SEI lower units - are they worth a damn?

[rgsauger]

Just curious. $1049 for a merc lower for a 2.4/2.5. 3 year warranty. In stock. Sounds like a deal. What would they think about one with a cone at warranty time?! I’m just curious.

Are they chinky units or domestic?

[NZ Sidewinder]

That price converts to about 1500 nz dollars and id buy one for that.
could be some usable parts in there or they may be ok overall.
At last count I have 8 Mercs, 1 Johnson, 2 Tohatsu, 2 Yamaha and 1 Parsun.
The Parsun is a race engine and impossible to kill so life is full of surprises.

[sonicss33]

They are chinky units and reports mostly favor using them for “normal” boating. Probably not gonna withstand high performance boating. The warranty is the real deal, it breaks, they replace.

[LakeFever]

It’s a new lower made in the aftermarket by? I have no personal experience with these Lowers other than not hearing much good and knowing they are aftermarket unknowns to me.

In similar fashion Chevy crate engines are new motors made by? With these engines I have some experience and as most who also have experience with these will tell you it’s the cheapest way to buy new oem engine parts all at once. Take these engines apart and set all tolerances yourself and reassemble to spec and you have a great engine. Leave them as you buy them and run them and even if they don’t fail they never seem to run as hard as they should.

apply the above to the sei and do a full tear down and reassemble to factory spec? Probably be decent. This also gives you a chance to inspect the internals closely possibly magnaflux or uv crack test critical components and so on.

[Jim Speros]

Hit or miss. I have had some guys happy with them and others not. One particular instance comes to mind. 196 Champion bass boat with with 2.5 200 EFI. He broke a prop shaft lost his prop. Repaired under warranty, pack and ship on him. Bought another prop. Short period latter lost another prop. Pack and ship , repaired under warranty.
I can't remember if it broke two or three shafts before they installed a merc shaft and gave him a turbo prop.

[Jim Speros]

Some that have come in for service are full of silver sludge. Others not. Some are full of RTV around pump base. Some the drain screw protrudes from housing.
I stopped suggesting them long ago.

[Forkin' Crazy]

Any mods will void the warranty, you can bet on that.

[specboatops]

Because of cost and availability, I purchased an SEI unit for ETEC 225 HO on my Stoker, have not had a single issue, and as stated 3 year warranty was a nice piece of mind too. I have been looking for a lightening gear case to put on it but not having any luck.

[JasonRS]

I had one on a old champion bass boat with a 225 efi 3liter. Within the first summer, i had water intrusion. They repaired it no questions asked, and it was working fine still 6 years later when i sold it. My dad bought one for a 2.4, the drain was cross threaded from new, it got water inside too. Same thing no questions asked replacement, been fine since. Just my personal experience.

[NZ Sidewinder]

We see a lot of this money back garentee stuff across many market domains and to me it sets off alarm bells.
It is a cheap form of quality control where the consumer does the Donkey work.
If one of these units failed while I was offshore or even just lake fishing I'd not want a replacement from the dealer or manufacturer.

Had a similar type of situation with a phone recently.
My Samsung got wet and failed so bought a phone made branded from country X.
It failed without even getting wet so i took it back.
They said Oh thats unusual, we will send it away and that will take two weeks.
I went down the road and got another Samsung but when the phone came back they said there hadn't been a fault with it at all but they had wiped all my photos in the process of establishing that.
So with regard my earlier comment I would possibly buy one for parts or possible rebuild.
I'm actually a bit over countr X

[wettek]

Specboatops, Get on to Don at www.boatshopak.com. He reckons he has quite a few L2's on the shelf from jet conversions.

[rgsauger]

Interesting feedback, fellow. I'm not replacing mine just now but see the name come up time and again. Sounds like maybe a decent thing for stock boats with cheap props. I would flip my chit if I lost a high dollar SS prop due to a broken shaft.

[HStream1]

They are good as a stock replacement. And SEI stands behind the Warranty providing its a dealer that submits the Warranty Claim. BUT!!! A Cone Automatically Voids the Warranty!!!



Just curious. $1049 for a merc lower for a 2.4/2.5. 3 year warranty. In stock. Sounds like a deal. What would they think about one with a cone at warranty time?! I’m just curious.

Are they chinky units or domestic?

[NZ Sidewinder]

Over here in NZ its generally accepted that a stock 2.5L box is good for 350hp and can be expected to last for many years.
The vast majority of Merc race engines here run stock boxes with cones.
So on that basis you are setting a very high standard for SEI boxes.

[slowJEEP]

Which Parsun are you running?


That price converts to about 1500 nz dollars and id buy one for that.
could be some usable parts in there or they may be ok overall.
At last count I have 8 Mercs, 1 Johnson, 2 Tohatsu, 2 Yamaha and 1 Parsun.
The Parsun is a race engine and impossible to kill so life is full of surprises.

[NZ Sidewinder]

30hp around 2017
Was on the boat when I got it.
The previous owner bought two, one as a spare but ended up selling the spare un used 4 yrs later.
Very good motor but my son now refuses to race a Chinese motor so we are rebuilding a couple of 30hp Mercs