Opinions on if I should repower 18

[Bandit91]

It was a bad day today for my little seacraft. Its a porter 18 with a Yamaha v4 130. I’ve been keeping an eye on my steering arm for a while, it’s had the dreaded corrosion and I knew the day would come where it would become to brittle for me to chance. While inspecting it today I was actually able to bend it and it seems like I could break it if I really tried, so needless to say the seacraft won’t be going out again until it is fixed. My dilemma is should I go through the hassle of trying to fix the steering arm (removing power head, most likely breaking bolts in power head, trying to find a new steering arm since I’m pretty sure they’re no longer making that part, etc) or just repower my boat. I love the boat and it’s always performed great with the 130. Unfortunately it’s still a 20” transom so if I was repowering I would like to go ahead and raise the transom for a 25” motor and I can see the snowball effect coming already. I really don’t won’t my boat down for the whole summer either. What would y’all do if you were in my situation? The 130 runs great and has good compression, but the mercury 115 pro xs sure sounds nice about now too?

[Beaver]

Let me start by saying that I am super cheap (mostly because I have to be). With that said, I think the Yamaha 130 is probably the perfect motor for the 18. Its light, super reliable and fuel efficient for its horsepower. I just looked on ebay and you can buy a steering arm for a 115/130 for less than $200. I recently pulled the head on my 90 to replace a bunch of gaskets and was surprised at how easy it was. I built some gallows out of 2x4 and used an automotive jack on top with a chain to do the deed. My vote would be to keep the 130, change out the steering arm, put a new base gasket in there, and maybe repaint the cowl with some new decals. You'll feel like you have a new motor and you'll have almost 10K still in your pocket. You'll also have a great feeling of accomplishment.

That's my 2 cents. Good luck on whatever you choose to do.

Rob

[Bandit91]

Thanks for the reply Beaver. I think I’m leaning towards repairing it. I ageee that it is the perfect motor for the hull. I’ve nevwr pulled a powerhead before but your experience with your 90 is encouraging.

[steel686]

Same here. After everything I have read in the past few years, that seems like the perfect engine. I bought mine with a Yamaha 115 back in 1992 and would probably grab a 130 if I could find one. Hope you can make it work.

[Bandit91]

Giving an update on my motor situation. After a lot of thought I decide this might be a good time to repower. The four stroke is getting more and more appealing to me recently and I decided to go with a 140 Suzuki.

[kmoose]

The 140 is a lot of motor on an 18. I have a friend with a 20 Seafari but the cabin and forward helm really helps with weight distribution. It flies that hull but in your case I did some research on weight and options going with a 90 hp. Below is the weight for each of the same HP. I was surprised to see who was the lightest...

Etec 90 - 390#
Merc 90 - 359#
Yamaha - 353#
Suzuki - 343 #

[DonV]

One of those "second opinions".....

I just sold an 18' Kenner Vision with the standard rigged "boat show" package from Tracker (yes I said Tracker, it was my friends boat, I bought it from him versus him having to give it back to the finance company, don't shoot me), anyway it had a 90 hp Merc OptiMax, great engine, however with the 115 being the same weight, size, etc. engine I wish it was rigged with one or even a 140.

[Bandit91]

Thanks for the replies. I understand the 140 might be a little over the target weight. I considered the 90 but I really loved the performance I had with the 130 two stroke so I felt like I would be sacrificing a lot going down to a 90 four stroke. That left the 115 which in Suzuki’s case was actually a little heavier than the 140. It seems like the mercury 115 command thrust motor would be perfect but I couldn’t work a deal out on one that I could with the 140, the mercury 115 was going to be significantly more. So that brought me to the 140. I have moved my two batteries to the front of the console to help offset some weight. I think if I need to work more weight forward I could go with a smaller tank now that I have a four stroke and mount it as far forward as possible. And I guess worst case is it really doesn’t work out and I find a 20 sf hull and mount the new 140 on a floatation bracket haha. I really do appreciate the help though. The 140 isn’t in yet so I still could go with the mercury 115 if I changed my mind. I believe it’s 360 lbs.

[Bandit91]

Y’all have really got me thinking about the Suzuki 90. I wish I could ride in an 18 with one. I’d hate to be disappointed with the performance. Not so worried about top speed but more worried about having ample midrange power since I’m coming from a 130 two stroke. The weight of that 90 Suzuki definitely interests me though. It would also save some money over the 140, which is also good. I honestly hadn’t really thought much about the 90 hp engines. I was more focused on the 115 line.

[Beaver]

I’d do the 90. There are several guys on this site that have mentioned the 140 being too much weight. The Potter hulls do a lot better with a lighter motor (20” transom and they’re all a little ass heavy). It’ll plane a lot quicker and be able to keep it on plane at a lot lower speed.

I keep waiting for someone to put an F70 on an 18. I bet it would push it fine