Evinrude motor

[JeffD]

I'm looking at a '98 Ranger svs. It has a '98 Evinrude Vindicator 200hp. Does anyone have any info on the motor. I've seen here that there are some Evinrudes to stay away from. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Catt]

Spend a little time nosing around on this site.

 

https://www.iboats.com/

[WIGuide]

The Evinrudes to stay away from were the Ficht motors under the OMC parent company. The Vindicator was still a carbed motor and wouldn't scare me away. 

[BrandonK105]

Unless your gonna work on it yourself, it depends on where you live as well if it would be a good purchase. I live in East Tennessee and an Evinrude motor is kind of a no-no. Parts may be hard to come by in your area, as they are here. 

[JeffD]

I just found out, the guy is telling me the trailer brakes aren't working. He says they just need to be bled. Does that make sense. I've never had a trailer with brakes.

[MN Fisher]

Just like brakes on a car/truck. If air-bubbles get into the brake line, the hydraulics of the brake system get 'mushy' and don't work right. Bleeding the lines remove the air-bubbles.

 

Might want to find out why there's air-bubbles in the lines - could be a leak or punctured hose.

 

If the lines check out, then just bleed the lines like you'd bleed car brake lines.

[JeffD]

Can they be disconnected?

[MN Fisher]

If the trailer has brakes, it's for a good reason and I wouldn't want to tow that rig without working brakes on the trailer despite my 'heavy hauling' Silverado.

[JeffD]

Thanks for the help

[JeffD]

I have another guy that's selling an '05 Evinrude Etec

200HP. He said he had a compression check and all cylinders have tested at

90 lbs. I've heard that they are supposed to be within 10% of each other, but does 90 seem low?

[senile1]

Ninety sounds low to me, but I have read of older motors running that low as long as all the cylinders were similar; however, I suspect those motors were not designed to run at relatively high compression ratios.  You should do some research on the motors you are looking at and find what the expected compression of each is when new. 

 

On 5/14/2020 at 6:55 AM, WIGuide said:

The Evinrudes to stay away from were the Ficht motors under the OMC parent company. The Vindicator was still a carbed motor and wouldn't scare me away. 

While I agree that  Ficht motors had issues, there were recall fixes, and if you do your homework you may find a really good motor for a low price.  Then again, you may not want to spend the time on it.  I bought my 2000 boat and motor used at the end of 2007 and it still runs great.  If you find one of these with the recall work done you can get a good motor, and since they had problems the resale value will probably be lower giving you a better price.  The quote below is from a post I made in 2009 about the Fichts with the small injector flange bolts that had to be recalled.  (The original bolts mentioned may have been 3/8ths rather than the 1/4 I stated in the post, but the 1/2 inch are the recall items.  I think there were also a couple of minor recalls around 2003 - 2004 for bolts that were too long, but those were related to Ficht motors other than the one I own.)

 

Quote

I bought a Stratos with a 200 HP Ficht three years ago and it runs like a champ; however, I did my homework before I bought it. I did plenty of research and discovered the recall work for my motor was a replacement of the injector flange and hold down bolts. If the motor has the 1/2 inch bolts rather than the 1/4 inch bolts the recall work was done. Make sure the engine is propped to run at 5800 - 6000 rpm and make sure the owner is running Evinrude XD-50 synthetic oil and using the recommended spark plugs for the motor. Have the motor checked out by a reliable mechanic before you buy it and make sure he/she performs a compression check on the motor. The extra $125 - 200 bucks for the check-up is worth it. (I would do this anytime a used boat and motor is purchased.)

There were some Fichts that had major head problems and I believe those were the 1998 - 1999 150 HP and 175 HP motors. They may require more work than the 200 HP motor that I have. Below is one of the links I read before I bought my motor. There were others but I can't find them at the moment.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=79617