1987 Force 50 Horse engine?

There is one of these on a boat i am looking at is it worth it?

Gimpy, I think you may want to keep looking. Force motors don’t have the greatest track record.

There are a couple things I don’t like about them…the biggest being that the exaust ports out above the water line instead of through the prop. Loud and stinky. And they are gas hogs! Add in the motor is a 1987 and I say no.

Just my opinion. I’m sure there are some happy Force owners out there.

Jon J.

I had one on a 16 foot v bottom for 7 years. I put lots of hours on it and it never once failed me. I finally sold the rig so I could buy a bigger boat. Power wise though it didn’t seem to have what other 50s had at the time. I agree though that I am sure that you should be able to do better, unless it is a gimme.

Stay away Gimpy.
My Dad had one and we suffered tons of lower unit problems.
I remember one time where we had to travel 3 miles back to the launch in reverse.

When I bought my boat, I did some pretty in-depth research on Force. From what I remember, Force was a division of Chrysler, then the name got bought by Merc and the motors were mercs with force covers for a few years before they dropped the name entirely. In all my looking, I never found a bastion of people who were trumpeting the superiority of Force motors.

I gotta go with SteveO on this one. Companies don’t get a bad reputation by accident.

My dad really disliked that motor. He had it fixed after that but he still didn’t like it. Pushed a Bayliner Capri with it. Way underpowered.
I don’t know if I would take one if you paid me.

Too cool – my boat is a Bayliner Capri. 15′ Bass boat (or as close to a bass boat as BL ever made). By all rights, the original motor should have been a Force.

I thank my lucky stars that the original owner saw fit to switch it for a mariner. The mariner 50 does seem to do well enough – I wonder if that is because it is a triple instead of the two-cylinder Force.

the boat itself was nice. stereo, comfy seats etc..
just the motor was unbearable. Buddy of mine has a Mariner (25) on a 14 ft alum rig. Nice.

I spent about 12 years as a Sales Mngr in the marine industry and it got to the point in the early to mid 90’s where I simply would not take a Force eng. in on trade anymore. Too many problems and to little resale value. Plus the 50’s did not have trim-n-tilt, and you have mix your own oil on all of them.