Old or new outboard

[autocad]

Hi all, first post to the forum and it’s a long one:

Bought my first boat last spring, a 1975 O’Day 25. While taking delivery the outboard seized in the middle of the Milwaukee harbor. Needless to say the P.O. & I renegotiated the price while we drifted. Ended up sailing it in to my new/unfamiliar/unrigged slip (fun). So I ended up buying a new cheap Chinese made Coleman 4 stroke 5HP longshaft. Not a bad little motor, always starts, but a little underpowered. The old outboard is a 1991 Suzuki 9.9DT 2 stroke with an extra long shaft, big prop, forward controls, generator & elec start. None of which the Coleman has. I didn’t give up on the Suzuki though, emptied a can of PB-Blaster into the cylinders, then motor oil. Got it unseized & disconnected the oil injection system (which is probably why it failed). It fired right up with an oil/gas mix. Ran it for an hour in a trash can full of water with no problems. Checked the cylinder walls with a boroscope and could see no obvious signs of damage.

SO, my dilemma: Put the Suzuki or the Coleman back on the boat this spring? I’m on a shoestring budget so one of the outboards needs to be sold to keep the boat afloat, financially (sorry, pun). Safety & reliability take precedent over convenience, BUT those extra features on the Suzuki could be considered safety items as well.

Sorry for the long post & thanks in advance for any/all advice!

Kevin
Milwaukee, WI

 

[philwsailz]

Pre-mix the Suzuki and keep it. Sounds like you answered your own questions to me.

I loved my little Suzuki DT4. The last year I had it, I ran into cooling issues, but it turned out to be such a simple fix I was dubious. I rebuilt the water pump but it would still not pump. I wa sall throught he thing looking for blocked passages, etc. Turned out the upper pump housing seal was getting tired enough that exhaust pressure was blowing water out of the pump. The fix? Drill the exhause relief holes on the back of the leg out a little.... Seems it is a commmon issue and fix.

IF you can run the old Suzuki for an hour in a barrel, you can run it on your boat. GO for it and get rid of the lawnmower disguised as an outboard.

 

[Ward H]

I agree with Phil. Get the 9.9 running good and go with it. It has all the features you need for the 25 and more. Unless you are on flat water with no wind to push against, that 5hp will probably be light for the weight of the boat.
My 25 O'day came with a 9.9 Yamaha. I love the electric start and the extra long shaft keeps the prop in the water. At first I budgeted for a new OB since the 9.9 was a 2000 model but it runs so well I will keep it for some time.

 

[geehaw]

I would say the 5 horse is to small for the boat. However for me using a motor that had frozen up without having it looked at by a mechanic would be to scary. But where I sail sometimes have wind sometimes not and very seldom in the harbor is there any wind. Outboards have needle or ball bearings in them and lack of oil would damage these.

Oil pumps seldom go out and this lockup could have been something else. Not sure what that could be but could be a vapor lock, battery dead and you thought it was locked-up, or gearbox problem. When you had it in the barrel were you running it at cruising RPM's or just idling it? Just to scary for me. Greg

 

[anchorclanker]

Listen to Phil and all the others of us in agreement. Run the Suzuki. While they do have all those needle and roller bearings, thats not likley what siezed it and if it was you would know it after running it. If you dont see any trouble in the cylinders it could probably run a very long time.

And really, as a mechanic myself, what more would a mechainic need to look at? Would you expect a mechanic to completely dissemble the engine to find something wrong? Well, maybe the dumb ones would, or the ripoffs who would say they did and charge you for it. A bore inspection and test running it will indicate 99% of the time how useful the motor is. Vapor lock is a fuel issue and doesnt "lock up" a motor. It can sure quit, but it will still turn. Likely the engine suffered a loss of oil and seized. Another good possibility is the water pump stopped pumping. What happens is the piston gets to hot, and expands to where it becomes to large to be inside the cylinder, so it screeches to a halt. This is not unlike what often happens to two stroke air cooled dirt bikes that hit a big puddle of cold water. They can often stop right now. But they sit a few minutes, the cylinder warms back up, the piston cools back down, you kick it over and off you go again, often with zero damage to the piston or cylinder.

Phil is also correct about the oil. Pre mix the fuel 50:1 with quality 2 stroke oil and remove the oil injection system. When they work, they work well. When they stop working/run dry, they can totally destroy the engine. Oil pumps are NOTORIOUS for going out, all one need do is a Google search on the subject and realize the number of motors that have seized and/or been converted. Also, please put a label somewhere on the fuel tank to warn others to mix oil in the tank so as not to repeat the issue.