I am currently looking at a 17' - 1977 Pro-Line with 77 Evinrude/Johnson.......

Do any of you experienced boaters have any experiences with this type of motor?

Looks easy to work on.....sounded pretty good, compression looked good ....???

I guess I'm just looking for some war stories ......if you have one to share, I'd love to hear it. I'm looking for a reason not to buy it. ,,, other than "A boat is money pit"... :devil2:

A bit different but I had a used 1977 24' Proline w/ a 1978 140h Evinrude for 8 years. Sold it to my bro who ran it for 5 years (he re-powered) and a guy is still running it today. Well built hull and held its finish and looks better than a lot of other makes. If the engine is a V-4 it was one of the better built engines of the time. Issue is it is 30+ years old and best you figure you will need to re-power at some stage. 4S engines can be heavier for the same HP and could throw hull balance off (need to check mfg'rs). Blue book will give you lowball values; BoatUS will also give you somewhat better ballpark value.

if it's a 3 cylinder they had soft cranks back then, if your paying any amount for it I would ask for a water test, what were the compression numbers? should be over 110 and within 10 percent of each other

Nice little boat if it's the one im thinking of. The outboard on the otherhand, If it is a V4 there good up to about 125 hp Over that they tend to wear out quickly. But are inexpensive and easy to re-build.

FYI-that 1978 140 hp Evinrude ran for 22 years before my bro proactively sold it and re-powered. Heard they had low rings and tended to carb up but never an issue for us.

Thanks for the replys / / It's a 70hp

Looked at it again today ... need to give it some serious thought....:wall:


Thanks again

The boat should be fine make sure the transom is solid.

Check here for engine info, lots of smart mechanics..

http://bbcboards.zeroforum.com/zeroforum?id=51