Replacing '93 Evinrude 90 hp

[WaterGal]

This is my first post here so hi everyone. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a new Mercury Big Foot 4S 50 hp for my 1993 24 ft Crest pontoon boat (refurbished 2012 - new seats, carpet, LED lights, gauges, etc). Total cost will be about $8,500. for motor, parts and labor switching controls to Mercury, prop and taxes. My other option is purchase a 2012 Performance Tri-Toon 24 ft Harris Flote Boat owned and used 2 seasons by a local Boat Club. It has a Mercury 4S 150 hp motor with about 475 hours. It has all the bells and whistles, snap-on cover, lifting strakes, in dash depth finder, hydraulic steering. It's in excellent condition. Asking price is $24,900.

I could probably sell my Crest and motor for 5-7K. It's in really good shape and only prob with motor is automatic trim isn't working. It just stopped last summer.

My main question is about the hours on the 150 hp Mercury motor. Is 475 hours high for a 2 year old motor? My research indicates that hour life before rebuild is about 2,000 hours but does that apply to the 4 strokes as well? I only put about 75 hours per season (max) on my motor so I guess that seems high to me. Also, how would you rate the Mercury 4S over Honda, Yamaha and others?

Although we live on a large lake, my husband isn't much into the whole boating/fishing thing, although my dog loves it! So it's just usually me, my dog and an occasional gal-pal enjoying the lake. I'd LIVE on the water if I could!

Any advice from you folks would be greatly appreciated.

 

[galamb]

The life of an outboard is dependent on a few factors -

how much are they run (a motor that sits idle/unused often dies quicker than one that is used all the time)

what is it's displacement relative to it's horsepower (if the horsepower is greater than the cubic inches it will die sooner due to stress on the parts, than one where the displacement exceeds the horsepower)

how well is it maintained - four strokes are really "sensitive" to being maintained - the chart in the owners manual actually needs to be followed or the motor will turn itself into a paperweight

In the case of the 4S 150 Merc, if it's not the Verado, but simply the 150, it has a 3L (183 cubic inch) block making 150 horses - so it will (naturally) outlast a 150 with a smaller block (the Verado has a supercharged 1.7L block - great if your motor is paid for by a sponsor, not so good it you plan on keeping it more than 5 or 6 years).

450 hours while high for the "average" motor being two years old is not bad - I would not consider it a detriment and would prefer that over 45 hours (meaning it sat around and probably wasn't serviced since it was never used anyhow).

Now, to be fair I don't particularly like 4 stroke outboards, but if I had to have one I'm not sure Merc would be my first choice. Honda builds a better motor but it's reflected in the price (and they have a habit of discontinuing parts support when they discontinue the model which turns many motors into orphans and they are not prolific enough that recycle places have many parts).

Yamaha builds more outboards than all the other mfg's combined (regardless of what the glossy ads tell you). There motors are engineered starting on a sheet of paper - many other mfg's, Merc included, cobbles together sourced parts for many of their offerings - that's not necessarily a bad thing unless the source goes out of business/or stops producing the part and you need it a few years down the road (talk to some owners of "fairly new" 4S 25 horse Merc's about a 5 dollar plastic part that turns the motor into a paperweight but Merc doesn't stock/support anymore).

So if I had to buy a 4S, Yami would be my top pick with Merc a distant second (Honda and Suzuki just doesn't have the support in my area which I consider equal to the performance of the motor in terms of "buyability")

If you repower with a 50 bigfoot I think you would be disappointed unless you thought the 90 on it was "way too much power". The 50 is built at Merc's plant in China. It somehow seems criminal that they want $8500 for a motor built in a plant where a leadhand makes $200/month - but I digress.

What's wrong with the Ev? even in the extreme it could be rebuilt for 1000-1500 bucks and given all the options you have here that would actually be my first choice. Now if a 90 or better Opti was one of your choices, that would be the direction I would lean.

Free opinion here, probably worth what it cost