Optimax help

[Gerry Zagorski]

There are issues with most high pressure 2 stroke engines in the 99 - 2001 class outboards.... All the manufactures rushed to get them to market to conform with the new emmission standards and they were all blowing power heads like mad.

Evenrude had 2 stoke Ficht - no longer available and replaced with Etec

Mercury had 2 stroke Optimax - now they are pushing Verado 4 strokes

Yamaha had 2 stroke HDPI and they are now pushing 4 strokes.

Just check out the used boat listings with the motors listed above and you will see they are selling on the cheap for the reasons above.

I would steer clear of any of these motors and if I happened to have one and had a failure I would cut my losses and repower with a different motor rather then sink more money into them. If you can't afford new power and want to save some money I would consider repowering with with the straight older technology EFI 2 strokes (non pressure injected).