Logo
FULL SITE MENU

DT150 Questions

H

Hildy4866

New member
I'm looking at purchasing a used 2004 freshwater fishing boat that has an electronic fuel infected DT150 2-stroke outboard on it. Without never owning a Suzuki motor in my 30 years of boat ownership, I was hoping I could find some help from some of the Suzuki outboard owners. The boat is 4 hours away from my home, and I'm trying to conduct some research prior to making the trip so I'll have a better idea what I should be looking for, or expect, when we fire this motor up. I don't have a model number for the motor and I can get that from the dealer, but one thing I believe I've found is that the DT150 was not built in 2004. It looks like they last built them in 2003. Would this be correct? While I have no reason to believe this won't be a great running motor, I'm looking for information on possible chronic issues they may have had, and I have a big concern with parts availability if I do have some type of problem. I don't want to purchase a motor where I have the possibility of not being able to maintain or repair it at some point and rendering it useless. Thanks
 
With any older outboard parts are or will be an issue. Suzuki not being a big seller back in the day finding used or new parts could be a challenge. That being said I’m happy with my 2009 DF90A, Suzuki does make a good engine and has for a number of decades.
 
the DT series of V6 Suzukis were FANTASTIC motors, despite alot of "my grandfathers friends cousin had one. always in the shop" kinda stuff, their service record was stellar. so good, after the 1st year of production they doubled the warranty in 1987. Shortly after it was lengthened to 3 years, with optional 3 year add on for a total of 6 years. However, the early ones had issues with water ingestion , especially bottom cylinders. this was fixed with a new lower crank seal holder design, and a solid 1 piece exhaust around 1994. check to be sure yours has the 1 piece exhaust. the ignition is very important to be in good shape. study how this excellent digital system works. sounds like yours is fuel injected, but fuel injected or carbureted be sure to note how the seller starts the motor. if he needs to manually advance the throttle, somethings wrong. it should start like a car. throttle valve and others sensors are NLA very expensive if found NOS, so be sure there are no alarm (accept for the 1st 10 seconds of starting) and that the overheat alarm works. again if it doesnt beep when you start it, the alarm must be fixed as it is part of the low oil and overheat circuits (a couple other too). water pumps and injectors are still around but OEM ones are extremely expensive.
 
revenge22 said:
the DT series of V6 Suzukis were FANTASTIC motors, despite alot of "my grandfathers friends cousin had one. always in the shop" kinda stuff, their service record was stellar. so good, after the 1st year of production they doubled the warranty in 1987. Shortly after it was lengthened to 3 years, with optional 3 year add on for a total of 6 years. However, the early ones had issues with water ingestion , especially bottom cylinders. this was fixed with a new lower crank seal holder design, and a solid 1 piece exhaust around 1994. check to be sure yours has the 1 piece exhaust. the ignition is very important to be in good shape. study how this excellent digital system works. sounds like yours is fuel injected, but fuel injected or carbureted be sure to note how the seller starts the motor. if he needs to manually advance the throttle, somethings wrong. it should start like a car. throttle valve and others sensors are NLA very expensive if found NOS, so be sure there are no alarm (accept for the 1st 10 seconds of starting) and that the overheat alarm works. again if it doesnt beep when you start it, the alarm must be fixed as it is part of the low oil and overheat circuits (a couple other too). water pumps and injectors are still around but OEM ones are extremely expensive.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your insight about this motor. We did purchase the boat last week after running it with muffs on at the dealership, and put it into the water a couple days ago. It starts just like a car, and we get an alarm for the first few seconds as you described. it runs like a rocket ship!!! I ran it for quite a while to make sure we couldn't trip an alarm, especially the overheat alarm, and didn't have any issues. It would also start right back up with the turn of the key every time. I think we're going to really like this boat and motor combination. Thanks again.
 
Back
Top