I think the 9.9 and 15 OMC were iconic motors. Power to weight was crazy as well as reliability.

I got a E25RCR 1984. This 25hp has a ton of power to be 40 years old. It starts first pull majority of the time. Super simple system to maintain.

Always enjoy your insight! Keeper up

When asked recently about the demise of Evinrude, Fred Kiekhaefer said that he sat down with Mercury and Brunswick executives in the early '90's and convinced them that they HAD to pursue four stroke technology. There were practical engineering limits for two stroke technology in terms of emissions and engine durability. Mercury had to buy their early 4 stroke powerheads (1994) from Yamaha, they continue to buy very small outboard powerheads from Tohatsu - but they kept at it and continually refined and updated their in house 4 stroke design and engineering validation to the point where it is today. And right now, Mercury sells more 4 stroke outboards worldwide than Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki. And the four stroke outboards that Mercury builds right now are very good. Brunswick Corp has annual revenues over $4B and Mercury Marine is by far their biggest money maker.

I ran a 1976 Evinrude 25hp 2 stroke outboard for 25 years. Never had a issue with it. I repowered this year with a 20hp Suzuki DF20A 4 stroke EFI outboard. I didn't mean for Evinrude to throw in the towel! Damn it!

Suzuki vs Honda and now that Evinride is out of the picture for new engines where do you see things going for the other brands in regards to powering bass boats

1996 225 MERCURY OFFSHORE EFI 1996 250 MARINER OFFSHORE EFI AWESOME AS HELL 😎❤️🇺🇸

I have a 1995 150 evinrude intruder on my stratos. Love that 2 stroke!

1st Id like to say I really like this channel!! I have currently an 84 25hp tiller Evi, a 78 15hp tiller Evi, and a 2012 Yammy 4hp tiller. Honestly, they all run so damn good, no reason to replace them. I live in Wis, and darn near every weekend I was headed up for the weekend with my folks, and even as a kid I was, and still am a gearhead. Anything with an engine I was watching. I can remember going by campgrounds or resorts and seeing the countless Mercs and Mariners just layin on the start keys. I never saw any in tow, but I remember Dad sayin a few times to my Mom as we went by, thats why I didn't buy a Merc. Dad had 3 boats in my lifetime, a 78 25hp Johnny, a 83 35hp Evi, and a 86 40hp Evi, all from new and he never did anything to any of them EVER except for plug maintenance 1nce a year, not even a waterpump. I have owned a couple of Mercs myself, a 79 115hp and it hauled the mail along with the gas tank, but always ran good. I got rid of it because of no internet and local parts availability. I also owned a 7.5hp, biggest peice of dung ever. More probelms than Richard Nixon. Ahh yes, the good ol days, and no, I wont part with my OMC's. If I had to buy new now in a small motor, it either be a Tohatsu a Zuki, or a Nissan. For a larger motor it would be a Yamma-hammer!!

Had a cham super V 1985 with a 2.4 200 Merc 26 mod chopper mods done by John Hesse, consistent 75 to 80 dependent on humidity, loved that boat

I have a 97 9.9 Evinrude omc on my Lowe roughkneck and I remember them having to put a new power pack on it and the motor had maybe 3 hours tops before I bought it . This is the question I am left with on my throttle lever I have tilt and trim switch I do not have tilt and trim on my motor . I want tilt and trim how much would a whole tilt and trim set up cost ? I know it's a small motor but I can't get the right performance from it

I have a 1996 Merc 60hp 2-stroke on my boat. Still runs very well and pushes my tin rig pretty good. Anything I need to look out for from that era?

I have a '87 Mariner 115hp, what are your thoughts on it? What can I expect with/from it?

The Intruder was introduced in 1991. The larger V6 closed decks were introduced in 1993.

A friend of mine has a 92 stratus with the 150 Johnson fast strike all original power head and lower unit 120psi on all cylinders and it runs just as strong now as 25 years ago and the boat gets used couple times a week.

In other words i would like yall to explain why that omcs last attempt to compete with Mercurys efi technology and optimax failed with the ficht high horse power engines the design philosophy was good but was it because of omc rushing production and using lowest bidder plastic parts because of the pressure they were under , fail the ficht motor or if it was designed better do you think omc could have saved themselves from catastrophic failures that led to there bankruptcy with an awesome engine that performed and lasted as long as an optimax?

