How To Install An Outboard Motor And Controls

Photography by Tom Serio

Pony Up

Swapping out former outboards isn't as simple as you may think, but it'due south worth the effort and expense to upgrade to loftier-tech digital motors.

Father Fourth dimension has no mercy. He wields his scythe and eventually everything, animate or inanimate, gives upwards the ghost. Your generous maiden aunt, your favorite domestic dog, fifty-fifty your outboard motor—all tend to expire at the worst possible time. Nothing you can do most the showtime two, but the 3rd? Totally nether your control. Swap your center-aged outboards while they're still firing on all cylinders. Yous won't be buying just new engines, you'll get new technology, likewise.

Mercury'southward 200 FourStrokes are lighter than nearly V-6s, but at 475 pounds they're nevertheless a handful to hang on the transom.

In the past decade, outboards have gone high-tech. They accept digital brains nether the cowling, digital controls at the helm, active throttle aligning and auto trim for skippers sick of fiddling with rocker switches. They're fuel-efficient, less polluting and ultra-reliable. Repower now, especially if you lot add a few extra horses, and your boat will be faster and burn down less fuel.

However, there is reason to approach a repower with circumspection: Swapping outboards may seem like an like shooting fish in a barrel deal—unbolt the old, bolt on the new, claw 'em up and go—but nigh of the fourth dimension in that location's a lot more to it, at to the lowest degree if you want to go the nigh out of digital motors and protect your investment at the same time.

A template makes drilling the holes in the exact pattern an easy task. All major motor manufacturers apply the same blueprint.

Is Information technology Time?

When is it time to repower? Mike Praolini, service manager and repower expert at Nautical Ventures, a boat/motor dealership and service facility in South Florida, said he'due south seen plenty of iv-stroke outboards with two,000 hours on the meter, and some super-well-maintained motors with nigh 5,000 hours. Notwithstanding, some Nautical Ventures customers alter their motors when the warranties run out, then they're e'er covered. (Motor manufacturers beloved those guys!) That'due south new motors every four or v years, on average, while they're still attractive equally trade-ins. The market is strong for late-model, well-maintained used outboards, Praolini said. Swapping outboards while they're still in their prime costs a few bucks, but saves on repairs and adds peace of mind. Plenty of people do it with cars, so why not outboards, too?

Even if an outboard can last 2,000 hours, does that mean you lot should proceed yours that long? For the typical skipper not living in gunkhole-twelvemonth-circular territory, that's 10 years, perhaps more. Read the calendar, non the hr meter. Technology means new motors are manner better than those of just a decade ago. The first iv-strokes are under-tech and overweight by today'due south standards; modernistic two-strokes and fours tip the scales about the aforementioned, and lighter means faster. Wing-by-wire digital controls are easier to use and offer more features than push button-pull cables. Reliability and fuel efficiency? Never been improve, although you can buy a lot of gas for what new motors will price. You have to make that phone call. But before ordering new motors, there'south one thing you accept to do.

You lot tin can't have also much bedding on fasteners piercing the transom. Water seeping into the cadre is never skillful.

Praolini recommends checking the transom before ordering those bigger motors you've been drooling over. Make sure the transom tin can accept the added weight, thrust and torque. Check for water intrusion, besides; most newer boats accept high-density foam core in the transom, but older boats might have plywood. Cream core isn't damaged by water, merely plywood certainly is, and even foam-cored transoms tin can delaminate, especially if water gets in around the bolt holes. A delaminated laminate should be fixed, no matter what's under the skins.

What near filling the mounting holes in the transom from the one-time motors? Unless you lot're switching from singles to twins, or vice-versa, y'all won't take to; the new motors volition bolt right into the holes left by the erstwhile ones. Since the mid-1980s, the pattern of mounting bolts has been standardized among motor manufacturers.

Fender washers within the transom distribute the strain and provide plenty of surface for bedding compound.

