1980 Johnson 85hp 2stroke V4

[Todesengel]

Hey guys,

I am trading one of my saltwater aquariums for a 1981 invader vee 16 with a 85hp Johnson on it, and I don't know much about this motor and I was curious what you guys could tell me about it? The owner of the boat had the battery disconnected, and when he fired it up for us he only hooked up two wires and left about 6 others not hooked up. The boat fired up fine and ran great, it pee'd out of two holes near the rear of the lower unit. It was a steady stream for about 3 inches on both sides.

The control panel had this buzzer alarm going off in it every time we turned the key into the on position. Is this the overheat alarm? Could it be because he didn't hook up all the wires to the battery? We only had it running for 4 or 5 minutes, so I don't think it could of overheated, and It was peeing... The guy said he has never heard it before.

Are these reliable motors? Anything I should be extra careful with? All the moving parts on the motor were lubed, and the motor was very clean. And it idled no problem, unfortunately I don't have the resources for a compression test.

Thanks,
~Josh

edit:
After looking at a video on youtube, it looks like it's suppose to pee out of the side of the motor, not the midsection. I am going to have to double check.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Re: 1980 Johnson 85hp 2stroke V4

That engine only had one type of alarm, a constant tone or beep, signalling an overheat. Check the head temps with a laser temp gun to be sure it is not a true overheat. If it is not overheating and the horn continues to sound, you may have a bad temp switch on either head. When these senders (one in each head) reach 212 they go to ground and sound the horn. The most important thing to an outboard is compression. Check it before you put any money into it.

 

[crb478]

Re: 1980 Johnson 85hp 2stroke V4

There will be a single beep when you turn the key on that just verifies that the alarm system works, that is normal. As far as the holes in the lower unit that it is peeing out of those are not the tell tale that should show after the water has passed through the heads. See if you can find a stream on the starboard side on the bottom of the cowl. I am not sure how he is wiring the motor up so I will not comment there. These motors ar very reliable if maintained, but I would look at the maintaince on this one very closely. Do a compression check you are looking for hopefully over 100psi and with in 10 percent on each cylinder. Then verify that each cylinder will jump a 7/16 inch gap with a strong blue spark. It is possible to run it on muffs and still be down a cylinder or two since there is no back pressure on the motor. Lastly check the lower unit to make sure that water has not leaked into it, if the oil looks milky it has. If there is no oil that is also a problem. After that proceed with caution, it could be a great motor, but its hard to say without more information.