mercury opti max blowups

[Ed..s.d.]

I'm trying to input from other opti max owners who have had problems with their motors. I have a 225 opti which just sized up #2 piston, only have 113hrs. I have heard from several boat dealers that an average of one out of three are blowing up.The weekend mine went two other opti's went up,they where 200s.I would like to get as much info as possible so as to approch mercury mfg.about this problem which im sure they are aware of. thank you for any help I can get.

[JigHead]

I Have a 200 opti - 1998 -
I've broke this unit in right & maintain accordingly, Starts up fast, cold or hot. no problems.

Knock on wood :)

Steve Eisch

[hawgboy]

About 3 weeks ago I went to change my champion spark plugs, I pulled the first one on the right out, it looked good. I pulled the second one on the right out and the porcelin part had split in half and went into my motor(sometime while motor was running)I took it to the dealer so they could tear the motor apart and look at pistons,they said it looked good, so I went for a ride so far so good...

[easymoney]

1999 225 Optimax with zero problems,lots of hours, love this motor.knock on wood.

[HOGWASH!]

>1999 225 Optimax with zero problems,lots
>of hours, love this motor.knock
>on wood.

[BULL!]

Ed, it sounds like you didn't correctly break your motor in, and thats critical with any motor out there. What happens is that when you abuse your motor during breakin the seals don't seat right and thats what causes problems. "POP GOES THE WEASLE".Plus with your comment on one out of every three opti's are blowing up is bull crap, you are just trying to blow this deal out of proportion.

[easymoney]

to date my Opti has over 350 Hrs. with no repair work done to the engine had a lower unit seal leak but no trouble with the engine. PROPER BREAK IN is the key with these motors. My two cents