What should I know about motors?

That's a tough one. Depends mostly on how the motor was cared for and used, though OMC (Johnson/Evinrude) went belly up in '99 or 2000 and its late 90's big engines had more than their share of problems. Rebuilt is OK, if well done and thorough. I'd sure have a good tech inspect any prospective purchase and would test run the boat and engine.

One thought - with that older engine you need to have a mind set of just running it mid-range. Pushing it hard or racing other boats to get to a spot first is just asking for trouble.

Frank

tricky question. Every motor blows, it's just when not if.

In general stay away from the e-rudes that were FICHTS, mine rane great but I always felt like i had a bomb on the back and was just waiting for it to blow. I'm also not a fan of the e-rudes since... But they years of 90-98 you'll be alright.

The Merc EFI in the 90's were the work horses and would fall on the years your looking at and would be my preference in your situation.

I'm not familiar with Yamahas, but you could pick up any 1990's (except 98) Yami and send it to Wayne at HT, spend the dough to Phase it and I believe you get a 1 year warranty... But not sure just something I am thinking about for the G-bote...

I'll second Frank, It's all about the previous owners care. Look at the boat, if it was treated like shit chances are the motor saw the same

call LowerUnit when you find one and have him do an inspection, you WONT regret it

I've been in the boat business a long time and the advice you got on here is right on the money. The only thing I would add is make sure you get a boat with max horsepower or very close to it. Once you spend that money, you will want your boat to run with the rest of the pack and an underpowered boat will become a source of frustration for you.