Hi Andy, I'm glad I found you. Over the past couple of years, I have been rebuilding, upgrading a 1990 Lund 16' Rebel, Mr. Pike. We have up graded the front casting platform and replaced the main floor, added a rear casting deck, The boat came with a 89 Johnson 25 remote, the boat is rated up to 75 HP. We purchased a 1990 Johnson 50 HP from a pontoon boat, it has good compression 125 psi in each cylinder. It was missing the hydraulic assist, So I was able to upgrade that to power trim. We installed the 50 this year and boy, it woke this boat up.Great running outboard, P.S, I also deleted the VRO and run premix.

1981 Mercury 175 still running fairly strong. Pushes my 375v Ranger to 58 with pretty good holeshot. Carbs do leak some and need to be rebuilt as they load up but hey she still running.

My 1993 Astro 20FDX still has the original mercury 200 efi on it. Still all in showroom condition. My shop advised me to go to premix on it despite the oil pump working perfectly. Do you think these early 90s Mercury’s should be on premix or no? Heard a lot about pump failures back then, just wanted to get your .02 cents

I would really like Team Marine to talk about the failed ficht motor amd the history of omc selling off to bombardier

I know the old merc tinheads are a pain in the ass to work on, but god damn do I love the old 115 inline 6s. I have a classic glastron with one on it as a secondary boat and it's just so cool looking + sounding.

Can you guys do a video on Evinrude going out of production?

I'd like to see a good, bad, and ugly on the Merc 115 2+2. I like revisiting some of the older motors and from what I understand, that 115 was a pretty good design. Also it was designed with Walley anglers in mind and with you being in Wisconsin, did you see a lot of them, what was the overall reliability, did it meet consumer needs or did they go with an OMC 115 V4?

What’s your opinion on the mercury 2.5 EFI

Andy we were selling heaps of the Mariner Mag EFI Engines on Charger boats aswell as A lot of re-powers before Mercury Marine made me a Merc only dealer and took my beloved Mariners away,lol.the mid thru late 90's was a great time to be in the boat biz, We eventually sold our shop,lock,stock and Barrel around 2004 so I was able to go to service school for the opti stuff and we had good luck with the engines we sold.I think your going to do well with suzuki,I came from a suzuki dealer before opening my own shop and the Japanese product is very good,hope u guys sell a bunch.....

Do a piece on the Intruder alone. How OMC got in trouble with HP ratings and had to call them back. I have a 1991 150 and it runs 65 on a 20ft ski boat.

1989 Mercury Blackmax xr2 150 and 1994 Mercury Blackmax 175 are what I currently have. I have a few friends with Fast Strike 175 on Javelin and Stratos and I had an 1991 OMC on Stratos years ago. I prefer the merc but couldn’t tell you why.

I had an xr6 pretty good motor.

I would like to here your opinion on new yamaha engine now. Small and big horse power..

I run a 97 Evinrude Intruder 150 on the back of a 91 champion 184... rides and fishes great!!! Motor is still strong and sounds mean

Im running a 90 stratos 285 pro with a johnson 175 gt hanging off the back.

I loved the 115 fast strike I had on my Bumble bee. It really used the fuel but was bullet proof.

I’m new to boats but I’m running a strong and healthy 1995 omc 90hp, V4. Any advice? It’s been great on the 3 times I’ve run it.

How do you feel the market will play out? Will Suzuki fill the Evinrude void? I worry fewer big players will stunt innovation.

I had a 1989 evinrude 50hp that was absolutely bulletproof. I never had to do a single thing to that motor the entire time i owned it. My dad has a 1995 faststrike 150 that he still owns today that has never had a single issue with until this year. The lower unit just gave out. Its loud and its smoky but its also bulletproof. When BRP took over i knew it was the end for Johnson/evinrude and here we are years later and they are gone.

I have a 99 150 Opti on my Ranger it's been a great motor with very few problems nothing ever major and more trips on Lake Erie than I can count

Evinrude was good at parts availability compared to others . I work on outboards and parts availability is a big factor when I choose a motor. I hated to see them go. I own a 1994 stratos with a modified 150 intruder . I also have a set of the hot heads from the 1991 intruders and fastrike engines. Bass&walleye boats magazine had a good article on them back in the days.

