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How's your experience w/ the Optimax's Been?

T

Tweed

New member
I getting into a boat w/ twin 225 Opti's. Their new, '05 units. I was freak'in a little bit 'cause I found some long, negitive threads on the problems early Optimax owners had in 1999, 2000 and 2001on some boards. The negitive stuff seems to dissapear after that. C'mon guys, give me the facts (not hear say or opinions, please) What do you know about the new Optimax engines. Are the bugs worked out? Merc is offering 5 years of warrenty (Until April 15) on the new units, I guess to overcome the crappy showing and stigma of the ealier units. Any help out there? - Tweed
 
I getting into a boat w/ twin 225 Opti's. Their new, '05 units. I was freak'in a little bit 'cause I found some long, negitive threads on the problems early Optimax owners had in 1999, 2000 and 2001on some boards. The negitive stuff seems to dissapear after that. C'mon guys, give me the facts (not hear say or opinions, please) What do you know about the new Optimax engines. Are the bugs worked out? Merc is offering 5 years of warrenty (Until April 15) on the new units, I guess to overcome the crappy showing and stigma of the ealier units. Any help out there? - Tweed
 
Early on, we had an opti throw a rod at 500 hours, was told at the time that they were 500 hour engines. New ones, had an injector failure under warranty. Had a couple of warranty recalls - nothing exciting. haven't seen one puke in a while. Whatever you do run the best oil you can. take merc up on the 5 year warranty and you should be ok. they do run on a very little amount of oil, which means they are more prone to failure if a crap oil is used. at minimum run the optimax oil from merc or use amsoil. the whole optimax line seems to be working really well right now - at least where i am anyway.
 
Thanks for the post Chris. Yeah, engine oil, in any high performance engine is important. I went to the hi-perf synth. in my lower units and the Merc. EFI oil as long as I've owned 'em. (25 + years, Yikes, I'm old!) Always ran synth. in the I/O engine, lower units too. The new Evinrude E-Tec runs very little oil through their engine, Evinrude claims less than half of the current EFI's - AS long as you use their XD 100T oil. The rod failure is a new one to me. Most the problems I've heard of dealt w/ injectors and very limited sparkplug life causing rough or nonrun situations. (FWIW)

Tweed
 
yeah, forgot about the spark plugs once or twice a season for replacement at a minimum. They are pricy $27.50 retail in canadian funds.

ETEC's apparantly are awsome motors and poised to give merc a real run - i guess we'll see.
 
I like to run synthetics too, but I can't with my newer mercruiser. The owners manual states in bold lettering: DO NOT USE SYNTHETIC MOTOR OIL. Don't know why, so for the I/O I buy the 25W-40 Merc oil. I did change the outdrive oil over to full syn marine grade drive oil though.
 
Hey Tweed

I know the 1999 225 opti powerhead blew on my boat before I owned it but I believe Merc coughed up the parts. I have several neighbors on my lake with Optis no problems they all love them and run them HARD.

Jw I can't believe that they say no Synthetic. I can see no synthetic for break in as I have seen engines that are run from the box have oil burning and compression problems because the rings never set in due to the synthetic oil properties. But I know GM specifies synthetic on the Vettes and the Northstar Cadillac engines. Got me I use synthetic in everything even my weed whipper.
 
I was told no synthetic because it is so much thinner than conventional and the load a marine block is under is much, much more than a car/truck. We sell Boston Whaler new and sold many OptiMax outboards, the only thing we have had problems is on 99-01 throttle postion sensors and oil warning probes in the aux. tank under the cowl. Never had a blown powerhead? The motor should go to gurdian mode before anything major happens. Mabey were lucky but 200-225 Opti's have been very good for us on the Whalers and are very strong runners.
 
Merc has never had a problem with the 2.5 Optis. The 2001 3.0L models were changed to reduce costs and they came appart. The new ones are fine and the 5 year warenty is to insure that. Don't forget to ask for your free stainless prop with the extended warenty. DO NOT use anything but the Merc. Opti oil in that engine. If for no other reason, should you have a warrenty issue Merc. can tell if you did not use that oil. Merc. has really gone above and beyond the call of duty on any Opti warrenties I have processed to insure customer satisfaction.
Bob
 
You have to have a stainless prop on the opti and buy a Motor Guide Digital bow mount trolling motor to qualify for a spare Stainless prop, really not that good of a deal unless your in the market for a electric motor too. Offer ends April 15 on the prop and the 5 year warranty. Bob is right about the oil issue Merc will know if you used anything else but their OPTIMAX/DFI oil #92-877694K1
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JW:
I like to run synthetics too, but I can't with my newer mercruiser. The owners manual states in bold lettering: DO NOT USE SYNTHETIC MOTOR OIL. Don't know why, so for the I/O I buy the 25W-40 Merc oil. I did change the outdrive oil over to full syn marine grade drive oil though. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have little knowledge or outboards, but I only run synthetic in all my I/O Merc engines and outdrives. Mobil 1 15-50 or Mobil 1 V Twin 20-50 is in the engines and Mobil 1 75-90 in the drive. It also makes about 2% more HP on the dyno than conventional. Merc just wants to sell their oils, and if it doesn’t last real long they get to sell you another engine or drive.
icon_eek.gif
 
Also with reguard to the spark plugs. If you ever do notice a loss of power shut her down right away. Optis as with all 2 strokes are dependent a exhaust pressure to force some of the intake charge back into the cylinder before the piston closes the ports. If a plug fouls and a cylinder quits firing then the next cylinder in line is going to run lean. Not healthy on an Opti that is already cut to a minimum. This was part of the 2001 problem.
Bob
 
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