With multiple-engine setups, at that place's also the question of eye-to-centre altitude between the motors, which varies past manufacturer and horsepower. The 200-hp Mercury four-strokes that Praolini was rigging on an Axopar 28 (a very cool double-stepped V-bottom boat from Finland) when I spoke with him mount on 26-inch centers, minimum. Yamaha four-strokes from 75 to 150 hp besides sit at 26 inches, but the 200-hp engine sits on 28.5 inches. Evinrude'southward two-stroke E-TECs too vary from 26 to 28 inches. Bottom line is, changing motor brands and/or adding horsepower in multiple-engine setups might hateful moving some mounting holes. The boatbuilder will often recommend optimum engine separation for best performance, too.

If the transom needs repair the cost, when added to the cost of new power, might be enough to tip the scales in favor of ownership a new boat with new motors, new systems, new everything else. (Heck, it'southward just a payment, and y'all only live once.) You don't want to face this conclusion when your new motors are sitting on the store floor with the price tags still on them; meliorate to know ahead of time. Although if you decide to buy a new gunkhole instead, I'm fairly sure the dealer will discover someone else to buy the motors. At press time, there was a shortage of new outboard motors for auction, and that was across the horsepower range. And so if yous're thinking of repowering, allow time to go the new motors.

Like almost modern outboards, the Mercurys have a digital brain, and tin be gear up and checked on digitally. Today's outboard tech has to comport a laptop in the toolbox.

How Much Power?

Information technology's human nature to want more and Praolini said that calculation horsepower when upgrading has a couple of advantages. Most obvious, the boat goes faster at summit end, and everybody wants that. Only the real benefit comes at cruise speed. A bigger engine, or engines, don't piece of work as difficult or burn every bit much fuel to maintain the same cruise speed produced by the older, smaller outboards. The bigger engines generate more horsepower and produce faster cruise speeds when run at their optimum rpm, although they'll burn down more fuel, too. Have your option.

Cruise fuel economy is the number ane business organisation with customers, said Corey Bruno at Mercury Marine. Bruno was the program manager behind the new V-6 4-stroke outboards, a family of naturally aspirated motors built on Mercury's 3.4-liter platform. Currently rated at 175, 200 and 225 hp, the 3.4Ls were engineered to be lightweight, fuel-efficient and versatile, and calibrated to maximize fuel economy at cruise speeds. At 475 pounds, the new Mercs counterbalance a flake less than nigh 200-hp four-cylinder outboards from other builders (Yamaha's 200-hp inline-four weighs 12 pounds more, for example), and way less than competitive 5-6s. The comparable motor from Yamaha, a 3.3L 5-6 4-stroke, weighs 608 pounds; Evinrude'south two-stroke 200-hp iii.4L E-TEC G2 weighs 537 pounds.

Praolini installed conventional U-Flex single-cylinder hydraulic steering, with a Verado ability-steering pump.

What about upgrading from a big unmarried outboard to smaller twins when repowering? Is it really an upgrade? It adds complexity and cost without a lot of upside, at to the lowest degree in my opinion. Mod outboards are extremely reliable, so the redundancy of twins isn't as necessary whatever more; the onetime days of figuring on at to the lowest degree one engine breaking downwards whenever you left the marina are over. And while twin-screw inboards make maneuvering much easier, information technology doesn't work as well with closely spaced outboards; the leverage just isn't in that location. That's why joystick controls are and so popular, although they besides come at a toll.

And there's the weight issue. Ii motors weigh more than one and planing boats perform better when they're lighter. The lightweight Mercs mitigated the weight penalty somewhat; that's one of their big advantages. Typical power for the Axopar with a single engine would be Yamaha's 5.3L, 350-hp 5-8 4-stroke, at 780 pounds or Mercury's supercharged 350 Verado, an inline six with 2.six-liter displacement at virtually 670 pounds. The pair of Mercurys weigh 950 pounds, or 280 pounds more than than the Verado.

