TOPIC: What's the Most Cost Effective Way to Repower?

Assuming you're not set up to do the rebuild yourself.

Let's just say I wanted an American made two stroke 100 horse outboard with NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. Not the cheapest, but the best bang for the buck.

An Evinrude E-Tec 90 horse is $7500.

Remans with a 1 year warranty seem to run $4-5000.

Lower unit rebuild on an existing good running 100 horse is maybe $2000.

Motor would get less than 100 hours use per year.

W.T. : Being in Mont you should find some sort of used rig with low hours on the motor.. Maybe a 10 - 15 yr old engine. GO for a test ride out on the water.. Buy the rig . SPLIT the combo apart, putting the newer engine on your classic & re - sell the donor boat,
with our without your old engine. . Any collectible hardware ,like a spotlight , resell on E-bay , Like my friend did last week, (Maybe another extra $125.!)

. Top cowl can always be painted to match your boat , or even modified to look retro back to the 50 's.(BLUE Boat pic below)

Used rigs always saves the state sales tax of brand new mtors.
............

Removing from an old boat is a cost effective way for sure, depending on what exactly you are looking for. I was content with an older motor, as long as it ran well. I was looking in the 50-90 hp range, and didn't want to spend more than $750.... It ended up costing me almost nothing.

After doing a lot of craigslist searching, I found a VERY strong, great running 1977 mercury 850. It was on a boat, so all the electrical & controls where there, in addition to steering. The guy wanted $600 for boat (it was a VERY tired 72 trihull), motor, & trailer. I talked him down to $500, and he even delivered it to me.

I removed the motor, and steering. The rotary helm & cable would have cost me $150 or so alone had I just bought a motor. The controls and cables also came off, along with the wiring harness. Remember, if you buy just a motor, you still need all this "stuff", which gets pricey.

I really lucked out- there was a nice vintage Iva-lite searchlight on the boat, that I promptly sold on eBay for $200.00! The stripped boat & trailer sold through craigslist for another $100. In the end, I paid $200, after you figure in the cost of wiring, controls, cables, & steering- so the total repower was basically free.

Of course it took some time/ effort, but well worth it!