First Time Owner Evinrude 85HP Evinrude is a 1972 with Hydro-Electric shift.

Purchased a 17Foot Cobia boat, trailer and motor for 600.00. My first question was. What’s wrong with it? Boat and trailer is gonna need some love that I can handle. What I don’t have a clue about is the motor. It fires up and runs and smokes some but as far as I can tell it works fine. Any info that anyone can give me on this motor and what to look for with issues or just advise on it would be great. The owner before me said he bypassed the neutral so it would start in any position which didn’t mean a whole lot to me. Again thank you for any help.

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Congrats on the purchase. Cobia is a top notch boat. You say the engine is a '72, but what about the hull? If it's an older hull, you may want to give a good twice-over, looking for wood rot. If you have some, it can be fixed, but you'll want to know about it before it causes you trouble away from land.

When the previous owner said he "bypassed" the neutral... I think what he meant was, it's broken. Starting while NOT in neutral is dangerous. I'd get that fixed. Since the motor is a '72, it SHOULD smoke, as it's going to be a 2-stroke engine, or as many people joke... it's a 2-smoke engine. That makes them a little loud, a little smokey and a little inefficient, BUT virtually bullet proof if you give them a little maintenance and care.

For specific information on the engine, you'll want to get the model number on it.

TipDS said:

When the previous owner said he "bypassed" the neutral... I think what he meant was, it's broken. Starting while NOT in neutral is dangerous. I'd get that fixed. Since the motor is a '72, it SHOULD smoke, as it's going to be a 2-stroke engine

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Yep, the neutral start should be repaired. There is no way you should be able to start an outboard when in gear.

You should run a quality TCW3 rated 2-stroke oil at a 50:1 ratio. I prefer to use Evinrude oil. For your engine Evinrude XD30 will be just fine. At Walmart you can buy Evinrude premium 2-stroke oil for about $20/gallon. I believe this is the same stuff as XD30. You can tell this oil by it's red color. I run this stuff in my 1979 Evinrude 9.9 and I get almost no smoke out of the engine.

To take guess work out of oil ratios get something like a Shoremaster Ratio Bottle. I've used these for a long time and it helps to avoid over-oiling the engine.

KJ

There are many older outboards that can be started in gear !

racerone said:

There are many older outboards that can be started in gear !

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Absolutely. No neutral safety on a hydro electric. They can be started in gear at low throttle. There is however a switch on the timer base that prevents high throttle starts.