1993 208 adventure pondering repower

Hi MJD
A couple of questions to ask yourself before spending the money on a new motor...

How many hours on that motor?
Over 1500? I'd start looking to re-power.

Do you and your family worry that the old motor might not get you back home every time you leave the dock?
If YES you are losing the enjoyment a day of boating should bring you...time to repower.

When you say "it does about 30 mph at 4200 RPM", is that at full throttle?
Sounds very LOW. WOT should be well over 5000 RPM. Motor may be mounted too low, and/or prop pitch may be too high.

I have a 94 208 with the original 200 Johnson Ocean Runner. It got very low hours runs fine so I have no plans on changing it. I fish the Great Lakes but I do have a 9.9 kicker for trolling.

I understand what you want to do and why, have you thought about a 2 stroke instead of a 4?

thanks

I'm somewhat in the same situation as you with roughly the same vintage hull and motor, having thought about repowering. Here are my thoughts. Sticking with Yamaha, I think the best motor option would be the 4-cylinder Yamaha F200 four stroke. Its weight is about 60 lbs heavier than my current motor, which is close enough that I don't think it will put the scuppers under water or require adding any ballast to the front of the boat to compensate. I know there are some people who repowered with heavier 4-strokes that put some lead shot up in the forward keel locker to keep the bow down.

But, I'm not ready to go there yet... my current motor has about 1900 hours on it, though you wouldn't know it (I'm looking for a piece of wood to knock on now). It still fires up first try, even after sitting for 6 months with old fuel. The last time I did a compression test, each cylinder was within 5 lbs of each other, and they were all within 5-10 lbs of factory new specs. I've been religious about always using Ring-Free and Yamalube, and I can't argue with the results. So at least for right now, I'm just preparing myself for the day when it's time to say goodbye so that I will have already done most of my research, like you're doing now yourself. I like Finest Kind's comment asking if you're worrying about the motor. If you are, then the piece of mind that comes with having a new motor may be worth the cost of a repower.

Next time you get your motor serviced, I'd talk to the mechanic and let him know what you're thinking. Have him go through the motor, do a compression test, and check out all the systems to see where you stand. If the motor has been serviced regularly and well maintained, then there's no reason why it shouldn't keep running for many more years. But, if it comes back with low compression in one cylinder, then that's valuable information to know to help you make a decision.

One thing that's nice about the old Yamaha 2-strokes is they are simple, reliable workhorses. They aren't the most fuel efficient motors in the world, but I still have confidence mine will get me there and back, so I'm sticking with it. Hopefully that doesn't change next week!

I have a 95 208 with the Yamaha F200 4cyl. 4 stroke. The engine was built for older hulls that need repowering. It's a perfect match....performance, weight and the fuel economy will make you very happy compared to the old 2 stroke