I found a 200hp e-tec is it worth it?

[taqwache]

Lumber, nice boat you go there.

Well I'm still undecided but I do plan on going off shore with it once I feel that it is reliable enough. Anyways, here is another question. If I were to go with an older carbed motor, say early 2000s maybe late 1990s, witch brand should I be looking at? Yamaha, Mercury, Johnson, etc. I know everyone has there favorite brands but which one is cheaper to fix and has a good reputation for being reliable? I don't want anything less then 175hp by the way.

[THEFERMANATOR]

All of them are pretty good really, and they all have weakness's. When it all boils down though, you can't beat the carbed 200/225 JOHNSON and EVINRUDES for reliability, milage, and cost of repairs. Anybody can argue this all you want, but with as much of a spread of parts interchange that there is on them. Getting parts is pretty easy, and used parts are plentiful. The 150/175 YAMAHA is one SWEET engine as well, and tough as nails. One repair though and you could be cryin the blues for awhile. MERCURY is also good, but I always felt there 150-200 2.5L engines were REALLY thirsty as I had a 150 EFI and it burned as much fuel as my 225 does at cruise, and close to it at WOT. Also MERC's parts do run a bit higher in some cases. SUZUKI made a good engine as well, but the 150-225 were all based off of the same engine, and there castings are more so prone to corrosion problems. They do get good milage for a 2 stroke, but parts are harder to come by and more money.

[macojoe]

agreed, but the 175 2.4 merc i have is real good on gas, and it pushes my 23 sea ox to 30 knots!! thats a 3000 pound hull, add 100 gal gas and three guys and motor
i am not a merc guy but this motor is a good one!

[Genie Aye]

If you are going to put that 200 on your 78--you best beef up the transom. I have a 88 V-20 with the heavier 200HO and have now issues except I did have to put scupper covers over my rear scuppers in the transom--in off shore conditions it was bringing in to much water in reverse--so the covers worked great for me. The side scuppers are okay,,, the regular 200 probabley would have worked fine--but I wanted to be at the bottom of the HP range for the block used in the motor. If the motor comes with everything including the multifunction tach with all the gauges on it then that is not a bad price--you can probabley find a motor for less--offer less and see what they say--maybe 5900. As for letting them sit for awhile between usage--no problem for me so far--just use seafoam in your fuel to stabilize it and do not be afraid to use the winterization system as often as you want in between usage--only takes about 3 minutes to winterize.
Good luck with your choice.

[taqwache]

Well which ever motor I go with, I'm definitely going to beef up the transom. As for the winterization, I'll pretty much run this boat all winter long down here so I don't think I have to worry about that. By the way, how fast can you get with that 200HO on there?

[Genie Aye]

With 3 people and the top up--52.3--with the same load with top down--53.4. GPS

Faster than I want to most of the time--but cruises easy at 40 to 42 with a load and real easy at 35.

[bgreene]

That's fast. Got a 2005 Evinrude 200 DFI on mine - the model after Bombardier bought and cleaned up the issues. Real nice running strong engine, and good fuel economy on my Mako.