1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

[archcycle]

I'm going to go see a 1987 evinrude 200 model E200TXCUC tomorrow. It's going to be a teardown project motor. Seller says it came non-functional on a boat he bought, couldn't get it to spark, installed a used stator, still didn't spark, and didn't want to keep putting money into it. I figure for $500 I can't lose. I've seen some posts on google searches saying the 200s became loopers in 1986 but just wanted to get a little more input since I've seen that some models had both looper and crossflow options in the same years.

 

[dehydrated]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

1987 200 would be a looper for sure and the most sought after year for performance great buy too check head part numbers should be 331490

 

[archcycle]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

I bought it! Absolute steal, too at $500. He says one cylinder bank is 85 and one is 95. Couldn't test because the only battery he had on hand was very low and had a hard time turning it over so I figured there was no point in pushing the issue. I could have pulled my optima red top and put that on it but didn't. Plugs out it wasn't hard to turn by hand. One of those gift horse in the mouth sort of things since the truth is I was going to buy it no matter what the compression test said.

So unless I can't resist parting it out and restarting my project with more funds, the plan is to tear it all down and build it from the ground up.

Things wrong:
-tilt/trim unit is removed as they were going to rebuild it since the trim motor (yes motor) had filled with hydraulic fluid. included the oem tnt kit.
-no spark. he said he resistance tested everything (but not voltage) and the stator was bad. he replaced it with a new (used) stator that he said passed.
-steering arm assembly, the one that runs down from the powerhead into the midsection, is a little rusty, but nothing awful. he had already purchased a new arm and gave it to me with the motor. the bolts on the current arm look great so that should be no problem with the powerhead off.
-skeg is in Bad shape but the rest of the LU seems ok. the prop shaft turned when I bridged the starter solenoid. it looks like a hard impact just below the gear housing and bumped up then came down on the back of the skeg and snapped it off. It really probably is fine but if it's not I don't care because luckily I happen to have a V6 lower lying around....



So some time after I can figure out how to get it out of the truck I'll get a rebuild thread started and have at it. It took the two of us over an hour to get it off the stand he'd made and into the truck, and he had a fork lift. Good luck to me on that one! I don't have a forklift by the way.

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Thats the small bore 2.7 looper which has the bridged exhaust. The aftermarket suppliers do not drill the pistons for the cooling of the bridge which will require the bridge mod or have pistons drilled. Also these engines did not idle well.....

 

[j_k_bisson]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Faztbullet give him your little rework for the idling issue. It works great!!!!!

 

[archcycle]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

My intention for this project, whether this motor or another, is to power my next boat which is going to be somewhere in the area of a 23-25ft walk around cuddy for moderate offshore maybe 30 miles fishing and diving in the gulf of mexico. I do lots of idling.

After some google searches it's surprising just how much of a cult following this model has for modding. I've generally thought of outboards as following the same performance rules as motorcycles- if you want to go faster, keep your hands off the motor and just buy a faster bike

This is interesting, although I do wonder what some of the big performance jobs on this motor do to its fuel consumption which I'm already bracing for. Although just how much worse could it be than my 140 V4?

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

moderate offshore maybe 30 miles fishing and diving in the gulf of mexico. I do lots of idling.

My $.02 and opinion... find a newer motor 1992 and up.

 

[recon c32]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

I have a 225 rude 86 model fuel eff. is not its strong point and for get the idle after rebuild in march I"ve not got it to idle at 650_700 rpm per book good luck with your rebuild you will find that the guys on this forum will be a great help

 

[dehydrated]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

great buy regardless if indeed the heads are331490 they are worth 200.00 + regardless so great motor you can find mid bore carbs and if you really want it to perform have someone do some port work in the cylinders and look out tis baby can really fly good luck great find

 

[j_k_bisson]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

These motors are great. You have the small bore looper so I would think it is a bit nicer at the pump. But not much. You are looking at 20 gallons a hour at WOT. Sorry about that. I have a 225 and I fish 20-30 mile round trip. It runs anywhere from 60-80 bucks for gas a trip. Thats ona 21' boat though. You should get less than that for milage if you go with a bigger boat. You might want to find a pair of smaller motors if you are going to a boat that big. If would be better on fuel economy. But not much.

As to a cult, yes there is and they hang out here. I love mu motor and learned everything from the people here. Like Faztbullet says you might want to find a newer year. That year the electric components can be expensive due to the amount of individual electrical components on it. Specifically the power packs are double. Also there is no "slow" system on that motor. So over heat without warning is a good possibility without a temp guage. Also a big bore looper 1988 200/225 will give you more power at not much more fuel costs. But if you want a bit of savings on fuel stick with it.

