2000 mercury XR6 150 horse power. New lower unit!

Caudfish15

Cadet
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
26
So I went to test drive this boat a couple weeks ago and all went great until we were loading the boat onto the trailer. To make a long story short, the guy throttled up to push the boat onto the trailer then slammed it in reverse which caused the throttle cable to kick out of place. When further examining what had happened, the boat would no longer engage into reverse. Obviously I didn't buy the boat at that time. Now the guy says the lower unit was out, so he ordered a new lower unit and is going to put it on for me if I'm still interested in buying it. The new lower unit has a 3 year warranty and if everything works once it's on I'd like to buy the boat. What do you guys think? Looking for advice before I spend the money on this boat. I don't want to end up working on this boat like I did my last one. Will the new lower unit be dependable? I'm thinking it is a new aftermarket lower unit because he got it for the same price as the remanufactured ones I had looked at. I'm open for input. Thank you in advance!
 

Drew220

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 30, 2016
Messages
39
Sounds like he put an SEI lower unit on it. They have a 3 year no questions asked warranty. No matter what you do to it, they will replace it.

I put one on my boat when my lower unit went out. Working well so far. You have to go easy on it at first to break it in. Such as for the first 10 hours no wide open throttle. If I had had the boat insured I would have had a Mercury lower put in

IDK about this boat dude. Sounds like the guy was careless with it.
 

Caudfish15

Cadet
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
26
Thanks for the input Drew. The rest of the boat is in really good shape. Everything works and it's very clean looking. The guy says they never run it over 5100 rpms. The sticker says not to exceed 5600 rpms. There are 254 hours on the meter. I think they probably took good care of it, but you'll never know. I'm just worried about the lower unit and if there could have been anymore damage done besides the lower end. Even after we found out the reverse wouldn't engage, we ran the boat going forward and it planed out like it should. I figured people on here would have more experience and would guide me in the right direction here. How long ago did you replace your lower unit?
 

Drew220

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
May 30, 2016
Messages
39
Thanks for the input Drew. The rest of the boat is in really good shape. Everything works and it's very clean looking. The guy says they never run it over 5100 rpms. The sticker says not to exceed 5600 rpms. There are 254 hours on the meter. I think they probably took good care of it, but you'll never know. I'm just worried about the lower unit and if there could have been anymore damage done besides the lower end. Even after we found out the reverse wouldn't engage, we ran the boat going forward and it planed out like it should. I figured people on here would have more experience and would guide me in the right direction here. How long ago did you replace your lower unit?

Just last year. It was on a 95 Mercury 125. I also had to replace the remote control, because when I tried to shift back to neutral after the lower failed it broke in half. I had just bought the boat too. Looked very well taken care off but you can never tell what will happen with a 20 year old engine :)

My impeller just failed on the SEI lower unit last weekend after only 10 hours of use. Almost reuined my engine due to overheating.

Check the slide that the cables sttach to make sure it's not broken or cracked as well. Most likely nothing else was damaged.
 

Caudfish15

Cadet
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
26
How did you know that your impeller was failing? Did you have a temp signal sound? I've bought the boat now, everything seems to be going well. Just trying to follow the break in process the best that I can. Can't go over 3500 rpm's for 5 hrs. Then can go wide open, but have to slowly take it back down to 3500 rpms for 5 hours. After that I can change the lower unit oil and run as normal. I'm a bit worried that this thing won't work out, but the boat runs so well I couldn't pass it up. Anything I should be listening for or keeping an eye on while breaking it in?
 
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