1980 2.4 200 vertical reed --> convert to horizontal???

[NoRdO]

Hey Folks,

Just burned a piston on my 88' 2.4 200

I picked up an 80' 2.4 200 the other year as a spare powerhead, it has decent compression (110~120)...

This is the motor with vertical reeds and cylinder bolt holes next to the cylinders...

I have been reading about people swapping the horizontal 5 reed front over to the vertical reed motor, is this actually possible? Is it even worth it? I plan on running this motor for a season or two while I look for a 2.5 200... or repair the 2.4

I obviously have all of the parts from the 88'... The motor is on an 81' Hydrostream Viper

[FUJIMO]

...more trouble than it is worth. leave it alone. verticles run good.

[NoRdO]

That's what I was thinking... I was going to use the later carbs as they are in much better shape (floats aren't foam but plastic), any issues with doing that?

[Merc 2.5]

If the powerhead is off already and ur familar with these ,and have gaskets ready , then I would wanna swap it over. It is little more work tho depending on rig also

[nitro_rat]

no issues, use the jets from the old carbs of they're different and switch to the enrichiner if the original The late block is finger ported to make use of the extra air from the horizontal front, I wouldn't swap if it was mine.

[NoRdO]

So... I've never actually cracked one of these motors open... I've built a couple of modular ford engines (4.6 & 5.4 DOHC) and plenty of seadoo rotax 587/657/717....

Is the front half used to align the main bearings or are there separate main caps? I'm probably thinking about this all wrong... I'm used to a 4 stroke block where you would definitively need an align hone if you used different main caps...

I feel fully confident with doing the actual work, it wouldn't take much effort at all... I'm just not as well versed with these motors as I am with a traditional 4 stroke... I don't want to crack into an otherwise "running" motor if it would require machine work...

[nitro_rat]

there are dowel pins that align the front and back half of the case. It is common practice to remove the pins and let the halves find their own happy place when mismatching halves. The bearings are rollers with a steel outer race. There are also sealing rings on the crank between cylinders, kinda like a piston ring. It's common practice that if the sealing ring grooves align well between two mismatched halves that the end result will be a runner. If the sealing ring grooves do not align well the end result will be a dog. You'll understand what I'm talking about once you tear it down!

[NoRdO]

Nitro Rat, thank you, very interesting! I will indeed experiment and if they don't align, I'll revert to the vertical half....

[rgsauger]

I burned #6 on my 2.4 200 also. Getting a sleeve put in for about $275. It's not that much $ to fix your 2.4 if it's a good motor.

[FUJIMO]

...your wasting your time messing with changing carbs and/or front halfs... use it & enjoy it with zero hassles.

[NoRdO]

Fujimo, I think I'm going to do just that... Then sleeve this 88' 2.4 and throw it back on...

[Capt.Insane-o]

The 80 is a non finger port motor. On a really light boat it would be worth the swap if you were bored..otherwise no.

[NoRdO]

15' Vipers are pretty light, I'll take a running motor over a non running motor...lol Gonna run as-is...