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My Bad 1978 140hp

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saskflyer

New member
Bought a 92 Bayliner with '78 140hp Evinrude last week, was told put key in it and go. Heard it run with the ears. Would not start on the water, pulled head off and have a hole in cylinder. I have rebuilt auto engines, do the same principles apply to an outboard? Can you rebuild one bank of cylinders?
 
Re: My Bad

You only need to repair what has failed..... piston, bore a cylinder sleeve or install a new one, etc. However the engine must be completely torn down regardless. Of course you need to find out what caused the failure and correct that, also install new rings on all pistons, new plugs, etc...... normal understandable replacement parts.
 
Re: My Bad

if that eng,..has never been rebuilt,which,i highly doubt it has not,...it is a lucky one.......77-78 140's,r the single,most overhauled engine i have ever dealt with,in 33 yrs....high ring pistons,and loose ring dowel pins.....it IS,however,a good rebuildable engine,......new pistons thru out,bearings,rins,..the whole shebang....dont fix,..one hole now,..in 12 mos do another and so on....would u want a shop doing ur trk eng,this way?....do it right,once.....carbs,wtr pump,all new pistons,bore it out and get rid of egg shaped cylinders.....i never had one of em come back...yet!!...dont patch!!....fix it!!!!!
 
Re: My Bad

Of course you need to find out what caused the failure ---i know,..what the failure is,...but i doubt,that this eng has NEVER been overhauled....high ring pistons,and loose dowel pins...that were 'blank' drilled,instead of--'stop' drilled....this applies,.to the original en gines,that i overhauled for yrs.
 
Re: My Bad

fixing one hole at a time,...is known in texas boat shops--as a 'short' overhaul......altho,i guess it helps the --re-peat business end,and only done at the customers insistance....
 
Re: My Bad

I have talked to a couple of repair shops; they say that when you have this damage that the motor is junk and not worth the rebuild. What is the opinion if this forum?
 
Re: My Bad

You have to compare the cost of repair to the cost of a replacement engine. If you go used, you may be in the same spot in a few months. A rebuild done correctly would give you years of life.
 
Re: My Bad

Do these "shops" sell new engines?

You can probably (near totally) rebuild yourself for somewhere around 1500 bucks (at the high end) - including the machine work, pistons/rings/bearings/seals/gaskets, plus carb kits and waterpump service assuming the ignition system is ok.

You might be able to find a rebuilt/reman powerhead (bare) for somewhere in the 2500 range including the core refund for your current block.

More and more shops will NOT work on anything that they can't plug into a computer - they don't want to have to think or scrounge for parts - disposable society now.

Personally, I don't know if I would invest over a grand in a 1970-something motor - my own "cut-off" would be the mid-80's or newer just because some major advances and a number of changes were made coming into the mid 80's making it kinda a dividing line between then and now.

Two years ago I picked up a running 1986, 140 for 600 bucks. A few weeks ago I picked up a 1986, 120, for 150 bucks - initially as a parts donor but found very little wrong with it - so now it's undergoing a total refurb.

When done I will have a "like new" 120, albeit 24 years old, but will have cost just on the $1200 mark (initial cost, parts and machine work).

So flip a 3 sided coin -

rebuild what you have, or

buy something a little newer (but still plan on rebuilding that - if a used engine was "perfect" it wouldn't be for sale), or

talk to the banker and buy something either brand new, or a couple years old - from a dealer that offers warranty - Evinrude has a really nice V4, 130 ETEC for about 12K which is about 5 horses more powerful than a mid-70's 140 :)
 
Re: My Bad

Galamb
I have worked on car engines, rebuilt a few. How would doing this motor compare? I should tell you I am a flatlander from Speedy Creek Saskatchewan---eh!
 
Re: My Bad

I can give you my experience - while I do a fair bit of maintenance on outboards, I rarely do complete rebuilds (I think 4 or 5 in the past two years), so I'm definately slower than a shop.

So for me it's a good days work to remove the powerhead and completely tear it down - much of the time is spent making notes, taking pictures and labelling stuff - even with a service manual as reference the more careful you are documenting the disassembly the better/faster it will all go back together. Particularly stuff like wire/hose routing (like "did it tuck under that or over" etc).

Once you are sitting there with 2 chunks of block, a couple heads and a pile of components I get out the micrometers and feeler gauge etc and meausure what needs to be checked, inspect whatever you will potentially re-use etc.

That's my "day 1".

The block goes to the machine shop - even if it's only a hone job I leave that to the guys that do it all the time. I have an excellent place that measures everything, dips the block and hone or bores as required - unless they are super busy they will usually have it ready in under 48 hours (a hone job is normally about 125 bucks, if they bore it's 50 bucks a hole).

In that time I rebuild whatever I need to do.

It's my own policy that if I'm doing a rebuild, besides the powerhead, it's time to rebuild carbs, waterpump, reseal the lower unit if there's even a hint of water.

As an example, the 120 I'm doing - took an hour to rebuild the 4 carbs and about an hour and a half to tear down the lower unit, check everything and wash it down then replace the seals and reassemble.

Anything that's being re-used gets cleaned up/refurbed in that time as well - so crank gets it's new bearings/ring seals, r/r the pistons (rings/wrist bearings if it's only getting honed), remove all gasket traces and wash everything down - stuff like that so that by the time the block is back you are ready to put her back together.

For me that's a couple of "not working too hard" days.

By day 3 or 4 I have the block back and can start reassembly. The only delay at this point is if you are waiting on parts that had to be ordered.

Personally, I have no issue re-using pistons if they are in good shape, but I replace most bearings regardless of their condition, rings, seals, gaskets etc - I don't want to have to crack it again in a month or a year because I cheaped out on a 20 dollar bearing.

So another good days work slapping her all back together and it's good to go - only have the "running" adjustments left to do (linkages/sychronization).

If you are mechanically inclined (but not a professional rebuilder) there is no reason you can't start the teardown on a Monday and have it back on the water by Saturday - it's usually waiting for parts that slows you down.
 
Re: My Bad

Definately,

OR take the approach that EVERY used outboard that you may potenially buy will NEED a rebuild before it's usable - then you can determine whether you want it at all and if you still do, figure a fair price, whether it's part of a package or by itself...
 
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