My Grandfather and uncle had a Mercury franchise in Maine in the mid fifties. When the first Mark 6 came out for 1955, Grampa ordered 50 of them and sold them all except one he kept. (55s had the torpedo or missile decal with the word Mercury on that.) We all loved "the little red motor". It was the first motor I ever used. I cut my powerboating teeth on it. Red hood with white mid and lower units. I loved the push button neutral. I loved being able to turn it 180 degrees and back out of the dock, even though it had no reverse gear. It idled great. It ran well at every throttle opening. How I wish I had it now. It was on a very nice 15" Old Town fishing boat with a small enclosed deck on front. The 6 gallon tank lasted a long time (hours of use) on these little guys. I have also owned a KF-7, a 56 Mark 25, a 56 Mark 30, a Mark 75A (66 cid), and a 60 Merc 800, across the decades. None were new except the Mark 6 and the KF-7 (an uncle on the other side of the family bought it new in 50.)

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Neat video the Evinrude in the middle is a 1957 being the stickler I am for accuracy unless you swapped covers,LOLLL ......

Finding a pressure tank that doesn't leak is a rare beauty! I have converted many of these to fuel pump outboards. That is a relatively simple thing to do.

It’s definitely a full 550hp. Really surprised you still have your life!

Be curious to see the acceleration curve. The Evinrude seemed to have a far better midrange whereas the Yamaha looked to have a way better top end. How does the prop pitch and diameter compare?

They're both '57 models. The only year with those decals and color scheme

Well they both sound great, but the nice one on my left (right side of the boat) has an ignition miss, probably has cracked coils. These are great engines, totally worth rejuvinating. Just a smooth and quiet as any of today's four strokes.

Best of the Best!

Great little motors

Nice motors. I have the Johnson version. from 57. It runs realy good. I have found a couple of tanks on facebook marketplace for a reasonable price.

One think Wizards were very fast, out run all other outboards with the same horse power. Except for MERCURYS that's because MecKieffer built them.

I'm sorry, i don't think the WIZARD is from the 70's more late 50's or 60's. Remember it was Western Auto that sold them and they went out business in the early late 60's.

I think that wizard is a mid to late seventies eska I don't know if it's a Tecumseh powerhead or if esca did their own powerhead I've got a Sears version 15 horse it looks very similar.

thats the real Steampunk right there! awesome!!!❤️❤️❤️

Is this still available

Hey ITB, What do you do with your outboards keep them in your bedroom closet. Your two 65 year old 5.5 hp Evinrudes, looks like you just picked them up from the dealer. Your Chris Craft is missing the pull start rope and handle. Running good, but you can't fool me LOL. When I was a kid had a 6hp Johnson, got tired if fixing the rope so, we would flip the flywheel to start it. Hey that old 2 stroke Harley Davison, wasn't that model called a Harley Hummer. I have only seen one in person and yours. They are very rare. Keep up the good work.

Heck yeah! The poor Johnson has had enough of this game, looks like she is getting ready to jump off the transom

Is it possible to make the 80’s evinrude for steering? I have bought it for my speedboat but it seems very hard

Great explanation. And nice motor.

Runs good

Today I service my little Sport Twin 9 1/2 HP. It's built the same way your 1980 15 HP is. If serviced they run forever and a Sunday. I'd say the old ones are super reliable. They can even limp back on one cylinder if one coil fails.

I have exactly the same bike only its a 1990 model,same colour scheme,30000 miles from new and it runs great. Picked it up 6 weeks ago for £800.

Cool

Great video, you need to make us more videos. Keep all your toys running, your like me, you enjoy keeping them running. Makes you feel good being able to repair things. THAT'S WHAT KEEPS US GOING.

Johnson and the mercury have gravity fed fuel tanks above the engine. The Evinrude had an external tank with a built in manual pressure pump inside the tank, in 1958 they mounted a vacuum fuel pump on the motor. You no longer had to pressurize the tank and only had a single hose, no longer a double hose. Don't know why but, Johnson already had a built in fuel pump in the 1957. They were the same company.

The center engine is a 1957 5.5 hp. Pretty neat it's just like the biggest motor Evinrude made. My dad had the big one a 35hp a pull start. My brothers and i couldn't start it. The motor weigh more then we did. The only year with cursive writing, all other years were block letters. I have all three engines, but they are about 4 1/2 inches tall. Most of them are cast aluminum. If you are old enough you would remember that K&O made them. Same people that made the train sets.They are 3 volt electric, some were made for salesmen pitches.You can see them on E bay. They are collectors and expensive. I have a collection of the toy motors like the big ones we had growing up plus, they don't take up as much room.

Awesome you won't gain much top end, but , you will have awesome torque you could put more ppl in the boat , and hold a decent speed Just came across your channel love it Great Video !

Hey buddy, your goona ruin that transom with all that power!

It's really, really great to see these vintage motors still being used.

That's great need an outboard motor museum

Use a gps for speed not a wind gage. If there’s any wind blowing in any direction it will mess with the readings

Grreat video 🙂

I freaking love the old motors they are awesome and cool 😎

I love those. The evinrude 5.5 is the only one with an external tank

Awesome! I own all of those motors

what one is your favorite? Entertaining for sure

Thanks for the good video.

I had one exactly like that during highschool. It was my elderly next door neighbor guys bike. He dump it one time and his wife didn't let him ride it anymore. I did get picked on a little but l didn't care. Didn't have to walk to school anymore.

I have a 20 hp 1966. Do you know much about them? I understand that 1966-1967 is similar....Gear shifting is different from "normal" on mine.

I have a 6 hp 96 starts first pull no choke amazing motor.

That bike sounds like a rocket and moves like the wind. You should definitely remember riding gear next time. I think I'll name her flame

In fact, Johnson and Evinrude started building outboard motors in Belgium all the way back at the end of 1959. From 1960 and onwards, there were large quantities built in Belgium that mainly ended up in Europe, but also in the US. Thanks for the video. It's nice to see a comparison between these great motors.

He, He. Went fishing once with a Buddy(Back in the 70'S that brought his 20HP Chrysler(It was big and heavy) and put it next to my 8HP Mariner on my 12Ft Starcraft. . GPS hadn't been invented then, No way to guess Speed. But it was scarry fast

Oh man, that gave me a good laugh. 🤣 That's livin on the edge there! I had one just like the little 5 horse, they aint gonna turn my 6 and 7.5 into razor blades though. I love the black one, Mercury really nailed it with that year models. Fun video, thanks for sharing!

Have you done the same test of Merc vs Evinrude ? Merc vs Yammy?

What kind of boat?

You forgot to test how fast the boat goes when you use both motors :-)

Booths are very nice motors, but I prefers OMC, it's lighter than Yamaha....

Cool, thanks for sharing