I had a XP on a 88’ Champ, it was an absolute beast….miss ole Smokey!

I got a 1989 Johnson 70 hp it a great motor when you can get the damn thing to idle lol thinking about a new etech or a Suzuki to repower what would you recommend

Actually evinride was to the direct injection scene before mercury and that started in 97. The Ficht technology was amazing BUT the quality control is what killed the Ficht engines. Can't forget the early Opti pop engines. They all had growing pains in the early direct injection engines just Mercury had better quality control on parts and in the end they got the nod fir reliability.

First off I enjoy your channel. Mercury came out with the first EFI motors in 1988. It was a 220 Laser. Then you started seeing the EFI technology on the smaller horsepower mercs down to 150hp a couple of years later. IN 1985 I think because of Yamaha (They did it first) we went to rating HP at the prop. The mercury Bridgeport racing engine were carberated in the 80's and early 90's. Then mercury racing started offering through select dealers the EFI mercury promax to the general public. That's when the technology was better than OMC. THink that was around 94 0r 95. I ran a merc promax on my jet boat 1500 hours without even an electrical failure for 11 years before I wrecked the boat. But my other bass boat I was running OMC's on Javelins and Stratos and was destroying powerheads . Years later talking with a OMC tech I he told me that the props the boats were packaged with were too much pitch for the motor at mid range was struggling to hard to turn the prop. But the first optimax I had was not until about 2000 and they had tons of issues. Though I am not a mechanic but a consumer this is what I remember. MY Uncle Carl Heuiser started in the marine buissness in 1973 and he sold Chryslers, Evinrude and Mercs mostly on bassoats in southeast Missouri. MY family has been overpowering our own bassboats for years. Dad had a 235hp Evinrude on 1600V Basscat in the late 70's.

Were the late 90's early 2000 Mercury EFI motors any good?

What about suzuki and yamaha in the 2000's or yamaha mercury

do a complete rebuild of a 140 merc inline 6 and a 140 v4 johnson and tell me which is better. omc best hands down!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a merc 150 mag 3, it was easy on oil, and what a beast was fast as hell. Didn’t want to idle for shit after a bit of idling without loading up. It was 63-64 mph on my 18’ fisher fish n ski. It liked gas. 99 I went to 150 opti wow fuel economy was great and oil. But dropped to 55 mph on same boat. Was disappointing but only reason I didn’t go get my old motor back was the idle and economy about doubled. Sold the opti. Boat Sat along time. Came across 175 Ficht. Fuel economy was better than the opti. Pretty easy on oil (probably got lucky on that must’ve got a good one) didn’t fiddle with props to see how fast it was but idled great was turn key every year for 7 years. Then I believe an injector went bad. 1 injector went bad found one that wasn’t in spec. Powerhead is still good. But can’t get it to idle for shit. Treated me great and if I could get a different set of injectors and if I could get data loaded I would’ve. Heard talk you needed certain sn injector, can believe you have to do that. Though should be able to get a match set load injector dada and go. But couldn’t get a solid answer from anyone so…..went to a 2005 opti 175 with 200 hours for 5k.So will know how it runs next season didn’t get to try it out this season. Have high hopes. Got alum 14.5 x 19 pitch 3 blade for testing and alum 14 x 19 pitch 4 blade before I spend the cash on SS prop.

Whatever happened with the Champion restoration?

I had a Mariner Mag III 150 on my Champion and loved it. Had a Lazer Prop fail and break apart wrecking the crank. Merc took that motor and rebuilt it and punched it out. Sounded like a big block Chevy and rocked the boat at idle. But with some Jack plate tweaking and scuffing the pad and working a 23p Lazer prop that Champ would run 76mph. I dont think people scuff pads anymore afraid the scratch their pretty boats. But in the 90s we would do everything to sneak as much speed as we could. I would fly past Rangers that had 200hp engines and they would get upset. Between the Champion hull and some mods we would fly and be stabil. I ran the nose of the lower unit between 1/8 and 1/4 below pad with the Jackplate. Haulin A$$!

