Logo
FULL SITE MENU

buying a 150, need advise

L

laki101

New member
ok, so I want to trade in my '78 johnson 75hp , and get a mercury 150, CANT WAIT FOR THAT :)

Now, I found 2 mercs 150 and since here in my country everything above 25hp is rare, finding 100+ models is a lottery, so one of these 2 will be the final choice, now the 2 are:

1) 1994 150 black max , the motor is on a boat so we will give it a spin, any special thing to check on these things ?

2) 1997 150 efi, I have a few issues with this one: it has been sitting for 2 years so don't know if that can cause issues, the guy sold the boat, so we can only check it on land, and do a muff test, and finally I got a small heart attack today when I saw the ECU price is 1500 , how prone are these things to failure ?

also any general advice on what to look out for on these 2, and any other tips and expirience for them would help a lot
 
I'm older so prefer something with a "carb" on it :)

Fuel consumption - at least double what your 75 sucked.

I have a 26 foot walk-around (all wood, mahogany over fir) - totally loaded weight (including passengers etc) on the water is about 2800 pounds.

It's powered by a 140 horse Evinrude (90 degree 4 cylinder). Tweaked with an adjustable plate, hydraulic trim tabs etc and tracked with a fuel flow meter, I burn about 8.2 gallons per hour (31 litres/hour) at "cruise speed", which is in the high 20's (about 40 kmh) - that gives me about 10 hours of "run time" - enough to cruise an entire long weekend with some pit stops along the canal system.

If I open it up and just run, while it get in the low 30 mph range (50'ish kmh) it only takes about 5 1/2 hours to drain my twin 40 gallon fuel tanks - so 300 litres in about 5 1/2 hours - and gas just "dropped" to a buck a litre this afternoon.

I don't open her up much :)
 
laki101 said:
ok, so I want to trade in my '78 johnson 75hp , and get a mercury 150, CANT WAIT FOR THAT :)

Now, I found 2 mercs 150 and since here in my country everything above 25hp is rare, finding 100+ models is a lottery, so one of these 2 will be the final choice, now the 2 are:

1) 1994 150 black max , the motor is on a boat so we will give it a spin, any special thing to check on these things ?

2) 1997 150 efi, I have a few issues with this one: it has been sitting for 2 years so don't know if that can cause issues, the guy sold the boat, so we can only check it on land, and do a muff test, and finally I got a small heart attack today when I saw the ECU price is 1500 , how prone are these things to failure ?

also any general advice on what to look out for on these 2, and any other tips and expirience for them would help a lot
Click to expand...
The black max is a beast. If it has good compression (120 PSI is really good) then the only really expensive part to replace is the stator. Everything else is affordable. Also there is no computer. Very simple and easy to deal with mechanically. Delete the oil pump, and premix the fuel, and it will last many years.
 
Back
Top