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Reliability of 2001 Johnson 70 EFI?

I

iftia

Member
Looking at a 2001 22' Twin Vee with twin Johnson 70 EFI 4 stroke motors. Not too familiar with Johnsons. Running a Honda 90 now.
  1. Are these Suzukis in all but name? Lower units too?
  2. How reliable are they?
Seller says they were serviced to the tune of about $1000 each 2 years ago. Mechanic said they had 65 hours on them. Can this be known from a computer hookup?
 
You'll enjoy the Twin-Vee, its a whole different ride, keep up on the maintenance on the 4 strokes, learn how to do oil changes to save big bucks ( oil extractor makes it clean work)
 
Boobie said:
I never heard anything bad about that motor. Worked on a few of them and had no big problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm going to fire up the engines tomorrow with my mechanic. Anything in particular we should watch for? After 2 years of questionable storage will we be able to tell if the injectors are ok if we can't run under load? Any other tests to perform?
 
To expand on Boobie's comment....compression should be in the 200 psi range.
These motors have high pressure fuel pumps internal to the vapor separator. If not stored properly, i.e. drain gas from vapor separator, the pump itself can lock up.
I really would like to know if it starts up. Please post the results of your test/sea trial.

You should have 40 psi fuel pressure on the fuel rail. If no pressure, or low pressure, HP fuel pump is suspect.
 
Yes, let us know what the results were. If the high pressure pump is locked up, post back here before you replace it.
 
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Ran both motors from a portable gas tank after seeing orange 2 year old gas in the tanks. Seller said fuel pumps and water impellers were replaced 2 years ago and barely used then stored since then.
Didn't have a compression tester but the motors were firing on all four cylinders and sounded good. No water in lower units. Except for rusty clamps on the water hoses the engines look pristine. The only flaw in the test was sand/salt crystals dribbling out of the water pump indicator on one of the engines. Hopefully a little compressed air will clear that out.
This test took place outside of Boston, 28*F and snowing with my mechanic suffering from that nasty head cold going around. Other buyers put psychic pressure on me: I decided to risk it and bought the rig for $19K. Hope I don't live to regret it. Fogged the cylinders and stored the batteries.

I've got to get rid of about 30 gallons of old fuel after I can get into it when spring breaks up here. Any suggestions for responsible disposal? Don't junkyards have to dispose of waste fuel before crushing? I've always had carbureted engines. I understand clean, filtered, water separated fuel is the key to trouble-free running. Do I need to replace everything from tanks to engine?

Thanks for your tips for troubleshooting. I'll be able to perform those tests in about 90 days after more storage and warmer weather. Yeehaw!
 
Boobie said:
Run a compression test on it and make sure the water pump is working.
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention that we ran it long enough to determine that the water pump is working because it didn't overheat (escaping water was not hot) on the engine with the slow indicator flow. Impellers were replaced...
 
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