Outboard advice

[Yabadabadoo]

Hello all

I'm seeking an outboard for my Honwave 3.2

I've found a couple of outboards, due to budget restraints my top end is £750.00 originally £500.00

I've found a Mariner 15 2S late 80's with compression tests of Top 138 & Bottom 135. Cleaned waterways, new seals, oils, impeller. for £750

The other option is a Merc 15hp 2S for £500.00 compression test not done but agreed for when I go to have a look at it, 'serviced' with 3 month warranty(comes with tank/line) very tatty looking, engine in good order I'm told

Mariner has been a v nice bloke to deal with so far, Merc guy has been terrible with comms but has good feedback

Terrible post thinking about it, how longs a piece of string category. Unless lucky or being new it's a very murky world out there I'm finding. Requesting a compression test seems to be a good divider

Another one on 'the bay' 181780399609 probably out of my budget come Sunday


Look forward to your answers

[Mickhitchuk]

There is an evinrude/Johnston 15hp on eBay which looks nice and I believe these are the lightest 15 hp motors around

[Max...]

Neither sounds ideal TBH. If I was you I would look for a complete package (boat/trailer/engine) and sell on the items you don't need, quite often you will get extras included that will raise a surprising bit of money on top. There are endless outfits listed on eBay and all the other big boat/trading online sites (B&O, Apollo Duck etc).

If going down the eBay route look for the classified ads and contact the seller direct to barter a deal for cash face to face (first viewing the boat, testing engine and authenticating the deal goes without saying).

I and many others on here have bought quite a few outfits like this over the years and you can often end up with a near mint mid 2000's engine for the equivalent of say £500/600 - less than half it's standalone value.

[Yabadabadoo]

Thanks Max, unfortunately I've bought the sib already (3.2 honwave £600 Inc 4 lifejackets and bravo, no repairs/clean) and don't have £2000 to spend on an outfit to sell the don't needs from. I can certainly see the method in it

I did see the evinrude but don't hear them talked about much? Tohatsu/Mariner/Yamaha being the main manufacturers mentioned

[Max...]

Originally Posted by Yabadabadoo

Thanks Max, unfortunately I've bought the sib already (3.2 honwave £600 Inc 4 lifejackets and bravo, no repairs/clean) and don't have £2000 to spend on an outfit to sell the don't needs from. I can certainly see the method in it

I did see the evinrude but don't hear them talked about much? Tohatsu/Mariner/Yamaha being the main manufacturers mentioned

Understood, best advice is to look in as many places as possible not just eBay, all the numerous online boaty outlets + local ads, boat yards, Gumtree, Friday Ads etc - lots of engines about and perhaps quite a few non-enthusiasts who don't know the real market value of a clean, late 15hp big name (Mercury/Mariner, Tohatsu, Suzuki, Yamaha, Johnson/Evinrude etc) 2 stroke.

Whatever you look at, never buy blind or hand over any cash or online 'deposit' until you have seen it running, verified the seller and pay on collection.

[Pikey Dave]

I think Steco had a tidy twatsoo 9.9 with the 15hp upgrade for sale recently


.....sh1t happens.......

[9D280]

As someone who has a fleet of museum pieces, if you can possibly see it running (better still - on the boat) will be worth it's weight in gold.

The other thing is tatty case only means it's seen the elements. I have a '72 Johnson which is so battered the bottom half of the cowl is broken and held in place by a couple of bits of aluminium (although about to be fixed as I have found someone breaking one! ) I trried selling it - even at £50 nobody wanted it, but it starts & runs second or third pull, even on fuel that has been lying for a year!


I would ask - how confident are you at repairs? Let me put this into perspective:
I have had 2 engines properly die on me:
- the 60 on the rib (bought for £200 untested but seen idling on muffs, shame I forgot to check the spark advance as the piston collided with the exhaust port... and a wee 4Hp aux, bought told it was running for about £50 and it ran reasonably well until i accidentally got it slightly upside down, trapped aater for mthe exhaust got into the wrong bit of the powerhead and it siezed.

The 60 I then spent around another £800 totally rebuilding. OK, I paid what I would for another unknown used engine overall, but now have a "new" engine of known history.

The 4 I abandoned as the cost of a rebore would totally eclipse that of a replacement, and having had 4 years use out of it I reckoned £12.50 / yr rental wasn't a bad price!




Admittedly that is no help with choosing between your engines, but other things that make 2- stokes run like cr@p are knackered HT leads and blocked carb jets. Both are fixable at relatively low cost. Also have a look at the props / skegs etc - signs of being repeatedly grounded / smacked into rocks etc might imply the previous owner wasn't as careful as they might have been......


Hopefully this has given you a view from the "museum" end of ribnet.

[Landlockedpirate]

I've had a couple of Evinrude/Johnson 15hp's (bought as part of packages that I wanted bits of). I've always had Yamaha's and Mercury/Mariners before these and had avoided pretty much everything else. Evinrudes and Johnsons have got bad press ever since the Ficht problems and I think this has rubbed off on all the engines, regardless of size or Tech.

They were both really nice engines, quiet and easy to start, they were also lighter than either the Yam or Mariner (about 35kg). Gear shift worked well on the tiller and they were well balanced for carrying. They both sold in under 24hrs for very good money, I would buy another without hesitation.

[Max...]

Very attractive engines too.

[Nightfisher]

I use a Merc 9.9, 2004. But Yamaha is rapidly becoming known for it's reliability. Good Luck