Early 80's 25hp evinrude good decsion?

[Swampfox88]

I am looking to barter for a early 80s evinrude, do these seem to be troublesome motors. Would like to hear some experiences from other owners.

The motor is tiller steer 2 stroke 25hp

I will have to make it work on my transom, as it was not made for a motor with the two bottom bolts.

Here is a pic

 

[muskiemike12]

What do you mean when you say, "I will have to make it work on my transom, as it was not made for a motor with the two bottom bolts."

If the motor bolts through the transom, that is nothing out of the ordinary. Neither is having to drill holes in the transom to bolt the motor on.

 

[Swampfox88]

muskiemike12 » 44 minutes ago[/url]"]What do you mean when you say, "I will have to make it work on my transom, as it was not made for a motor with the two bottom bolts."

If the motor bolts through the transom, that is nothing out of the ordinary. Neither is having to drill holes in the transom to bolt the motor on.

My transom is about 6 inch thick there is foam in between the space in the picture so I will need bolts about 6 inchs is that normal?

I don't have any good pics to show you or explain, im stuck at work missing out an offshore fishing trip today, sucks sometimes working for family.

 

[Whoopbass]

Excellent outboards. The best you can get.
I used and abused one for 10-15 years and it never broke down.

 

[Swampfox88]

He said he had the title yesterday, no title today. Its getting frustrating trying to find a decent used motor, any suggestions on places to look besides craigslist?

 

[shawnfish]

first off they are excellent motors, some of the best OMC's ever made in my opinion. but if it has not been taken care of and normal maintenance ignored it could be a bad motor just like any other brand out there, having said that I know of a few that had nothing but plugs and lower unit lube changed and they still run great. best advice of mine would be to go see it start and run and if it starts easy and idles good without dying I would pull the skeg off and check the gears to see if they are not rounded and to see if theres water in the oil. if the gears are not rounded then your in good shape, if theres a lil water in the oil its not a big deal just means the skeg seal or prop shaft seal needs replaced and both are very cheap and easy to fix. I have a 1980 Johnson 25hp(Johnson and evinrude are the exact same motors) that until last year had only had the lower unit oil and plugs changed every year and never had any problems with it, when I changed the water pump housing and impeller last year it showed some wear but was still in good shape for being 30+ yrs old. so again I will tell you they are very good motors and built like tanks and are very owner friendly when they do need a new part if ur mechanically inclined and have a service manual. one more thing...look at how many threads there are for Johnson/evinrude compared to other makes, some may think its cuz they break down a lot but that's not the case, its because there are so many of them still running and that tells ya they are good motors.

 

[Swampfox88]

here is a video of the motor, should it be smoking this much?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aGjbjR6yow&feature=youtu.be

 

[JMichael]

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the smoke as they always seem like they are smoking a lot when in a barrel and no wind. But I didn't see any water from a tell tale hole and it doesn't sound like it idles very well.

 

[muskiemike12]

The smoke should not be an issue. Could be from cheap oil or old gas, maybe both. Hard to tell if the water pump is working from that awful redneck video. :roll: Even if there is no water coming from the tell tale there should be water coming from the upper exhaust port.

 

[shawnfish]

hard to see but I saw it pissin water, as for the smoke it may have been flooded a little and the video is only 20 seconds long and you may be seeing oil burning off from it being flooded. it may be a hard starter and he may have been trying before he started the video where he got it running. if the video was longer I would think it would have stopped smoking. but like said above he may have had a very rich fuel/oil mix wich may have been the case. and remember a motor running in a barrel will always run different than it will when its on a boat in the lake, I cant tell you why they do but they do and ive seen it a hundred times where it runs good/bad in the barrel and the opposite on the water...if you can see it idle for 5 minutes and hold your hand on the block for 5-6 seconds without melting ur hand the pump/impeller is fine and the motor should be sound for the most part.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Check the compression on the motor.