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Hi Folks - in a couple of days, I am going to be looking at an 89 13' with an Evinrude 50hp. The motor appears to be of same vintage, but the owner wasn't sure of the year. I hope to get the hull stencil and motor model/serial before I make the visit. Here are a couple of pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelt...559152087/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelt...559152087/

Can anyone tell from the pics the approx. year of the motor and does it have power trim/tilt? I realize that 40hp was the max specified HP, but understand that some folks have run 2-stroke 50's without issue. Any gotchas? Thanks!

Mike

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Mike,

I am not 100% but I would say the motor is mid to late 80's vintage. The motor appears to be close to the same age as the boat. It probably does not have power trim or tilt. I believe that was optional back then.


Todd

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Mike -

While I am far from the engine expert, I see a trim rod (row of holes with a rod). Almost all the motors I have seen that have this do not have power trim. It is possible it has the tilt feature though.

If you stay away from WOT and keep the kids from driving, you will be okay.

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I would agree that the motors appears to be a mid to late 80's, My dad had an late 80's early 90's Evinrude 50hp and the engine was a dark blue but otherwise identical. It also appears that it does not have power trim/tilt. All in all looks to be good to me, wished I had that motor.

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I agree, appears to be a late 80's motor. Sure way to tel is get the model number off of the engine bracket. As far as a 50 on a 13', the boat can handle it. The real question would be, your experience. Use as much throttle that makes YOU comfortable.

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Have fun and HOLD ON!!!!!

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To all - thanks for the replies - much appreciated. I am going to check it out tomorrow afternoon, and will let you know what I find.

I am a bit of a safety nut, and I realize the 50 will need to be handled with respect. It will be used to/from the mooring and for the older kids (15 & 16) to mess around in the coves. I trust them, but will certainly need to understand it's handling characteristics before giving the keys to them.

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When I was growing up I had a friend with a very similar boat - 13' w/ 50hp. It was a very fast boat. I agree with the other posters, keep the speed appropriate for the conditions.

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Hi all - I ended up purchasing this 84 Sport 13 - the hull is in really good shape. The 85 Evinrude 50HP (disconnected VRO) starts right up, is running fast and well (sputters at idle lately - thinking of adding some seafoam to the gas), but it doesn't have PTT so it is wicked heavy to tilt up/down. There is no way my kids/wife would be able to tilt it. I may look into replacing the motor with a smaller HP four stroke at some point. It has been a great skiff to teach the family and get to/from the mooring.

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Glad everything worked out. The sputtering could be the carbs need a cleaning.

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Thanks Harley - from what I have read that's what I thought too. I have never done any work on an engine before, so I am venturing into new territory - let the fun begin!

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You don`t need trim/tilt on a 13 footer. Just find the pin setting where the boat easily gets on plane and leave it at that. You don`t have electric shift do you? or did they do away with that buy `85.

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Trim is not the issue - it easily gets on plane with the motor in the full down position, and it has a huge whale tail (see pic on personal page). It's the power tilt that would be nice - when it's not in use sitting at the dock, I want the lower unit out of the water - to tilt it up takes a lot of muscle. What is electronic shift?

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Very clean good looking hull and interior =)

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Mike -

Have you checked the bracket for to see if it is well greased? My brother's former Mercury 25 was a bear to pull up, even for me. Turns out he never lubricated it. Once we cleaned it up and got the grease in there, it tilted "like buttah"

He didn't make the same mistake when he re-powered with a 1990's Yamaha C40. A bit heavier but still doable. Technique and leverage is the key.

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Mike, congrats. That looks like 13' of pure F-U-N!

I concur with Phil with regard to the tilt tube having been ignored and ergo is partially salt frozen. A good clean up of the pivot points and a lube should rectify. I had an 'rude '85 90 hp that went that way. I would grease the Zerks fittings but I had to have the tube assembly taken apart by a shop. It was that far gone.

When I was a kid we had an old '65 Nauset with a Johnson 100 that blew it's tilt motor. My old man balked at repairing it but bought me one of these http://www.shopping.com/xPO-Cabela_s_...tor_Tilter. I was twelve and weighed about 200 pounds less than the motor but it worked like a charm! Perhaps even after a proper repair, you may want to consider one for the wife and son.

Take care and enjoy!

Doug

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Phil / Ambush - thanks - honestly I didn't think of checking the grease around the brackets - I thought it was just heavy. I'll look into that tomorrow. For the sputtering at idle, I applied one can of Evinrude Engine Tuner tonight. Looking into the carb openings, they looked pretty clean. Interesting tidbit - while spraying into the upper carb, the engine would love it and instantly rev up, but while spraying into the lower carb, the engine would bog down. Is that normal, or a symptom of something more? I used up the whole can, shut down the engine, and will run it clean in the morning.

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yea, shoot some grease in the tilt tube and pivot tube zirc fitting's, do it once a week too. I had a 48 spl that had no power tilt, when the tilt tube got salt frozen ($300 repair) I learned about grease, and how it should be "OFTEN" applied.

