Looking for any/all information, good & bad, on 2006 250hp HPDI

[Reel Northern Bass]

Looking at a possible "new to me" purchase. Bit of a long shot, but going to do my due diligence on everything on it just in case.

The boat in question has the above mentioned motor on it. Dealer says it's a 2006 Yamaha 250 60XL100308C motor, the gear case was replaced in June 2016, and a new powerhead in 2015. Does not make any mention of how many hours, but states that the compression is 120 on all cylinders. Also says it has 522 hours on it.

What should I be concerned with on these motors, or specifically looking for, if anything? Tried to do some searching around on Google for some answers, but only found a ton of different forums posts from all over the place asking a ton of different questions, but didn't see any repeat problems that kept popping up. Would greatly appreciate any and all help with this one fellas. Thanks!

[Randy T]

Plenty of people will tell you that they are good motors.
A search for "3.3L VMAX HPDI cylinder 1 or 2" will yell you otherwise.
You got to make the decsion.

[1ranger487vs]

run don't walk

[jshelton2006]

Look to see if it has an inline water seperator on it. That will prevent a lot of problems. The HPDI's require clean fuel, and 95% of the problems people have on them come from bad fuel. They have a ton of fuel filters on them, and a 10 micron seperator is much easier to change than if you get bad fuel into the motor filters. The early models had oil pump issues, but this was fixed in late 05/early 06 I believe. Find out if the oil pump has been replaced due to a recall/service bulletin. I have the same motor and haven't had the first problem with it, I really like it. Take care of it and you should have no trouble, just like anything else.

[kk4iz]

We have the 06 250 HPDI, oil pump recall was done in late 06, Before the boat and motor left the dealer the first time they installed the 10 micro/water filter. We replace the high dollar filters ,primer bulb and fuel lines in 2016. We run only reg non-ethynol, if we can find mid grade we will run it.We have always ran Yamaha ring free or SeaFoam in every tank of gas. Premium will not run hot enough and foul your plugs and cause carbon build up. Every 2 years we have the water pump replaced even if we got good water pressure,10lbs plus psi in the summer time.In winter we seen it run as high as 30 lbs psi. No other trouble as of today,but too cold to fish today 27f and dropping.
Your power head being a 2015 it should be the ser.II witch they say is a better motor.

[jdwo2212]

I recently (2017) had a powerhead rebuilt on my 2003 250 hpdi. Had to replace the oil pump as well with the series 3 that was supposed to fix the issues of the original. I ran it all season with not a single issue. They do suck oild amd fuel so thats something to think about. But when they are running right they are fast. Like others said, clean fuel is a must. Ive run ring free and yamaha stabilizer in every gallon since the rebuild. Not sure what the previous owner did, bit i guess we see where that got me. Lol. But im hopin my 03 lasts as long as it did with it's original powerhead. All in all, this thing has been running like a top.

[Reel Northern Bass]

All excellent feedback, thanks guys!

[Billydonwon]

O issues with the 2 I’ve had.

[Pound4Pound]

I've got a 2004 250 hpdi that's been flawless. It's never seen a mechanic, just regular maintenance done myself. Non-ethanol fuel only, 10 micron filter, change the plugs yearly (although overkill once I stopped using Yamalube), and water pump every other year.

[ifishinxs]

I've got a 2004 250 hpdi that's been flawless. It's never seen a mechanic, just regular maintenance done myself. Non-ethanol fuel only, 10 micron filter, change the plugs yearly (although overkill once I stopped using Yamalube), and water pump every other year.

This is my HPDI as well. I just run 87 octane Chevron unleaded along with ring free and startron every fill up. Your so right about the yamalube. I switched to Pennzoil Premium plus and no more carboned up spark plugs. Amazing and less smoke on start up.

[Billydonwon]

I run the pennzoil premium also. Much cleaner running than the yamalube oil.

