1983 Sea King (Chrysler) 15hp Outboard Motor Lake Test 

For sure, 15-20mph on the water at the tiller in a small boat as a kid does feel like you're flying. If you had the Gale built red and white Sea King , that motor is faster than this one. I have a silver blue one and get about 21mph out of that one. It's a great runner. I like the oddballs as well. They are a nice change occasionally from the common motors everyone knows. Thanks for watching!

Thank you. It's not a bad little motor. Really nice runner, just not real strong. I don't know if it is just this one or of that is how most of them run. The little 3hp you have is a neat little motor. The rewind is probably repairable. I do like to get my motors out and run them. Thanks for watching!

I'm glad I got to it also. Yes, I did expect at least 20mph out of this motor and was pretty underwhelmed with the performance. It runs great, but seems to lack the power I would expect from a 15hp motor. It runs like I would expect a 9.9 to run. The Chrysler Sea King 7.5 does about 13 mph. 19mph on an empty boat would be closer to my expectation. With a passenger and a backup kicker in the boat I see this one maybe getting to 13 mph or so. As far as carb setup goes on this motor, there is only a low speed adjustment. I didn't find that to be problematic, but I felt kind of helpless since it seems like the top end should be better, but there is no way to adjust that. I don't seem to really have that flat spot you're talking about in this motor, but I have had that happen with other motors before. Sometimes it is a dirty carb, sometimes it is a too lean low speed causing a stumble as the high speed circuit opens. Sometimes it is a too rich condition leading to the engine loading up at idle and needing to clear out when the high speed comes in. Sometimes it just won't go away. Thanks for watching!

I have a 1979 Chrysler 7.5 that gets an incredible 19mph on my Sea Nymph 14R. The 14R has a 64 inch beam too. I'm anxious to see if my 15hp does better. It's been rough for a week on the Saginaw Bay

@@oldjohnnyrude8404 Hey I thought I would update you on my Sea King 15. It would act rough at a quarter throttle because the top cylinder would start missing and then resume once I got past half throttle. Cleaned points and new condensers. It was the coil! A new oem one costs $160 but I found an OMC branded one china made on Amazon that came with 2 coils for $27. No more rough jumpy missing throttle! 😁

Thank you. It does run nicely, just not the strongest 15. They're nice and compact though. Thanks for watching!

I agree that in some cases, this may help. In this case, I went from sitting back in the seat to leaning as far forward as I was able to and lost almost 1mph. I had a backup kicker and another 4 gallons of fuel sitting ahead of the middle bench which kept the boat flat. I was gaining nothing by putting any more weight forward. I have certainly had other times woth other boats where an extension on the tiller will help get a bit more speed. Thanks for watching!

The newly-produced fittings for these motors seem hit or miss for proper fit. Most of them work, but some seem to fit better than others. For trial purposes, you could hook the fuel line right to the input side of the fuel pump. Thanks for watching!

@@oldjohnnyrude8404 I’m starting to work on it today wish me luck.

@@rambow58 Good luck woth your motor. They're decent little motors. Quite simple and well built woth the weak point being the recoil starters. Might I suggest using a rope wrapped around the rope sheave on the flywheel to start it until you get it tuned and running well. Once it is running well, then use the recoil. I would spare it the extra abuse of getting an engine going that has not yet been tuned well. The repair parts are getting quite difficult to find and expensive when found. 👍👍

For the connectors. I tried to put it to the guy who needs one but it didn't stick

Thank you. This is a nice running and idling little motor. I think the Chryslers got a bad reputation due in part by their price point. The introductory price point led folks that didn't have any idea how to properly use and maintain an outboard. They just got run with little or no maintenance until they either died or suffered some damage that made them difficult to operate or perform poorly. Others that saw little use often never got regular tune up maintenance and became difficult to start and made for poor running. They really are decent motors in most cases. Thanks for watching!

I agree! I have several of varying horse power and my oldest is a West Bend/Chrysler of 1965. My newest is an '83-15hp just like Ben's here. I use them all the time and hp for hp, my 7.5hp will run circles around a Johnson or Evinrude 7.5hp. I just got an '83 Chrysler Sea King 15hp from a scrapyard in Alpena Michigan for $20. I found the reason they tossed it out. Bottom cylinder had very very little compression and there was water on the sparkplug. Partially blown head gasket! $13.33 to my door 😊. Also, the carburetor had been left with fuel in it and was corroded badly so I got a good used one from Franz Marine in Grandview Missouri for $65. All totaled, I have a whopping $98.33 into an awesome running outboard that is also cosmetically good looking too. Ben's motor is a nice looker and runs great too! Nice job Ben!

Thank you. Yes, there are quite a few of these motors still around. Parts availability is the biggest issue with them. You almost have to buy a few junkers to have parts inventory to keep them going. Mercury is notoriously bad for parts cost and availability for older motors. BRP has historically done better, but they are quickly getting to be a very close second. More and more parts go NLA all the time and certain parts get suddenly grossly inflated prices for no apparent reason. Sad to see that happening. Thanks for watching!

Good motors and pretty simple to work on, but they're getting pretty difficult to find parts for. That's a big consideration for a motor you plan to run regularly. Thanks for watching!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and you're certainly not alone in your thinking. I think they got a bad reputation built on being lower cost and many entry level buyers not knowing or caring anything about maintenance. The Chrysler motors are heavily based on West Bend motors and in my opinion they built a pretty decent product at a very competitive price. Some features were great, others were a bit lacking, but they were budget oriented so that's to be expected. This one, however, is not real impressive. Good running motor, but not real strong for the rating. Thanks for watching!