Rough number of hours to rebuild 150XL 2-stroke?

[Luke415]

I may have to have my 1998 Merc 150 XL OS 2-Stroke (carbureted) outboard rebuilt and am curious if anyone has a rough estimate of how many hours, or how much $ it would cost. I know it depends on what is actually wrong with it, but assuming there is no cracked block or heads, does anyone have an idea? And what do you think a fair price for having it done is? I was going to take it to the dealer to get a diagnostic and estimate, but may have someone else do an estimate if it seems extraordinarily expensive. Also wondering if it would be cheaper to replace it with a new (used) one.

Thanks

 

[Scott Danforth]

first, what is wrong with your outboard that you think it needs to be rebuilt?

what is the compression?
how many hours are on it?
are you doing the labor yourself or paying to have the labor done?

Price is going to be dependent on where you live, how much work you do vs paying someone else to do, and what is actually wrong with your outboard.

The answer will be dont know, until we know what is wrong with it. and if you are paying for someone else to do the work, it is a lot more expensive than if you do the work yourself. Also, if your only means of repair is to pay someone, in many cases it may be less expensive to buy another motor. However none of us have a clue as to what is wrong with your motor, or why you believe it needs to be rebuilt.

could be a really simple problem

 

[Faztbullet]

I get about $4000 to overhaul one...all cylinders bored.

 

[dingbat]

Mine was almost $7k when all was said and done. I was quoted a new yammie 225 $14k.

In hindsight I should gone with a new or used 4 stroke. My motor runs well buts it's loud, sucks fuel and I still couldn't give it away.

 

[sam am I]

I think my 92-175 carb'd was around $3K tops, maybe closer to $2K'ish......say $2.5K and split it down the middle. I personally did (so no labor costs) it 3 seasons ago over a winter so I was able to take my time and work on it here and there, so its hard to say how many hours. If I totaled the hours? Guessing perhaps 40 hrs of work where my feet and back got sore. A pro/guy that did it for a living could probably do it faster.........I made a few mods on the way, solid state T/T relays and monitoring system (those hours not included above)

Nothing major was wrong with it other than lower compression and some scuffing.....It was running okay when I tore it down. I shipped the block to Fla. to be bored and decked, think I went 0.030 over. New piston, rings and wrist pins then of course but was able to re-used the crank and rods and their needle bearings.Went back with all new gaskets throughout along with new top and bottom bearings and any and all new seals/o-rings, etc.

Tore down the auto oilier and T/T pump/motor as well for inspection/cleaning (those hours not included above)

I re-built carbs with new floats, gaskets, jets, seats, etc but, had loose/leaky butterfly shafts, so I re-bushed the carbs (those hours not included above) as well. I also re-built the fuel pump......

Think that about covers it, no coffee yet, its early I could have forgot something.

 

[Dukedog]

in this area most (that will do it, which are very few) have a flat labor rate for tear down and put back together... then they add all parts and/or machine work after tha tear down and have a look at what it actually takes ta fix it... last i heard was around 1500 base price + everything else.... most non-opti V6's can be "completely" done for 4 grand (ie:faz) or less as long as block (no big holes) and crank or good......

 

[Luke415]

Thanks everyone. As I am not sure what is wrong with it, here is some more specifics. The engine was rebuilt with new powerheads only 80 hours ago. It was sitting for 5 years. I did a spring/100 hour tune up, including:

-new fuel/water separator
-new in-line fuel filter
-new spark plugs
-new water pump/t-stats
-new lower unit oil
-drained all old gas, filled with ethanol free 90 and added quickcleen

Started right up, took her for a test run. Ran fine for about 20 minutes around 3000 rpm's. Tell tales flowing nicely. Took a laser thermometer to the heads, one was 140 degrees, the other 150. Seemed normal to me as I have heard the t-stats open at 140 (but I am not a pro). Took her to WOT for about a minute and she stopped. Couldn't turn her over. Now she is frozen, can't move the flywheel more than 10 degrees with an 8" ratchet on it. Maybe bad oil pump? Wasn't getting oil?

I did all the tune up work myself except for the water pump. I am not a professional mechanic but can figure most stuff out with youtube and the shop manual. I could possibly figure out the issue on my own, however, it is prime boating season and I don't necessarily want to take on a potential 2-4 week project. I do have a twin (counter rotation) that would be helpful to have as a reference, but then again, don't know how much of my own time I can invest in the next few weeks. It may be a simple problem, and obviously no way to tell until someone starts to do some work on it, but I am trying to prepare for the worst.

If buying a new engine is going to be more cost effective, I might have to go that route (assuming the worst). I found the same engine online for about 3k, although hours are unkown:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-Mercur...1a21919f:g:bVYAAOSwuhhXWxfG&vxp=mtr#cvip_desc

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pull the lower unit. Normally if the power head goes, it won't move at all.