[rangerguyz21]

Knock on wood,, lol, love mine, pennzoil and ringfree , regular maintenance

[jshelton2006]

I went to amsoil hp also, major improvement over yamalube.

[Reel Northern Bass]

Thank you all so much for that feedback! Interesting note you guys have made regarding the 87 octane instead of the higher octane stuff. Always told growing up to run the higher octane stuff to avoid the carbon build up issue, find it interesting that these motors run better on the lowest octane. That's good to know though, that's $0.60 a gallon difference up here!

Forgot to mention in my original post that this motor also has 522 hours on it. That seems high but I'm not well versed in motor hours and what actually IS high for hours. I was under the impression that 500 hours was the equivalent of 200,000 miles on your car, which is high but not worryingly high if the motor was maintained well during its life.

[WALKER]

I have the same motor that came on my 06 Skeeter. I bought in 07 with 48 hours on the motor and NEVER had an issue until September of 2016 when I toasted a piston. #1 and #2 are usually the problem cylinders on these motors. I always kept up on maintenance but NEVER used any additives at all in all of those years, so I've been told that I was really lucky it lasted that long. As you see on other posts, there are guys that have the same motor with no issues at all still, then there are plenty that have had issues. I've owned Merc and Yamaha and I love my motor, or did up to the point to where it failed. Again, I got 9 solid years out of the motor running it hard in tournaments and no additional additives... so to me, it's a great motor even though it finally failed. I believe that if I was using what I use now (Stabile 360 and Lucas Marine upper cylinder and fuel injector cleaner), there is a really good chance that I would not have had my issue. By the way, my piston went at 530 hours... having a new lower unit and power head on yours, you should be good for many years if you take care of it. Good Luck ~

[Rich Z]

With new power head I sure hope the dealer went through the whole fuel system including injectors and all fuel pumps. If not, I wouldn't recommend the purchase unless they offer some sort (at least 1 year) of warranty on the motor.

[rfdong]

I put one on my 05 Ranger. Two other friends bought exact same time but ours were 225’s. All 3 blew either cylinder 1 or 2 with less than 500 hrs. Mine lasted longest in terms of hours at about 475. Personally I think it’s one of the worst Yamaha made since they are known more for reliability. I sold one of my old T1 vented prop last year to a guy with a 250 that he just had rebuilt ....500 hrs. Certainly not anti Yammie as I’ve got a SHO now. Just my opinion I would be cautious.

[Reel Northern Bass]

I put one on my 05 Ranger. Two other friends bought exact same time but ours were 225’s. All 3 blew either cylinder 1 or 2 with less than 500 hrs. Mine lasted longest in terms of hours at about 475. Personally I think it’s one of the worst Yamaha made since they are known more for reliability. I sold one of my old T1 vented prop last year to a guy with a 250 that he just had rebuilt ....500 hrs. Certainly not anti Yammie as I’ve got a SHO now. Just my opinion I would be cautious.

Thank you very much for the feedback. This is starting to make a whole lot of sense now as to why this boat has been listed for more than a month given the price it's at. Overall the boat looks to be in excellent shape. Gel coat still looks really good, carpet looks great, the seats have some fading in some spots but nothing atrocious, same with the steering wheel, but that's it. It's priced really low, and now I bet it's because of the year and model of the motor.

It's almost priced low enough that I would consider having them throw a brand new motor on it and rolling that into the financing, but that would put it just over the max budget I want to be spending. Granted, I would end up with 7 years of warranty on the motor, well more than half of what I would finance, but that's still a bit of a gamble financially speaking.

You guys have given me a lot to think about and consider. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the feedback.

[1ranger487vs]

passed on several low priced rangers with a 3.3 hpdi just read to much about them now I here good about the 2.6. I went with an ox66 3.1 Yamaha.

[javelin90]

+1 on OX66. i have a 250hp. Just sent my injectors off to Rich @ Brucato to have checked over. No issues with my motor. I am 3rd owner of boat/motor and feel it is time to have checked.