2000 Optimax 225Hp Question

[BrianinMD]

Okay, have to admit I am a little terrified I am in a bad place.

I have a 2000 Optimax 225, it was idling rough so I took it in for general maintenance. Had the spark plugs changed, filters changed the mechanic checked the coils were not having issues. So I take it out yesterday and it was idling rougher and kept shutting off. The mechanic did a compression check and found that while each cylinder was close to the same compression the numbers were down around 80. I am not mechanically inclined at all and afraid I am stuck in a place which is going to cost me a ton of money. Is there any basic checks I could do, or at least have someone who is mechanically inclined help me check. I know the mechanic is going to suggest a bunch of expensive fixes, but I know different motors have their own nuances so asking if anyone has any thoughts.

[freebie]

if your compression is at 80 then you have serious problems. those motors don't run well under 110 per cylinder. If this were at my shop the next step would be to tear it down and figure out what happened.

[BrianinMD]

If that is the case, any thoughts on how much the repair could run?

[slonezp]

I'm not understanding why the mechanic didn't go into a thourough diagnosis once he checked the compression.

[zip pow]

About $2500 oversized pistons and boring the block

[freebie]

I would makes sure that whoever is going to rebuild it can tell you why it blew up before having them do any work. same goes for a replacement powerhead. finding out the cause should be the first course of action. you also need to condider that it is a 10+ yr old motor. weigh that cost against replacing with a newer model. those early opti's were problematic.

[Way2slow]

First off, I would get a second opinion when it comes to something that major. Very well could have just been his compression guage, they do go bad. I rebuilt the engine in an old toyota truck with 260K miles because it had been running bad for a couple of weeks and skipping when I first started in. I came home for lunch one day, it was still skipping on #4 cylinder when I got to the house, so I checked the compression on #4 right quick, It had 85 pounds. That weekend I pulled the engine, rebuilt it and had it running the following weekend. I drove it for a week and did a full compression test on it, just to see how they looked. It had 85 pounds on all four cylinders. Got another guage and it had 160# on all four. I didn't feel too bad about it, because I had already planned to build it since it had 260K miles, and already had all the parts, just kinda stupid for jumping into it like I did because of a bad guage.

As for your Opti-Pop, you are probably going to have a hard time getting a remain'd powerhead installed for less than $4,500. You are also opening yourself up for a royal sc****** if you pay someone to "rebuild" yours. If it even needs rebuilt. You might want to go over the Scream and Fly and ask those guys about your problems. You probably have the best collection of Mercury guru's on the planet there. http://www.screamand...ical-Discussion.

Most reputable dealers don't rebuild them, they replace them with remaned powerheads. They get a warrenty with it and it takes too much time to rebuild yours. You average Joe Blow mechanic will "rebuild" one but you only have his word on what he actually did, and I've seen too many times where that was only a set of rings, a few gaskets and one outrageous bill, for nothing. There's a whole bunch of things I would be checking before even thinking the powerhead was bad. Those things don't have the most reliable ECM's in the world.

[marinetech]

time to look for a new outboard. up here those engines are known as opti bombs. as way2slow mentioned they do have ecm issues. I would recheck the compression and make sure it is done correctly , there is a right way and wrong way. at 80 psi it should be really hard starting cold.

[BrianinMD]

Well time for a new motor, the issue with not idling/running well the last time turned out to be the diaphragms in the fuel rail had gone bad and had holes. This was allowing fuel to enter the air side before it should so it was running extremely rich. In addition the ECU was starting to act up so it was soon to be replaced. After all this I would still have a 12 year old motor with compression issues.

Decided to replace the engine with a newer model 225hp Mercury which has been refurbed by Mercury. More money up front but at least everything will be new and fresh. No I really don't have the money at this time but not much of a choice in the matter.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on getting things working.

[Way2slow]

B = Break

O = Out

A = Another

T = Thousand.

The bigger the boat, the bigger the hole it makes in the water for you to throw more money in.