Abbeydog,
IF you take my advice, find yourself an "old school" 10HP Evinrude, Gale, Johnson or Sea King OB out of a garage/estate sale, with "the short leg". Then buy yourself a copy of CHEAP OUTBOARDS: THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO MAKING AN OLD MOTOR RUN FOREVER by Max Wawrzyniak. & read it from cover to cover. Then follow Max's advice, as he is "the guru" on OB motors under 50HP under 50hp.
The OLD (1955-70) OMC twins are cheap to buy, cheap to fix when they need repair "in the bush", very "over-engineered" & lighter to haul about, than the modern OB motors of the same HP. = The OMC 10HP twins have plenty of power for most any canoe.
(Most, if not all, OMC motors of that era will need a pair of new sparkplugs, wires, coils, points, condensers & a new water pump impeller to run like new for DECADES. - Total cost of all the new parts from a local NAPA store is about 110.oo)
Note: I have set a "price limit" of 100 bucks to buy any old-school OMC OB motor & have bought several for 25-40 bucks, that run FINE. = I currently own 11 of the OMC motors from 18-40HP to power my 1955-1965 boats.
The 'old-school" twin cylinder are (I'm sorry to say) BETTER quality motors than are NOW made in the USA. They are also easier to KEEP RUNNING for longer than you are likely to ever need an outboard.
(One of my cousins is a commercial trot-liner & he has BIG TWINS that have been run 24/365 for over 20 years, with nothing more than normal/routine maintenance. - He runs his boats more in a year than most recreational fishermen will in their lifetime.)
just my OPINIONS, tex
