Puchasing a 50hp yamaha..questions..

I'm buying a boat with an 87 50hp yamaha. It seemed to start up pretty easily and at first it idled a little rough but after it warmed up for a minute it seemed to improve. It was very quiet and seemed to be well taken care of.

How reliable are these yamahas?

How are they to work on and find parts for?

Should it blow a constant stream of water out or is a spray alright? My evinrude always made a solid stream where the yamaha blows out a spray kinda.

The lower unit has some algae growth on it from sitting in the water, is this a problem?

What is an older yamaha outboard like this worth?

Thanks for any insight or answers to my questions,

-AaronR

Re: Puchasing a 50hp yamaha..questions..

I had an 87 50 yamaha on my Sea Nymph when I bought it. It ran OK for a bit, then (2nd year) burned up a cylinder. I paid a lot for a rebuild, and it still never ran right. It would power up fine for about 5 minutes, then power down and stall. It would always start again, and I could always nurse it back at low rpm, but it was never sufficiently reliable for me on the great lakes.

Never did find out why, despite pouring more money into it.

I'd recommend you test the motor on the water pretty extensively, at least 30 min at 90% throttle, before buying it. Don't just trust in on the muffs. Mine would always start and run, it would just crap out when under power. It was a money pit for me.

I repowered with a totally rebuilt (top and bottom) 1992 60 Evinrude, and that motor never misses. I'm really happy with it. Plus the shop gave me $200 for the pos Yammy.

Re: Puchasing a 50hp yamaha..questions..

I drove it for 30-45 minutes at varying rpms from idle speed up to full throttle and it doesn't seem to have any problems. other than needing a minute to warm up after it was started it seems to work well. Hopefully I wont have the same problems you had.

Re: Puchasing a 50hp yamaha..questions..

In retrospect, it's possible that the oil injection system pooped out, cooking the top cylinder. Then the guy who did the re-build may not have checked the system or connected the alarm for insufficient oil.

At least, that would account for the problems, and is plausible.

I hope you have good luck with the motor too.

Keep an eye on the oil injector, or disconnect it and run pre-mix.