The twins add underwater drag versus a single engine, which costs a fleck of speed, but Mercury tested an Axopar like this one at Lake Ten with the same twin Mercurys and the operation and fuel economy were both excellent. Meridian speed was 48.5 knots at 1.75 mpg; all-time cruise was at 3000 rpm—23.3 knots, 3.05 mpg. Cracking the throttle to 3500 rpm boosted speed to 29.1 knots and 2.99 mpg.

Tighten the bolts, and then tighten them again: High-torque outboards put a lot of strain on the mounting bolts.

All Systems Go

An outboard isn't much skilful without controls, but motors don't come up with them. Buyers cull their own and well-nigh folks will become digital unless they're on a strict budget. Praolini installed Mercury's digital electronic controls in the Axopar. They're not only easier to apply, but easier to install, too, and have more features. Rather than snaking stiff cables, it'southward merely a thing of running a wire harness and plugging it into the motors. Both motors can exist controlled past one lever and a rev limiter caps rpm at 2800, ideal for docking. (Digital controls motion without much resistance, and folks used to jamming old-fashioned levers can easily go too far if they go into a tight spot. The rev limiter helps prevent embarrassing docking adventures.)

Y'all'd remember anyone investing in a repower would want new digital controls, just despite their advantages, some folks like their sometime push/pull cables. Mercury will arrange the 200 to handle them past installing a servo unit under the powerhead that converts the push and pull of shift and throttle to digital signals that the motor's electronic brain can procedure. Bruno said that control was a lot smoother with this setup than with conventional cables. And while it's a good option for some people, he recommended that anyone investing in a repower check out digital throttle and shift; information technology doesn't add that much cost for its advantages.

One feature of the new Mercury 200s is oil check/fill access through a service door in the tiptop of the cowling.

The Mercurys too take Adaptive Speed Control, which automatically senses load and speed, and maintains engine rpm as the load changes. It's standard. Active Trim is optional, only, co-ordinate to Bruno, "is more accurate than near any boater" at trimming the boat for optimal functioning, based on a number of inputs. Other manufacturers have similar features in their outboards.

Some new outboards require proprietary steering. Evinrude E-TECs, for instance, accept their steering organization integrated into the mounting bracket for a neat installation. It'southward standard. Other manufacturers use other systems, but the Mercurys tin handle conventional hydraulic, the setup already on many boats. Praolini installed U-Flex steering on the Axopar, with a single external cylinder and a necktie bar between the engines. He upgraded it to power steering with a Verado pump.

The last pace is installing the prop on a well-greased shaft.

Everything But Pigment

Motor, steering, controls— that about covers it, right? Not when Praolini'south on the case. He made several more recommendations based on his own repowering practices. First, he said, take a fuel sample and have it tested. Perhaps the tanks accept to be pumped out and cleaned. He ever replaces the fuel lines, too, from the tanks to the motors. Bruno recommended installing a good-quality external fuel filter to supplement the motor's onboard filter. "Don't skimp on this," he said.

Check the battery switches and cables. It's better to replace them, but at least clean off whatsoever corrosion. And since digital engines are very voltage-dependent, install new batteries of the type recommended past the engine architect. Voltage problems will scramble the motor's digital brains. Mercury specifies AGM batteries; Bruno recommended installing an isolator or automatic charging relay, and a clean power harness. "Ask your rigger almost this," he said.

Once all of the above is complete, Praolini launches the boat with what he thinks is the right prop and carries out a thorough sea trial, picayune with different props and pitches until he finds 1 that's merely right. In one case he's satisfied that the repowering is upwardly to snuff, he goes through the whole boat, checking all the systems to ensure they are, also. "Everything but the paint gets checked out," he said. "You lot become a lot more than back than only new motors."

I suspect Praolini is something of a fussbudget, and I'll bet that'southward why his customers go on coming back for more outboard motors. If the Grim Reaper'south taking an involvement in your outboard motors, you need a guy like him.

This article originally appeared in the premier issue of Outboard magazine.

How To Install An Outboard Motor And Controls,

Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/maintenance/how-to-repower-your-outboard-powered-boat

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