Had a 1996 evinrude 150 ocean runner had nothing but problems with it power pack problems carb issues i than bought a 2005 mercury optimax 200 was a great engine olney problem was a air compressor going out i now just bought a 225 mercury v6 4 stroke just got it hope it is as reliable as the old optimax was.

i have owned a lot of 80s / 90s omc and mercury engines. my personal experience, 80s / 90s omc engines. Never had much problems with them. They where good reliable engines. With the mercurys from that time. Ive had more problems. Switchboxes, coils and wiring werend that great. 1999 was the worst year for omc in there history. The ficht definitely killed them. Its a shame that brp stop the production to. The brand name evinrude was always my favorite in outboards. My dad owned a old 1984 35hp evinrude, which he bought new at the time, That motor had been under whater for about 15 times. They always where to late with pulling the boat out. They never changed a impellor, or gear oil and spark plugs. He owned till 2015 and it still ran. always one or two ropes and it started, That thing was indestructible.

Omc had the best outboards back in the day

In the 50s, 60s, Mercury was years ahead of OMC. In 68 OMC introduced the loop charged 3 cylinder and in 69, threw out their entire V4 lineup and replaced it with a much improved design. Throughout the early 70s they were neck and neck. That changed in 75 when the V6s were introduced, Mercury had built an entirely new engine which served them well for a couple of Decades. OMC, only stuck 2 more cylinders on their V4s, and ended up with an uneven firing order. For the first half of the 80s, I think Mercury was still ahead, but in the 2nd half started to introducing newer engines that, I felt were weaker. In the late 90s, both introduced Direct injection. The 60 degree Loopers by OMC were great engines, as long as they were carbed. My experience with outboards ended in 2002, when I switched to an I/O My family was OMC to the core. Uncle had an Evinrude, my dad had Evinrudes and Johnsons. My first boat had an 1982 Evinrude 140. My 2nd boat, same hull, had an 84 Mercury 115(I was almost burned alive). The Merc was faster, out of the hole, and at top speed, and did so on less gas. I had that boat/motor for 14 yrs when I traded it for one with a 1998 150 FICHT. While it ran good, it was always in the shop for updates, because of the Coking problems, eventually I received a 2001 powerhead under Warranty. As the Engine's Warranty was going to be up in a few months, I decided I wasn't going to gamble on that powerhead, where I would be paying if it again needed replacement. For less than the cost of a new Powerhead I traded it for the I/O which had warranty and it needed it. When the FICHT was being inspected on trade in, it had already had scuffed a piston in less than 50hrs on it. Didn't change the trade-in value as that had already be set, and it was still under warranty. I don't see many FICHT on the water 20 yrs later, and OMC went Tits Up

I have a 1988 OMC 4.3L V6 roller motor motor has been perfroming amazing since 88 never had any other issues but a new starter thats about it OMC for the win..

The Vindicator/Venom was OMC's high water mark in my opinion. Old technology, but built like a tank and much faster than anything on the water at that time. Oh, and OMC should have done whatever it took to keep Earl Bentz happy. I credit their downfall with them not listening to him.

Merc may have underrated the h.p. so they were faster

1988 mercury 175??

i think evenrude in 1991 150 xp run on high test and now on this fuel its junk 4- 6 gallon tanks to go up and down a 10 mile lake 4 times is not cheap today gas prices either

Despite owning two of them I have never been an omc fan. My first boat was a 72 evenrude that never wanted to idle or go into gear without dying. Been running a 99 johnson since it came off the showroom floor and its always beem lackluster. Guzzles gas for a 90hp and last couple of years its really suffered in performance. I'll never own another one and that in part is why I still have it. Everytime I find a used boat I like and can afford when I have the cash, its always has an omc hanging on the back so I pass

Bam... when you own transoms you sale motors by default.

New Yamaha vs Suzuki's

The 80s were merc....black max ruled.....why don't they put his image on mercs anymore? The 90s the merc efi kinda sucked.....and the omc eagle 150/175 kicked ass so did the 3 liter 200/225. Man they drank the gas but were tough as nails aside from power-packed and vro. 1999 the optimax is born and merc nails the door shut..... the early 1999/2000 optimax weren't great this where the optipop name was born. Merc figured it out, omc didn't with the ficht issues. The 225 promax is probably the best bass boat outboard ever made. Man they would scream. (I kind of regret pulling mine off my 21 stroker and going with a proxb 250. ) The efi 250proxb kicked ass as did the promax efi 225x and 300x motors. But the regular 2.5 liter efi weren't great on fuel nor were they power houses from what I remember.

how bout what happened to champion boats