early 90's Johnson

Do any of you have any experience with the early nineties Johnsons? I am thinking of trying a 50 hp and was wondering if there were common problems with them that I should be aware of.

As far as I know they were good engines. Should be a looper. The loop charged engines were great engines...I have a crossflow...but I love the old girl. The later 90's and into the 2000's is where you find trouble...until BRP took them over.

If you are unsure...have a compression and leakdown test performed. Check the lower unit for water..(white fluid)....and take her for a good run if possible. I would not buy it if it didn't have AT LEAST a compression test done on it. As leakdown also would be nice...and by all means check the fluid in the lower unit.

I have a 1993 50 HP evinrude on an 18 foot Lowe boat. The most common problem I've known
of is the VRO pump failing to mix the proper amount of oil with the fuel, my engine had to
be rebuilt due to burned pistons. I would recomend disconnecting the oil line to the VRO
pump and premixing the oil with the fuel in the tank. you will need to disconnect the
alarm wire from the pump if you do this. this is what I did and it has worked well for me.
I PREMIX AT 50 TO 1 RATIO

I worked for the DNR 93-96 and we had a new 40 and 50 hp Johnson. It seemed like a "Powerpack" had to be replaced every year on one motor or another, an expensive part (I'm thinking $600). On the smaller one, we were having false overheat signals and the motor would go into fail-safe/idle mode. So they fixed it. Next time I had it out, it got so hot it melted the plastic water temp sensor and shot it out of the block. Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of early 90's Johnsons.

Had a new 48 hp Evinrude, 92yr, I think. Took the dealer 9 months to get it to idle smoothly.

Prob was when carb assembly took place in Mexico the wrong sized jets were installed. So, when mechanic turned the adjustment 1/2 turn it was actually 1 turn or greater.

Since that deal was taken care of it has ran for 16 years with little or no probs.

Would say it was a good engine.

Regards

Smackover