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Looking into the carb is not a proper indication of a clean/dirty carb. There are small orifices in the carb that get clogged. Most carbs don't need a chemical bath, but a once over to remove these small particles. Here is a good video on how to clean a Johnson/Evinrude carb:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5cxBM...annel_page

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Thanks Harley - I actually saw that video the other day when I was poking around for carb cleaning methods. Very informative.

Well, the day after applying the can of Evinrude Engine Tuner to the carbs, the same sputtering idle condition occurs - it will idle for about 10 sec and then die. I tried pumping on the bulb as it sat idling, but it still died.

I need an extra 6 gallon gas tank anyway, so I think I might eliminate that (and the bulb & line) as a variable first, before attempting any engine surgery. Any other advice is surely welcome :)

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You might find a replaceable fuel filter under the cowling.

BTW, I tilted a 150 Merc for several years just by grabbing hold and leaning back (with a little "thrust"). And we did the same with an old 33 1/3 and a 40. Shouldn't be that tough to tilt a 50. But I do like PTT!

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The problem you describe is the same that I experienced with my 1985 Johnson 40 HP (1985 VRO removed). Being that the Johnson & Evinrude are the same engine as well as the difference between a 40 and 50 HP is all done with a change to the carbs. The engine had sat several years prior to me purchasing and no mater what I attempted to run thru the fuel system could not get the engine to function more than a few moments. This included pumping the bulb as the engine ideled. The Carbs wher taken off and professionaly overhauled by Lochman's ( old time Johnson-Evinrude dealer in Detroit) PROBLEM SOLVED.

The boat now runs excellent @ high and low speed with the manual trim in the center hole position. On really calm conditions (Lake St.Clair -rare in summer) I move the pin out one position and the boat flies.

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Another thing you might try that is not costly is spark plugs. I didn't see in earlier post where you had mentioned if so sorry. My 35 Evinrude was also suffering from sputtering during idle, I removed carb and gave it soaking. I reinstalled the carb, it was better but would still sputter just not as bad. I changed the spark plugs and it smoothed right up.

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So I tinkered with the engine yesterday to see if I could apply any easy fixes for my idle issue. There is no inline fuel filter, so nothing to replace. I found the fuel pump, but didn't want to take that apart. The spark plugs both had a lot of carbon, and one was loose. I replaced them. At that point, after a couple of test starts and idles, it continued to show the same symptoms.

Then I began to watch the engine components during the startup and throughout the cycle. The warm up lever pushes the carbs open/closed as you move it up/down. When the warm up lever was put in the full down position, it would allow the carb to pretty much fully close, thus choking off to die. There is an adjustment lever (with one screw) that connects the warm up lever to the lower carb. I moved the adjustment lever to allow the carb to stay more open - it's not easy to be precise with it. Too much and the engine screams like a banshee (ahhhh shut it off!) - too little and it chokes. The position of the adjustment lever between those two extremes is very small. I set it to a point where the engine will idle longer than it would before, but it's still not great since it cannot just sit idling for very long. At least I can get it into gear before it dies.

Some of the other components that ultimately connect warm up lever to the adjustment lever seem like they are less precise than they should be, and allow the whole system to vary. Grrrr. I'll keep tinkering. So, at this point, I don't think dirty carbs is the issue.

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From what I am reading about your carbon build up, running some "Ring Free" (which is a Yamaha product but still good for other motors) in your gas to free up the carbon in your engine. That stuff is like a "Tune up in a bottle'.

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Yep, I'm with you Cliff. I sprayed a whole can of Evinrude Engine Tuner into the carbs last week. And I will be putting one of the carbon buster additives in the gas tanks as well.

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Mike:

How has your attempt at a fix in the bottle worked out? At the risk of sounding repetitive I still think the problem lies in the overhaul of the carbs. Correctely rebuilt and adjusted, with good even compression in the cylinders, will make the engine idle and run as exepcted.

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Just to be sure, I first addressed all the simple things: carb cleaner spray, new plugs, new gas line. No such luck - problem is still there. So, yes I think a carb rebuild will be necessary. I have the factory service manual, and have seen online videos, but I'm not sure I will have the opportunity to do the work myself. Any ballparks on what should I expect to pay a shop for a carb rebuild?

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I have a 1990 Evinrude 50hp and thought I would add a bit to this old thread. My engine had sat for 4 yrs. and what gas last used had turned to crystals in the carbs hoses and such. I cleaned the carbs, fuel pump and replaced fuel lines.
On my test run it would not take a load at wide open throttle (though that was not this gentleman's problem) I rebuilt the carbs and still experienced the same problem. It was then I noticed the the linkage/lever that comes from the ignition contacting the carbs had a decent gap. I was missing part of the roller sleeve. With roller sleeve installed engine ran great on mid and top end.
There is another sleeve/ roller assembly in between the throttle and shifter linkage and part of mine was missing causing the engine to sometimes go slightly out of time at idle depending where they lined up when you pulled throttle to neutral. The engine would idle rough, low, high or not not at all sometimes. once this sleeve between shifter and throttle linkage was fixed engine smoothed right up and idle fine, no longer stumbling.
Just an F.Y.I. on a possible thing to look for should anyone ever have a similar problem as I have no idea how or when these sleeves disappeared but I didn't loose them they were just gone.