How to Identify an Evinrude Motor

Evinrude, a division of the Outboard Motors Corporation, or OMC, has been producing outboard engines since 1909. Over the years, changes have been made to Evinrude's coding system, consisting of the type of information provided and the information grouping for each production era. These eras are generally classified into 1979 and earlier, and 1980 to the present with further divisions. Identification begins with locating the engine plate attached to the outboard near the engine mounting location. The model number contains the information necessary to identify the outboard.

• 1

  Locate the engine plate on the outboard near the engine mount. The model number is identified on the plate.

• 2

  Determine the era of the Evinrude to be identified. Model numbers follow a pattern similar to one of the following:

  1950 to 1979: E150TLDR

  1980 to 1998: V E 70 T L ED A

  1991 to 2001: E 70 P L 4 EE A

  2002 to the present: B E 175 FC X 4 SO A

• 3

  Identify the 1979 and earlier Evinrude outboard. According to Parts Warehouse.com, the model number E150TLDR decodes as follows: "E" stands for Evinrude and the following one to three digits represents the outboard horsepower, in this case, 150. The last two letters of the number represent the year, which is translated using the key word, I-N-T-R-O-D-U-C-E-S. "I" equals 1, "N" equals 2, "T" equals 3, and so forth until the final letter, "S," which represents "0." The year designation "DR" decodes as 1964, for example. Parts Warehouse.com offers a complete number listing for 1979 and earlier Evinrude outboards.

• 4

  Decode the model number for 1979 and later outboards. Although the model numbers may be longer or in different positions, the decoding system is the same. According to Evinrude.com, "E" stands for Evinrude, the first one to three digits in the code represent the horsepower and the two letters grouped together near the end represent the year, decoded by using "INTRODUCES." The other codes and numbers represent different features of the engine and can be decoded at Evinrude.com.