Tell me something good about 2000 Merc Optimax 225's

[Ducttape]

Guys I need to know if you have any first hand experience with these motors. Everything Im reading on reports and such call them high maintenance dogs. I am looking at a boat with twin 2000 Mercury Optimax 225's on it with around 100hrs on the motors. I don't know if all the bad press is from guys with the good ones not saying so or are they total pieces of shit like the reports indicate??? Thanks for any/all help and input.

Steve.

[BiggestT]

1,500 hour motors on average. Price it accordingly.

[sandiegofisherm]

we have 03 200 opti 2 stroke on 22 cc seapro and we havent had any problems over 900 hours on motor and still working great , we just put in 238 miles on it saturday for tourney and burned 64 gallons very good mileage

[Ducttape]

Thanks guys, yeah from what I've read the 2000 and 2001 were especially big P.O.S.' I mean Im really hoping to hear better things about them because I really like the boat they're on but definately don't want to get a couple of over-priced lemons. Kinda like the 1991 Ford Taurus transmissions. Every one of them either needed a new tranny or had a new one put in it. P.O.S...

[Trayscool]

whats the boat? can you find the same boat with different motors? is the boat cheap enough to sell the motors and repower?

i have a 1997 mercury efi, the precursor to the opti, and it runs like a champ

[Ducttape]

off to go camping will check on thread on Sat. Thanks fellas.

[MATTANZA]

i have the same motor{a single} on my whaler. very reliable, gets great mileage and easy to service. the best motor i've ever owned. i'd buy another one in a heart beat.

[meddo63]

Good motors if you take care of them, run the serial #'s through a Merc shop and see if there any upgrades needed on them. Easy to do

[Ducttape]

SWEET, thanks guys. Back from camping a day early, the partyers came in force and thats not how I wanted to spend my family camping trip so we pulled out and came home early, had a good time and didn't beat the shit out of any no respect having dipshits so +1 for the good guys.

Some solid advice on the motors keep them coming. Thanks fellas.

[Pescador Paul]

I have never owned an Optimax, but have previously owned outboards by Mercury, Honda, Yamaha, OMC, and Suzuki. All of these were good motors. I personally believe that there are no bad outboards currently being made by any major manufacturer.

Merc, OMC, and Yamaha all had significant problems with their early model year high pressure, direct injected motors. A 2000 Optimax would certainly fall under the model years where this was the case. I would be very careful of these motors- have them checked out professionally, make sure that any required upgrades have been done, and make sure that they have been properly maintained.

There are many threads on this topic at thehulltruth.com. A brief search of the site may be helpful to you.

Good luck,

Pescador Paul

[FINSEEKER]

I have a 1999 225 opti...great engine, only issue is touble sensor's sometimes give false alarms with the throttle position sensor (TPS). economical, quite, idles all day without loading up (salmon fishing at under 3 knots) and has always got me home (except two years ago after eating my lower unit on a Sunfish outbound for albacore). I'd be leary about the 100 hour claim...that's barely broken in. If those are in fact the true hours, your getting basically new engines.

[dbar]

9 year old engines with 100 hours??????? Another thing to think about is the seals....Its better to run an outboard every day, then to let it sit for years. JMO