Was able to a few articles on this motor. For what I know about these motors it' a hit or mis kind of deal with the 200's and 225's..But lower compression after a motor has been sitting awhile is some what the norm but you should put about a teaspoon of oil in each cylinder and turn the motor over a few times then see if she will fire of course hook up the water hose.Let it run for 15 minutes shut it down then test ,Test again after it cools down as well..Let us know what the readings are...Good Luck
According to an article in the November issue of Motorboating, page 22 Mercury OptiMax 3-liter outboards (200 and 225-hp) are being recalled in an effort to stop plug fouling that occurs when trolling. Reasons cited were small variations in tolerance among spark plugs, thermostats and the ECM. A service advisory has been advised to replace the thermostat, fuel rail and reprogram the ECM. rob
10/12/01 2:36:00 PM Ancient Mariner (204.2.54.49) from TEXAS says Opti's
They had a fuel injector problem due to a supplier not following specs. Blown powerheads. Know a man who got the retrofit. His sister is a Bass guide and tournament fisherwoman and sponsored by Mercury and she experienced a blown powerhead. He had run his about 2 or 3 hours when she called him and told him not to even start the motor until he had the replacement parts. He did this and now has a whole bunch of trouble-free hours. Ron Gehrke at Cy-Fair Marine near Houston handled it for her. Hope this info helps. Only the big blocks were affected. I have a 150 and its fine. Tom
Incidentally, he replaced a Yamaha 225 and described the new motor as "powerful", "awesome" and, "doesn't burn any gas".
10/12/01 11:38:00 PM Nasty (47.234.0.51) from NORTH CAROLINA says 2001 Opti's
My 2001 225 opti's were recalled. They installed a new fuel rail, injectors and ecm. Merc said the had problems with about 800 of the 10,000 sold, but they are doing the recall on all of the 2001. The 1999-2000 did not have the problem. Merc is giving me an additional 2 yrs on the warrenty from the date of the retrofit. BTW the installed new plugs, 12 of them. The Bosch plugs are not cheep.
10/15/01 9:34:00 AM Sixer (155.91.6.71) from NEW JERSEY says My understanding....
is the problems were with the 2000 and up 200 and 225's using the digital systems. Earlier engines were not affected by this recall.
If you can take the boat to a shop and have them plug it in to see the real hours and max rpm's would be your safest bet. If all checks out 3000 not that bad....
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