Re: Omc vs mercury parts

Home Forum Ask A Member Omc vs mercury parts Re: Omc vs mercury parts


johnyrude200


Replies: 782
Topics: 186
#62891

Well, Mercury (BRP) owns Evinrude now, so I’ll preface my statements with that.

I picked up an early 80’s merc 70hp a month ago and couldn’t believe I could even lift it up. I primarily work on OMC’s, to the tune of about 150-250 annually between service orders and old motor sales. A 70hp OMC weighs 253lbs with PT/T. This merc was so light it felt like an OMC 50hp without trim (about 175lbs).

So to tie my rambling into your question. From my understanding of mercs circa 1970’s and 1980’s. These blocks don’t have iron sleeves. So that lightens it up, but also dramatically shortens service life. OMC’s when maintained just go, and go, and go by simple principle; iron trumps aluminum in terms of repeated use durability, tolerance to temperature spikes, etc.

Production runs also contribute; most OMC models were run for at least a decade. In many instances, for 20-30 years of production. And in the 60’s, from what I’ve read, they were producing 200,000 motors a year! Multiply that by 10 years and you have 2,000.000 motors floating around. That is a lot of parts motors left over even 50 years later.

Can’t speak to mercury, and nothing against them. After all, they are still in business, yet OMC has been gone for nearly 20 years at this point.