identifying an old johnson

[phxjohnson]

Hi, I have a 1960 Johnson 18 hp seahorse. the plate on the outside says model fd-14 b with a serial number of 2122210. the serial number on the powerhead is j2770853. When I bought the thing the guy told me it was 50:1 oil mix, which would be wrong if the powerhead was from 1960. I’m thinking the powerhead may actually be a 65 or 66 which would mean 50:1 would be correct. my local marine shops have been less than helpful. any educated guesses on how much newer the powerhead might be based on the serial?

any help would be appreciated.

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[billw]

Others will date this more accurately than me; but it looks like a mid-sixties Evinrude-color power head, to me. I think someone swapped power heads at some point, otherwise the serial numbers would have matched. Yeah, theoretically, you can run them at 50:1, but with all the corrosion-damaged cranks and rods I have seen in my life, I always run my Fastwins and FDs on 24:1. I have had zero running issues, doing so.

Long live American manufacturing!

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