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Info on 2004 Mercury 225 Optimax

stevemedic

New member
"I am thinking of buying a boa

"I am thinking of buying a boat that has a 2004 Mercury 225 Optimax outboard. What is the overall opinion about this motor? The compression numbers I have been given by the seller are:
Left, top to bottom..97, 105, 95
Right, top to bottom..100, 105, 95
I was told the check was done with the engine cold. What are these numbers telling me?
Also the breakdown for hours (149) are as follows
95hrs bellow 4000rpm, 13 between 4-4500, 17 between 4500-5000 and 5 hrs 5500-6000. Are these normal hours for each? Would these numbers any reveal any neglet or hard usage? Lastly, the s/n 0T832767..is this a 2004? Anyway I can find out if any major repairs were done on this? This is attached to a 2004 Trophy 2502 WA that was a repro. Any suggestions or comments greatly appreciated."
 
"Stephen, yes, the serial indi

"Stephen, yes, the serial indicates it came off the production line in 2004 - so the motor is 5 years old now (model wise).

At 149 hours that is about 25 hours/average a year - not exactly used much. That can be good and bad. Not used usually equates to "not maintained" - nobody spends money on something that is sitting around idle.

95 hrs below 4500 tells me it was either 1) trolled alot (possible carbon build-up) or 2) just "cruised". Neither is necessarily bad - it didn't have "the snot driven out of it", but would definately have it de-carb'd.

By 2004 Merc had worked all the "early bugs" out of the Opti line and it is a very fine motor.

The one thing I don't like with the 225 is the horsepower to displacement ratio - it's a 185 cubic inch motor producing 225 horses. Anytime the horses is greater than displacement a rebuild is somewhere in the future (under normal use it seems to be in the 10-12 year range) - so in determining a "fair price" I personally would consider "half" this motors life to be over at this point.

Taking the serial into any Merc dealer should allow you to discover if any "warranty" work was done. This would have had a 3 year factory warranty from new (if I'm rememberin' correctly).

All in all I would have zero issues hangin' this motor on the back of my boat. They are hard on sparkplugs (usually done after about 50 hours), and the plugs are little on the expensive side (retail 15 bucks a piece and you need 6 of them), but the motor will "kick the snot" out of any other 225 currently on the market in any area you want to compare them (from speed, hole shot, gas mileage etc).

As to the compression numbers - sound good - would expect around 100 psi. Merc did not even publish compression numbers for this model in it's service manual (normal for Merc).

You can get this motor "brand new" for 12-13K if you shop around. That would lead me to set a value of between 4-5K for this one, if a dealer test gives it the thumbs up..."
 
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