1995 Merc 200 XRI - To buy or to not buy? Need some advice by this Saturday

[Bob Dobbs]

Hey guys. I need some advice real soon regarding a 1995 Mercury 200 XRI that I am suppose to pick up this Saturday. What should the compression be for this motor? Are there any known problems with this motor? Performance wise, is this the best 200hp that Mercury ever made? I read on another forum that these motors could be a little sluggish coming out of the hole on a heaver boat? I am putting this on an 18' foot Exciter and was hoping I can get this to do about 75mph. Not sure if the Exciter is considered a heavy boat? I was suppose to buy a Merc 225 Optimax, but the deal fell through. The owner of the Merc 200 XRI had it on a 21' Baja and said he was in the mid 70's. He said he use to race boats with the Optimax 225 and would beat them. Here is a link to the original thread that I started regarding these 2 motors:

http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7501

 

[ragu]

Merc 200

If your deal falls through on this motor I have one that you may be interested in. Here are the details.
200 Merc Carb 2.5
Totally Rebuilt w/5hours Break in time
It came with a 21 Superboat I had bought. I ran the motor on the boat for 5 hours til the end of the season. It is sitting in my garage ever since. I can demo. I did a compression test when I bought it and at the end of the season. It is 140-142 on all cylinders
This is NOT a chrome bore motor.
I was told it was bored on 1 cyl 30 over, the rest are 20 over.
All internals were replace with the exception of the crank.
The carbs were rebuilt
It is a 1991
I would like to get $4000 or best offer for it.
The deck is shot on the Superboat I bought and am not going to invest money on this boat.
I have my eye on a 16' Sportfire that is supposed to be a turn key boat and I would not put this motor on the Sportfire and kill the boat.
If you would like pics I can email to you or you can call 516-351-4285.
Thanks Mike
PS, I have not posted on here much but am a "regular" on Scream and Fly. You can speak to any member I have dealt with on that site and the can vouge for my character and honesty.

 

[Chris E]

i can't help you much with the compression but i can tell you i had one of these motors on mastercraft barefoot 200 and it was a very very strong motor and easily pushed that boat to 60-65 mph. it had great throttle response and turn key starting - liked that a lot. it was the first efi motor i got to play with.

 

[OTonyOh]

Hey guys. I need some advice real soon regarding a 1995 Mercury 200 XRI that I am suppose to pick up this Saturday. What should the compression be for this motor? Are there any known problems with this motor? Performance wise, is this the best 200hp that Mercury ever made? I read on another forum that these motors could be a little sluggish coming out of the hole on a heaver boat? I am putting this on an 18' foot Exciter and was hoping I can get this to do about 75mph. Not sure if the Exciter is considered a heavy boat? I was suppose to buy a Merc 225 Optimax, but the deal fell through. The owner of the Merc 200 XRI had it on a 21' Baja and said he was in the mid 70's. He said he use to race boats with the Optimax 225 and would beat them. Here is a link to the original thread that I started regarding these 2 motors:

http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7501

Bob, for help on the motor in question, we need some info on it. The above link is to an '05 225 not a '95 200. From what I read in the above post there is no mention of a '95 200. Get us some info so we can help you decide.

 

[Mark]

As far as a Merc goes, nothing wrong with the 200 XRI. It is more important for the compression to be fairly even across all 6 than anything...within 10%. The compression should be in the 110-135 window.
That motor will have no trouble pushing an Exciter and will not be sluggish out of the hole. Probably a very good choice for that hull. They are fuel injected and have good throttle response. Mid 70's is only possible with a jackplate and the right prop at the right height. Nothing wrong with the carbed version either. Easier to tinker with if you are a backyard mechanic.
Both are on the thirsty side by todays new standards.

 

[xsv spd]

The motor you are considering is exactly what I own. I run it on my Pulsare 2100. It is slower out of the hole than I would like, but can still can get most 200 pound men out of the water with both feet in a slalom binding. I have had this boat and motor for 5 summers and have not had one problem at all. My compression is 110 to 112, starts all the time and has not let me down once.

Compression, pressure test foot, leak down, dial out prop shaft and the rest is buyer beware...good luck!

 

[Bob Dobbs]

Bob, for help on the motor in question, we need some info on it. The above link is to an '05 225 not a '95 200. From what I read in the above post there is no mention of a '95 200. Get us some info so we can help you decide.

It is the very last post in that thread. I even attached pictures of it. Don't know how you missed that?

Here's the post from that thread:


Well guys,the deal fell through with the 2001 Mercury Optimax 225. The dealer sold the motor on me because I did not give an answer right away. My sales guy got caught in the middle of selling this motor with another sales guy at the same time. The other buyer just happened to be local and went in to the dealer and bought it. My sales guy felt bad and said another motor just like it was coming in and he would give it to me for $500 less. Well, I got tired of calling about it and he never called me back so I kept looking. I ran across a 1995 Mercury 200 XRI that just happened to be locally, but the problem was it was also listed on Ebay and was about to end in a day. I had to make a quick decision and offered the guy a price above the current Ebay price and the guy accepted! I hope I didn't make a bad decision here without seeing the motor first, but it sounds like it is a solid motor, and I'm paying half the cost of what the Optimax 225 was going for!

