2000 90ELPTO: Which sleeve: L130OB or L167OB? (short or long exhaust port notch)

[dandreye]

Hi All,

A screenshot from the LA Sleeve catalog attached suggests there are 2 different sleeves for the manufacturing years my 2000 90ELPTO outboard (made in Belgium, serial #0P121707) falls into:
- L130OB (short exhaust port notch): 1994-2014
- L167OB (long exhaust port notch): 1998-2014
It even explains how to measure the current ones to figure out which spare ones to buy. The problem is that the outboard would clearly need dismantling to take those measurements, which I hopefully won't have to do in the foreseeable future as it's running fine. Does anyone happen to know which of these sleeves went into which outboards over those years - basically anything that could give me a hint which one is more likely to have been installed into my outboard when it was made? I'd really like to buy 3 ones that fit before LA Sleeve stop making them. Unfortunately neither LA Sleeve nor Brunswick Marine (basically "Belgian" Mercury) were able to tell me which ones I need.

Many thanks in anticipation!

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, re-sleeving is usually a last ditch effort. Why not price oversize pistons and plan to use those for when you damage your bores?

 

[racerone]

Buy 3 of the short ones.-----Make them long if need be.-----Agree with above post, boring the existing sleeves for O/S piston and rings is so much cheaper.-----

 

[dandreye]

Chris1956:​

racerone:​

Thanks for your replies. The OB is actually running fine still on standard size pistons (although the compression is on the weak side of it) and surely I'm going to re-bore it into the 1st oversize when the time comes. The sleeves are more of an investment into my own peace of mind and happiness really, although tbh a lot of spares that I bought in late 2000s just in case with the feeling that I may never actually need them turned out to be a pretty good investment like into the fast growing stocks looking at the Mercury parts prices these days ) The other reason to consider buying them is to have genuine LA Sleeve ones while they're still made: sadly parts quality only goes down and down globally... Good idea about making long notch ones out of the short notch ones: I had it too but didn't realise it's actually possible. In fact I feel the short notch ones would be the right fit anyway as the long notch ones are a lot rarer for some reason. It'd still be nice to learn the history behind them both.
It's all down to pricing and availability: no rush at all. I first tried getting them back in 2017 and just couldn't work out a cheap enough logistics to ship them internationally and gave up.

 

[racerone]

So what are your compression values today ?----With proper care and understanding how a 2 stroke works , you will never need sleeves in my opinion.

 

[dandreye]

So what are your compression values today ?----With proper care and understanding how a 2 stroke works , you will never need sleeves in my opinion.

I feel so too They're 7.5kg (107psi) in the top cylinder and 7kg (100psi) in the other 2. Not great but will still last a while: I think it'll need boring at 6kg.

 

[racerone]

What do you mean with 6kg compression ????----Do you understand the purpose of the exhaust notch?-----Do you install a new impeller every 5 years ?----Test your overheat horn / wiring ?

 

[dandreye]

What do you mean with 6kg compression ????----Do you understand the purpose of the exhaust notch?-----Do you install a new impeller every 5 years ?----Test your overheat horn / wiring ?

We measure compression in kg/cm2. Knowing that it's not a globally acceptable unit I tried converting it into PSI. In BAR it'd be 7.35BAR in the top cylinder and 6.86BAR in the other 2 (I don't know which units are commonly used in the US). I'm not a mechanic myself, so all I know about exhaust notch is that it's, well, for exhaust. Wrt the impeller, I've owned this OB since 2007 and believe or not it's still running on whatever impeller it had at that time (and I won't be surprised if it's still the factory installed one) as it's working perfectly well and there's not a single crack anywhere on its blades. Over the course of those years it was checked several times by one or another mechanic. I have a brand-new spare one on board ready to go in, and do keep an eye on the tell-tale at all times of course. The OB does very few hours per season, perhaps that'd explain it. Wrt the alarm circuitry, low oil alarm and overheat alarm share the same circuit and whenever the oil level drops down to ~30% it starts beeping like mad - no living creature can bear it for more than a few minutes. I've never heard the constant sound of overheating but the thresmostat was tested and is working well. I suppose the mechanics would tell me if they found any signs of overheating worth mentioning..

 

[racerone]

Your post only mentioned 6kg !-----You are prepared to invest in new sleeves , but no pennies for a new impeller ?-----Very strange in my opinion.

 

[dandreye]

Your post only mentioned 6kg !-----You are prepared to invest in new sleeves , but no pennies for a new impeller ?-----Very strange in my opinion.

Sorry yes I forgot to mention it's kg/cm2. I have already invested in not 1 but several (IIRC about 5 total) impellers, but why change something that's working..

 

[Texasmark]

Sorry yes I forgot to mention it's kg/cm2. I have already invested in not 1 but several (IIRC about 5 total) impellers, but why change something that's working..

How do you know it's working...define working....I never changed them just to be changing them but if I felt like I needed a new one the engines got a new one....course I don't go a couple dozen miles out in the ocean either. Never had one in bad shape. Some folks report that they have chunks of blades missing when changing theirs. That's a really bad deal as you don't know where the missing piece(s) went. Never had one bad to that degree...bent back blades and obvious wearing of the surface (no big deal in performance degradation) is all I ever encountered...but I just work on my own stuff.

 

[dandreye]

Texasmark:​

By working I just meant a strong (as strong as always) tell-tale. I try following the same approach: avoid changing anything just for the sake of changing it. Why has the impeller lasted so long? Firstly it's freshwater. Secondly, light usage pattern: taking the boat onto the water at the beginning of my summer holidays (3-4 weeks), keeping it there with just 5-10min daily rides one way to the most beautiful places that are fortunately so near, staying there for a few hours and coming back (occasionally going there again in the evening on the same day to watch the sunset though), taking the boat out of the water at the end of the holidays, winterizing the engine... that's it. So the engine hardly does even 10hrs/season. Last but not least: build quality: I'll be surprised if the replacement ones (the last ones Taiwan made) last anywhere that long.

The reason for building the stock of spares despite the above is: it'll definitely change once I'm retired and have proper amount of time for it all. Getting there.

Btw I still remember your post a long time ago about the nice sound of tuned exhausts that's only heard on 3-cyl ones: I've loved my OB particularly for that sound since then Never realised sound may be a criteria.