???? evinrude HO ????

[northgabassfisher]

im looking at buying a 04 ranger 520 with a evinrude HO 225. Ive herd these motor have a lot of torque even to much torque it is destroying the lower unit. but i just wanted to see if any one has this motor and if they like it pros/cons thanks

[R520dvx]

I have that exact combination. I believe they got that lower unit thing under control. I have not had any trouble with mine. I run it pretty hard too. The power is great ... pushes that 520 pretty well. The Mercs and Yammies of that year can't even come close. Engine starts well, is quiet, smooth, and easy on gas. I've never been sorry .... I don't think you will either.

[youngbassman]

Love the boat and motor have the same set up. Gets us to around 73 to 74. Cant figure out why it takes a while to start but we will find out. We have almost 700 hours on it. Bought it with 10 hours as a demo boat. Love it and yeah it has a lot of torque.

[Way2slow]

I think what you are hearing about is the early, Lightning gear case. This was their smallest, fastest gear case used on the HO motors. Their were more failures with the early lightnings than others but a lot of those were on modified motors putting out much more than their rated HP. I was thinking by 2004 they had made some changes that increased the reliability. I'm running the Lightning case of my 1999 225 Ficht for almost 700 hours and it's still going strong. A friend had one one his 225 HO explode with less than 200 hours, but he was running 290 hp.

I've been out of the high performance game for a few years so you might want to check a few other sights. A lot of the guys on Scream and Fly have run these, but again, most of these are on modified motors. A couple of the other bass boat sights might be able to give you more info.

You might also want to do a search on the Lightning Gearcase and see what you can come up with.