98 basscat

[bagofdonuts]

Im looking seriously at a 98 bass cat 19ft panterra. It has a 200hp mercury efi engine with only 150hrs on it. Anyone have any experience with that engine good or bad? I plan to have the compression tested. The rest of the boat looks great, new updated electronics, carpet and seats all look good. Price is right at the average NADA retail. Everything seems to be in good working order. I'd appreciate any tips on what to look out for. Thanks.

[fishnkamp]

Back in 1998 I purchased a brand new ProCraft fish and ski with a Mercury 200 EFI. I ran that boat for over 10 years. That engine was great.  Extremely reliable and it provided a terrific hole shot.  Back then the Opti were known as Opti Pop and in my opinion they still are!!! The low end is really good on the EFI motors and the power response was immediate. The only thing I did to that motor was use the Mercury TCW3 oil, change the plugs every other year and replace the water  pump impeller every other year.  Once I had to replace the diaphragm in the fuel lift pump ( installed a complete kit) but that was do to the Oxygenated fuel MD. forced us to use.  That motor was fantastic. 

[GetJigginWithIt]

Check the transom completely. Raise the motor up a bit and put your weight on it. If there is any flex in the transom, walk away. If there is anyway to see into the hull, make sure foam is not water soaked. Crawl underneath and look for hull repair and see if you can take it to a dealer for a complete check over. It will cost for the check but may save you money.

[bagofdonuts]

Thanks for the tips. I have heard that the injection 2 strokes were good motors but never owned one. It's located in an area with lots of lakes so finding a dealer to check it out shouldnt be a problem. I'm a bit curious as to why a guy would put $1,500 worth of new lowrance electronics on it, then buy a new boat.

[fishnkamp]

First an EFI motor means it is not direct injected but rather throttle body and it works great.  As for putting the money into electronics, he probably did not intend to sell this boat when he upgraded the electronics.  Or one unit may have gone bad.  I had a Hummingbird unit fail to communicate with its internal gps antenna, had to send it back and pay $250 just to get something that worked. After that i sold the brand new unit the sent me and put on a bigger unit from another manufacturer. I did not trust the HB again. Most likely he wanted better gps mapping.  His "new" boat may have had better electronics on it so he did not wish to move his new units over.