mercury optimax

[Chromemagnum]

Does anyone troll with 2 stroke optimax motors? Will you foul the plugs trolling at 2.0. 2.6 knots?? For any leghth of time??? Thanks for any input!

[steelhead99]

I have a 2002 135. In the morning I give it a nice heavy run out to where I want to fish then troll around for a few hours. I like to move around so I pull the rods and get on it for a while. My dad and I were out a few weeks ago and we didn't really get on it at all...3/4 of the day the motor seemed to start acting up. He suspected it was doing so because we hadn't ran faster than 2-3mph all day, even when we went out to where we were fishing we were trying to dial in the Hds5 fishfinder so we crawled out. We checked the oil lvls, all was well so called it a day and ran it hard for a while, haven't had any problems since.

[stoneyxc]

not to jinx myself but i bought my boat 4 years ago, been trolling with a 225 optimax the the whole time, no problems yet. the only thing i find is that i have to change the very expensive plugs every year but thats it. i have ran it over 12 hours at a time with no problems.

[Chromemagnum]

Stoney and steelhead thanks for the info ..I was curious I am running 225's I am planning on leaving one off but dragging to slow me down. Was curious about the build up..... Both of you seem ok with it so I will try not to worry. Thanks for the info!!!

tight lines

[NitroMusky]

I have trolled with my opti for years. they will eventually foul but you can get a few years out of the plugs if you always run mercs quickleen gas additive, which is a cleaning agent. you should absolutely do this!

also after trolling always open it up for a 10+ minute run above 3k rpm to help burn off any deposits. if they do foul you can try cleaning the plugs by soaking them in quickleen. may extend their life some what.

btw the three star emissions rated hp versions are less prone to fouling than two stars as they run hotter at idle to burn more fully and thus leave less deposits

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[Chris Gatley]

I have a 2008 Opti and use the iridium plugs, changing plugs every 100 running hours. Trolled the ocean since 2008 with no issues and began trolling on the big lake so far with no issues knock on wood. But, now that my 9.9 4 stroke is on, that will end.

I am not sure how manu trolling/idle hours are on the Optimax motor but is has to be around 200 hours of the 350 the motor has on it.

[NitroMusky]

Great point Chris, I almost forgot...

ALL optis should be running the iridium plugs REGARDLESS of what it says in the manual or on the motor

The early models initally called for platinum plugs when they were manufactured but this was superseded by the iridium plugs. There was a service bulletin a few years back with the iridium plug recommendation for all optis because they are less prone to fouling.