HELP– Do I have the Holly Grail–New Old stock 1986 Johnson 15 HP

[bookfuzz]

I’m beginning to suspect that I’ve stumbled across a Johnson J15RCUD that has never see water.
How can I tell and what the heck could the value be on this?
The motor is part of an estate of many boats motors and trailers horded by this guy.
I trailed one of the boats back to Milwaukee to be cleaned up and sold in the spring. ( better prices). I tossed one of the motors on the back for transport too.
Although I knew the motor was in exceptional condition for a 1986 it wasn’t till I got it home in good light that I realized it still had on it two paper stickers listing "inspected by" and an aluminum tag attached by wire with the model # embossed (stamped) in it.
The prop shows no wear marks and inside the hood isn’t even dusty. Any smudges on it probably came from haphazard handling by the family.

How can I tell if this motor is still a virgin? I’ve never known of one.
What is it worth and what’s the best venue to sell it?
I was going to pull the plugs and see if they are clean but not sure if that would be definitive.

[fleetwin]

Well, a J15RCUD is a 1987 model, but that is no big deal. This is a very desirable short shaft 15hp engine for sure. I don’t know how much difference it will make describing the engine as never being used, or just having a couple of hours on it…I’m guessing the engine was at least tank tested by the selling dealer. The plugs will always show a bit of use because the engine was tested at the factory.
You could sell it on ebay, but list is as a local sale/pick up only, you sure don’t want to get involved with shipping this engine. Try craigslist as well, I know you could fetch over a thousand dollars, maybe up to fifteen hundred to a the right buyer who appreciates what he is getting…Don

[captchuck]

This is an interestingconcept. I have a friend who cleans out storage lockers and found something similar. He found a 1991 Merc 8 hp (I think) still in the shipping box, still banded shut. He went to a Merc repair shop and asked their opinion. They told him as it had been sitting so long he should leave it with them where they could pull it apart, change all seals and change out the water pump impeller. The cost estimate was more than a used engine of that era. They tried talking him into it with horror stories of how the impeller was definitely bad after sitting for so long and ‘chances were all the engine’s seals would be bad as well.

He threw it back in the truck, brought it home where we stuck it in a tank, started it up to see if it would run. Long story short, it ran, it pumped and everything was fine for this season. We do plan on changing out the impeller over the winter just because we can, but other than that all seems as it should.

Moral of this story; some will tell you it’s a NEW engine, some will tell you it needs work before you can trust it. The truth? Flip a coin!

[fleetwin]

Well, the truth in this case is it would be a good idea to replace the water pump impeller just to make sure it hasn’t dried out after sitting. The rest of the stuff was just crap….Yeah, OK, let’s take apart a brand new powerhead!

[chris-p]

bookfuzz,

Sounds like you found a nice low hours motor. Great!

CaptnChuck,

I have to agree with the mechanics here. You are VERY lucky that the impeller didn’t explode, leaving you with weeks of work digging out chunks of rubber from the cooling system. Possibly years of overheats and new chunks surface and block a passage. Im not sure which seals they were referring to. As Fleetwin stated, I definitely wouldn’t be pulling apart a new powerhead! I may change the crank seals though depending on the motor.

[bookfuzz]

Thanks for the opinions. None of them are far off the opinion I had.
A curious motor but still older.
Must say I scored a great deal on all of this.
In law of mine put me on to this because I mess with old boats and motors from the 50s.
Local marina had offered the guy $2800. for all of the boats and motors. That was a year ago. Now they need them off the property so they can sell it. I offered to sell all of them for the estate and give them the first $3000 of the sales. I also removed all the stuff from the property.
Not a bad deal. I figure "top" retail value around 11K. Realistically less but a good deal all around.

[wbeaton]

Pretty cool to find an old motor still in the box. Whatever a new 9.9 hp is worth would be the cap for value on this one, but I suspect its true value is much less. I’d look at Craiglist or Kijiji and see what the most expensive asking price is for a used 1987 9.9 hp. That’s probably about what its worth 🙂

We actually have two 2012 Yamaha 9.9 hp motors still in the boxes at work. We had three, but now we are down to two. We bought them when I discovered that carbureted two strokes (84 lbs) were no longer going to be produced and the current four strokes were too heavy (115 lbs) to safely walk up and down steep riverbanks. I doubt ours will see the 30 year mark, though.

Wayne
Upper Canada Chapter

uccaomci.com

[outbdnut2]

When you change that impeller, I recommend getting a Johnson impeller rather than the aftermarket Sierra impeller. I use Sierra impellers all the time, but in three 15 HP Johnsons of similar year to yours, I found they did not cool at slow trolling RPMs and factory Johnsons impellers did. it’s the only Sierra impeller application I’ve had trouble with.
Dave

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