Opti Overhaul

eyexer

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So I finally decided to pull down the 200 opti and give it some new life. Has about 1200 hours on it. Had eaten reeds twice in it's life. I put new fiber reeds in couple years ago. Ran pretty decent at speed. Had a miss at idle that I could never get rid of. ran better once warm. So I tore it down. Has two mildly scored cylinders. And the other four are getting long in the tooth. So a complete overhaul is what she'll get. Thinking about sending the ecu in and tuned to 225 hp. have to weigh the costs against a 25 hp gain. might not be worth it. Going to also replace the swivel bracket bushings. Getting some slop in there from all the miles pulled down the highway. Might as well do new paint job and decals too lol.

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SDMF

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What gets replaced in a "complete overhaul"? Toss everything except the block or are you able to continue using things by replacing w/over/under sized bearings?

I'd be curious to know your estimation of labor time for the project if someone was working on the motor full-time.
 

eyexer

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overhaul kit consists of pistons, rings, main and rod bearings, all gaskets/seals. This won't need any boring I don't think. Won't know until I run the hone through it. Boring can run up to $70 per hole so I'm gonna try not to do that. However I can just bore the two bad ones if needed and hone the rest. I have about three hours in it to this point. I would guess I'll have 20 hours in it total. I will also rebuild the air pump and send the fuel and air injectors in for cleaning. That will be about $25 a piece for those to get cleaned. So $300 just for them. Overhaul kit is about $1350. I should be able to get it all done for about 2K. You can buy remanned power heads for about $3500. So I'll save about $1500.
 

SupressYourself

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Cool project. Hope you get it handled before the ice comes off.

Reminds me of replacing head gaskets and valve work on my 1980 Caprice Classic back in the day. I was careful to label everything as I tore it out, but still ended up with a wire and a bolt or two that didn't seem to go anywhere. Apparently motors come with extra parts. It ran fine for years.
 

eyexer

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lol. Paint markers are your best friend lol. And a good manual and lots of pictures as you go along lol
 


eyexer

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Got the crank out and the pistons pulled late this afternoon. Now that the pistons are out I can see better. It's really border line on whether honing will do the trick so I'm just gonna bore them all and be assured it's good to go. You can feel a pretty decent ridge at the bottom of the piston travel. .010 will clean it up great. Have to find a decent deal now on the boring. Freight alone will probably suck lol

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eyexer

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I think there are quite a few. I know Auto Value in Minot does. Used to be Mann's automotive. They have been doing machining forever. Bismarck has a few. I actually think Modern Machine here in Williston can do it too. Probably be cheaper in the end due to shipping costs.
 


SLE

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I'm impressed and applaud your willingness to take on a project like this. I'm pretty mechanically inclined and have tore in to stuff my buddies shake their head at but I cann't say I'd be willing to tackle rebuilding a late model marine engine. Nice work!

The best part of seeing this is I've had a couple 3 Liter Opti's and have yet to have one let me down. I don't see myself owning one past 500 hours so this gives me a nice piece of mind seeing yours tore apart at 1200 and really not in that bad of shape. how big of job is it to change the reeds? Was kind of thinking when my current one comes off of warrenty next year I'd swap the stainless for some fresh carbon fiber reeds.
 

eyexer

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took me two hours to change the reeds. could have done it in much less if I would have been smart enough to remove the lower cowel. It ate reeds twice actually. The dealer was dumb enough to put metal reeds back in it when they changed the first set. This was with the prior owner. For 1200 hours and eating reeds twice it is in amazing shape actually. When I got it it ran like shit. Found the broken reeds and also found a plug that wasn't screwed in all the way. Was only about 3/4 inserted. Threads were fubar so I had to chase the threads. Ran 90% better after that. Just could never get rid of the miss at idle. It's on a 2000' pro-v 1900 which due to the engine running sketchy I got for $7500. So I can afford to do whatever I need to do to the motor. I actually figured I'd have to tear into it right away. Ended up running it for 2.5 years and could have ran it much longer just decided I wanted to do it before it grenaded and blew the block. I'm gonna have $2000-2500 in this but a new motor costs 16K plus. That's a staggering difference. Actually the modern day motors are easier to deal with because you have electronic everything. No carbs to mess with, no timing to piss with etc. They just look scary because of all the crap bolted to it. But it's just that, bolted to it. Just unbolt it and set it aside.
 


Davey Crockett

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I'm impressed and applaud your willingness to take on a project like this. .


Yep me too , Thanks for posting. Most everything I tear into is ancient and non electronic so it's fun to tag along and see how some of the new stuff is made , How it works and where it fails.
 

eyexer

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Talked with Kellers Machine shop in Bismarck/Mandan. They can do it. Anybody familiar with them?
 

johnr

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I currently have an 07 optimax 225 that has blown twice. I have lots of experience and a few good stories that I have shared over the years. Would not put anytime or money into it now. Hoping to sell it off before it blows again
 

Wild and Free

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Check this site out for ECU reflashing, I used them to reprogram the ecu on my Yamaha f150 and am more than pleased with how it runs and gets way better fuel economy.
http://simonmotorsports.com/index.html

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Talked with Kellers Machine shop in Bismarck/Mandan. They can do it. Anybody familiar with them?

Keller is in between Burger King and Kupper in Mandan, he does excellent work, I have had him do machine work for my personal projects as well as worked with him through other shops I used to work at. He is super anal and finicky about his work, you get it back better than new. He does heads blocks piston and rods but no crank shafts work at least last time I was there a couple years ago.
 
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