All 6 cylinders have between 125 and 130 compression. I was hoping someone could check and see what the compression should be for this motor?

Does anyone know how good these XRI 200's are?

I am going to pick it up this Saturday. I already gave the guy a deposit, so it's pretty much a done deal, but would like some feedback on what I just bought.

Thanks

 

[Bob Dobbs]

If your deal falls through on this motor I have one that you may be interested in. Here are the details.
200 Merc Carb 2.5
Totally Rebuilt w/5hours Break in time
It came with a 21 Superboat I had bought. I ran the motor on the boat for 5 hours til the end of the season. It is sitting in my garage ever since. I can demo. I did a compression test when I bought it and at the end of the season. It is 140-142 on all cylinders
This is NOT a chrome bore motor.
I was told it was bored on 1 cyl 30 over, the rest are 20 over.
All internals were replace with the exception of the crank.
The carbs were rebuilt
It is a 1991
I would like to get $4000 or best offer for it.
The deck is shot on the Superboat I bought and am not going to invest money on this boat.
I have my eye on a 16' Sportfire that is supposed to be a turn key boat and I would not put this motor on the Sportfire and kill the boat.
If you would like pics I can email to you or you can call 516-351-4285.
Thanks Mike
PS, I have not posted on here much but am a "regular" on Scream and Fly. You can speak to any member I have dealt with on that site and the can vouge for my character and honesty.

Hey Ragu, thanks for the offer, but if this second motor is not up to par, then I am going to just hold off this year and scrap buying another motor all together. I do appreciate the offer.

 

[Bob Dobbs]

The motor you are considering is exactly what I own. I run it on my Pulsare 2100. It is slower out of the hole than I would like, but can still can get most 200 pound men out of the water with both feet in a slalom binding. I have had this boat and motor for 5 summers and have not had one problem at all. My compression is 110 to 112, starts all the time and has not let me down once.

Compression, pressure test foot, leak down, dial out prop shaft and the rest is buyer beware...good luck!

How heavy is your Pulsare? I think my Exciter is 1025 lbs. Do you know if they rate the boat with or without the motor? So, there might be some truth that these motors are not the greatest out of the hole? I slalom on a double boot ski and used to get up on my uncle's 79' Baja 16' boat with a 115hp Merc with no problem back when I was about 160 lbs. I am now about 225 lbs and my uncle's current I/O Merc 6 pulls me for ever before getting me on top of the water. It's been a long time since I skied behind an Outboard motor. I hope the boat I just bought with the Merc 150 gets me up better. I can't imagine the 200hp being worse. Your scaring me when you say you can get most 200 lb out of the water. It does not seem reassurring. I am thinking your boat is about 500lbs heaver then mine, so I am hoping this is a big factor and that there will be no slugging out of the hole. I hope I am not disappointed with this new motor. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[MateFever]

Bob, I would say that you got yourself a good motor there. This guy has had several outboards for sale he always goes through them to be sure of all the vitals. If they are bad he replaces needed components. A couple weeks ago he had a 150 25" with a new powerhead on it. Have him run it and view the compression numbers before you take it. For mercs I would say around 120-130 psi is a good strong range. If you have the chance, see if he has any 150's that he's getting ready to sell.

 

[xsv spd]

How heavy is your Pulsare? I think my Exciter is 1025 lbs. Do you know if they rate the boat with or without the motor? So, there might be some truth that these motors are not the greatest out of the hole? I slalom on a double boot ski and used to get up on my uncle's 79' Baja 16' boat with a 115hp Merc with no problem back when I was about 160 lbs. I am now about 225 lbs and my uncle's current I/O Merc 6 pulls me for ever before getting me on top of the water. It's been a long time since I skied behind an Outboard motor. I hope the boat I just bought with the Merc 150 gets me up better. I can't imagine the 200hp being worse. Your scaring me when you say you can get most 200 lb out of the water. It does not seem reassurring. I am thinking your boat is about 500lbs heaver then mine, so I am hoping this is a big factor and that there will be no slugging out of the hole. I hope I am not disappointed with this new motor. Thanks for the feedback.

I would not worry too much about getting out of the water with a double high wrap boot...I weigh 170 and my friend weighs 220ish. Yes he takes longer to get out of the water but it is not that bad. I beleive the Pulsare 2100 weighs 1375 dry. It has a jackplate and I have the typical stainless steel Laser II 25' pitch. If getting out of the whole was a problem I would have many options to rectify it.

I can see the pics posted above...unless Merc used different decals in Canada or something, that motor does not look like a 1995. Actualy the decals remind me of my older 1988 150 XR4 off of my Sportfire. My decals are very different from that one. However it does appear to have the newer one piece cowl...

 

[MateFever]

The decals look that way because he makes new decals for each motor he sells. He had an 83 150 about three weeks ago that had decals that looked more like an 88.

 

[Mark]

Bob
You've got nothing to worry about. I have the same motor on a 21' Starliner and it does 0-30 in 4 seconds. It will pull any skier up any day of he week even with a 25" 4 blade prop.
It is only comparing it to a 3.0L motor on a heavy boat that it would be sluggish, and even then probably not much. The Exciter is a 1000 pound chip of fiberglass that will come out of the hole like a rocket with that motor.