird to have engine probs with the optimax with low hrs. Those motors are beast. Hope he finds something. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I have no problem spending more money than most guys would--IF the boat is something I knew I'd be keeping. Would I spend an extra $8-9K on a $15K boat? No. Would I spend it on the re-power of an older Ranger...or another high-dollar rig? Probably more so.
That being said a guy has to simply run the different scenarios. If the boat is in excellent shape, rigged correctly and he likes it, then I wouldn't be afraid to spend maybe $5-7K to get trusted power. Then I'd make sure that I would use the boat as much as possible. Otherwise, the other option is to just sell the whole thing as-is, and let someone else fix it. But if he wants to keep it then that's not really a great option of course.
Decisions, decisions...
TB
EDIT: Almost forgot--what do you think the odds are that he might find an Opti laying around from someone that has moved to the new 150hp 4-stroke Merc? That might be his best shot, if he could find that. Maybe advertise here in the classifieds, or on some of the other sites that he was looking for something like that. Maybe there's a guy with an Opti considering a move to the 4-stroke, but he's hesitating because he is worried about moving his Opti. Might work out well.
Edited by tcbetka 4/25/2013 9:48 PM
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Agreed. I repowered an 8 year old Ranger a few years back. Correct decision? Not sure, but it's been 5 years and I still own it. It would be interesting to see how much he could get for this rig, and what a reasonable replacement would be. That needs to be researched before making the end decision. Unless he can find a screamer on a used/like new motor, I'm already leaning away from repowering that tub. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Yup! How much did you SAVE by not selling this Ranger, and buying a new one? While people can have a serious aversion to spending money on a re-power, there are sometimes where it makes a lot of sense. If you've got a great hull that you're happy with, and have it set up the way you like it...why *not* re-power? The question is whether or not the hull can take the weight of the engine you want to hang on it? With the DI 2-stroke engines, that doesn't seem to be a problem.
Sounds like you made a good decision.
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Location: new richmond, wi. & isle, mn | Always a tough decision. Hard to get what you want for the boat with a blown engine. Personally I'd get a new top end with a warranty. Had a buddy do the same thing last year and he's happy he did. Couldn't afford to go give his hull away and start over. |
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Location: Hopefully on the water | I "think" if you contacted Mercury (if that is the one you want maybe the others offer this also) about a repowered motor they can do it. I thought I remeber seeing that on episode of John Gillespie's this winter. They were motors that may have had this same issue and they repowered/rebuilt them and resell for situations like this. Luckily I haven't had to look into this but it is a option. |
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Posts: 192
| I had this exact situation about 5 years ago and I repowered. At that time Merc was offering a 5 year extended warranty incentive which helped me make my decision.
If you repower with the same engine you won't need new controls, gages or stainless steel prop so you'll save some cash on those items. I got the new engine (150 Optimax) for around $9,900. I'm sure prices have increased since then. The dealer also gave me $2k for my old engine on trade in, so my net was more like $8k as opposed to the $4,000 or $4,500 a rebuild would have cost.
My original engine was a 2000 model that had that class action lawsuit. I got one powerhead for free due to that but when I needed a second, no luck. Knock on wood but not problems with the new engine.
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | cave run legend - 4/25/2013 9:24 PM
Its weird to have engine probs with the optimax with low hrs. Those motors are beast. Hope he finds something.
It isn't an Optimax. It's a straight up 2 stroke merc. |
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Posts: 267
| Do a quick online classified search and you will find new prior year holdover motors for much, much less than 11k. I've seen very nice motors in the 5 - 7k range and the old one should bring 1 or 2k for parts. |
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Posts: 5874
| cave run legend - 4/25/2013 9:24 PM
Its weird to have engine probs with the optimax with low hrs. Those motors are beast. Hope he finds something.
This is not an Opti. But it is strange to have a problem with the 2-stroke Merc.
Edited by Shep 4/30/2013 2:42 PM
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Location: Green Bay, WI | Capt. Larry Jones told me about an outfit out East that sells overhauled engines, with 2-year warranties. I think he said that an overhauled 250 Opti was in the neighborhood of about $6K as I recall? Seemed pretty reasonable to me when we talked anyway. I just don't remember the name of the place. It would be a drive of course, but it might be worth a call or email to him and then another to the shop.
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