Now the last little down fall with that motor are the carbs. That was the first year for those carbs. Meaning the fixed jetting and that motor configuation. Went you get finished your rebuild I would serious look into re jetting it for the 1987 jets. They had a recall/service builten for that year where they took tose carbs off and replaced them with the 1987's. The carbs are the same but the jets are different.

Lastly if you think you are going to idle with that motor then look for another. Those plugs will be so carboned up in 20-30 minutes you will be replacing them. These are not idling motors, they tend heat up at idle quite abit. Also like I mentioned in a earlier post you will want to do Faztbullets idle rework. It works and the motor idles great. Just carbons up the plugs.

Also these motor are great. Everyone in 20 miles on Lake Erie knows when I am moving from fishing spot to fishing spot. They just get on the radio and ask, they say the hear the chain saw starting....... Got to love the chainsaw sound at WOT blasting acoss the lake!

I'm looking for a pair of 120-150's in the same year range. They will be my next rebuilding project.

 

[archcycle]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm pretty torn on what to do with it now. If it will idle as bad as you all say then it really may be better for me to get it sparking and running and sell it for a nice profit and wait for a project motor that fits my usage to come around. My fishing style does involve tons of idling from catching bait to trolling.

Will have to wait and see how everything goes once we get it out of the truck bed, which is going to have to wait for the weekend. I'm going to have to build a hoist into my garage ceiling to get it out and put it on the stand. Or just call the previous owner and see if I can pay him a few dollars to trailer his forklift down here and do it for me but that would ruin the fun of seeing the woman's face when she comes home to find some 2x6s and a block and tackle bolted to the ceiling

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Since you're looking at doing a rebuild anyway you may want to think about composite reeds. I got mine from Chris Carson Marine and they really did make a difference in idle quality. Some people use Boysen reeds, but I believe Carson's are less expensive, and it's nice to be able to get on the phone and talk to Chris himself about the installation.

 

[Faztbullet]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Since you're looking at doing a rebuild anyway you may want to think about composite reeds

Reeds wont help this engine as it has crappy carbs from factory,small bore so crankcase pressure is low at low rpms and the heads are only good on a 3.0 liter if cooling mod is done to them.(small cc chambers) To make this block work good you would need to bore it to 3.0 spec's(3.685) as sleeve is thick enough to do this,modify the bridge port or piston,vent the lower crankcase bearing,do away with the water valve and install t-stats and covers and finally install a set of 92 and up carbs and throttle plates.... basically turning it into a 3.0l 1992 engine and then you might benifit from reeds

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

.......as it has crappy carbs from factory,small bore so crankcase pressure is low at low rpms.....

Dang, if I hang out here long enough I might learn something.

 

[archcycle]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Reeds wont help this engine as it has crappy carbs from factory,small bore so crankcase pressure is low at low rpms and the heads are only good on a 3.0 liter if cooling mod is done to them.(small cc chambers) To make this block work good you would need to bore it to 3.0 spec's(3.685) as sleeve is thick enough to do this,modify the bridge port or piston,vent the lower crankcase bearing,do away with the water valve and install t-stats and covers and finally install a set of 92 and up carbs and throttle plates.... basically turning it into a 3.0l 1992 engine and then you might benifit from reeds

Sounds like a piece of cake once it's all open, but does anyone know of any writeups that have been posted anywhere where all this is done? I'd like to get a better idea of what it's like before, how in-depth the machine shop's job would be (considering I've never modified a bridge port or vented a crankcase bearing), and what sort of characteristics showed up afterwards like horsepower and idle. I've found a local shop that is tooled for 2 stroke marine engines and the estimate they gave me for just boring/honing all 6 was very reasonable so this could definitely pan out.

Unless of course these things didn't help the lousy idle. That's something I'm really not clear on- just what I can do and how much it helps and if it will help enough to do what I want it to do. I have no attachment to the thing as all I have in it is the awesome purchase price. I have no issues putting lots of money into it if it can be right because I'm building a motor to use it and love that I built it myself, not to sell it. Idle is going to be the make or break on this one being flipped or rebuilt and kept. Someone said 20 minutes and you foul your plugs.. I realize that's probably a little bit exaggerated for the sake of making a point, but I can knock out 20 minutes of idle fighting the tide/current at my first bait stop on the way to the first long slow troll.

 

[archcycle]

Re: 1987 Evinrude 200 looper or crossflow?

Got it into the garage! I had to build a frame into the ceiling, and with an awesome borrowed chain hoist, it came right out of the truck. I was expecting some trouble after struggling to put it in the bed using a fork lift and a chain, but I was actually able to lift the motor with my thumb and forefinger with this hardcore geared chain hoist

So the hard part is done. It's going to be teardown time very soon.

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