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I have just purchased a beautiful 1986 18' Outrage with original 150hp Evinrude. The outboard was completely rebuilt a few years ago then the boat was parked up and has only done 11 hours since. The outboard is in great condition and runs flawlessly, but with gas in NZ now $2.15NZD per litre (6USD per gallon) and oil at 50:1 I am thinking about repowering with a new Etec.

Does anyone have fuel burn figures for the older Evinrudes?

Cheers
Dan

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Not Enough.............

Depends a lot on what speed you want to go..
6 gallons per hour at or near wide open.

Never figured out how many gallons per hour at a lower cruising speed..

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Hi, thanks for the reply.

6 gallons per hour wide open sounds very lean... I was expecting more like 16-18 gallons an hour WOT? I am sorry to question, but is that really correct? My boat did over 40mph wide open on the sea trial, and that would equate to nearly 7 miles per gallon?

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Just as a reference, the Etec 150 consumes about 15 GPH avg at WOT depending on the hull.

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I remember taking a 6 gallon tank of fuel for a test run.
The fuel lasted approximately 1 hour.

My boat does a little over 40 WOT...
I was testing so wasn't at full throttle all the time.
I thought 6 gallons was a lot at the time.

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I had pretty much the identical rig. If we were out water skiing we'd burn about 10-12 gph

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Although the newer outboards are better on gas I had read somewhere that a 2 stroke burns 1 gal per hour for every 10 hp at wot. That has been pretty accurate for the many different size engines I have had. My 19' outrage was a little heavier than an 18' and got around 3 nautical miles per gal at a 25 mph cruising speed. And Both the 115 merc and the 175 merc that replaced it got the same mileage. I guess the 175 didn't have to work as hard. My guess is that your 18' outrage should get about 4 nautical mpg with that engine at about 25 mph. I would bet a new etec could close in on 5 mpg.

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I expect a 1986 Evinrude 150 will burn 15-17 gallons per hour at WOT.

At a cruise speed of 4000 RPM, expect it to burn 6-8 GPH.

The E-TEC will yield its greatest fuel savings, the slower you go. At idle speed (as you might use while trolling) the fuel savings will be tremendous.

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I used to have a 1985 Evinrude 150 on my 19' Revenge. I got the nmpg (nautical miles per gallon) that Tom B. above mentioned...about 3 nmpg cruising at 15-20 knots. This was a good number to plan on. Sometime we did better if the water was flatter and we could go faster, sometime worse if you had to go 10 knots into the wind/waves or get pounded to death. While a newer engine could get better mileage, it will be many years before you make up the purchase differnce in gasoline saved...so I would recommend you consider keeping the engine if it is running well I replaced my 150 with my current Honda 135 mostly because I needed to boat on Lake Tahoe, and the old 2 strokes are banned there due to exhaust emissions. The Honda is a very nice engine and I get about twice the mileage of the 150...plus no 2 stroke smoke in a following wind at slower speeds.

Al

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Alan is right, you will never even come close to paying for a new engine with fuel savings.

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Thanks for the stats guys, i had somehow imagined that the newer 2 stroke might have given me up to 3 times more millage. Based on that, I had worked out that a new outboard would have paid for itself in three years based on about 75 hours a year and a average of 1000nm traveled at cruise. I think i will hold off, finish my restore and then get out on the water and see how she goes. I do like the idea of less weight on the transom. At the moment she (1986 outrage 18' ) floats with the lowest drain hole just awash. I will move the battery to the console and that should help somewhat. Thanks for you input!