WHICH OUTBOARD TO CHOOSE?

[Capt. Terry]

OK I AM MAKING SOME HEADWAY NOW ON MY 24' SEA OX REFIT. NEW FUEL TANK NEW DECK AND BUILDING THE NEW CONSOLE NOW. THEN SOME GLASS WORK THE OUTSIDE HULL REPAINTED, BOTTOM PAINT, AN ENGINE AND SPLASH! I WANT TO TAKE THE OLD 1989 MERCURY 100 HP OFF THE BACK AND PUT ON A .........UMMMM I THINK 150 LONG SHAFT OUTBOARD.

I HAVE TOSSED AROUND WITH THE IDEA OF GOING WITH A CLEAN AND / OR REBUILT ENGINE TO SAVE MONEY......CAN GET INTO ONE FOR ABOUT ANYWHERE FROM $5500 TO $9000. ...BUT THEN AGAIN, I CAN GET A NEW ONE HUNG ON THE STERN AND COMPLETELY RIGGED FROM ANYWHERE FROM $9500.00 TO $14,500.00. WITH WARRANTY.

......SO HERE IS THE QUESTION THAT I AM LOOKING FOR ADVICE ON SERIOUSLY PLEASE. WHO HAS MADE THIS CHOICE LATELY, WHAT DID YOU GO WITH MEANING HORSEPOWER, MAKE, MODEL, AND 2-STROKE OR 4-STROKE.....FUEL SAVINGS COMPARISON, NOISE REDUCTION AND ALL THAT GOOD STUFF....ETHANOL TERRORS.....AND THE TRUE QUESTION .....WHAT IS THE BEST BRAND?

LOTS OF PEOPLE I KNOW HAVE YAMAHA'S .....SOME WITH GREAT SUCCESS....AND SOME WITH HORROR STORIES. I HAVE RIDDEN IN TWO BOATS RECENTLY WHO HAVE 150 HP AND 200 HP SUZUKI AND I GOT TO TELL YOU THAT IS ONE FINE RUNNING QUIET ENGINE. THE 4-STROKE YAMAHA'S WEIGH SO MUCH MORE. I HAVE PUT A BRAND NEW 90 GALLON ALUMINUM FUEL TANK UNDER THE NEW DECK SO I AM READY TO MAKE A MOVE HERE......

ANY AND ALL INFORMATION WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED HERE AND THANKS IN ADVANCE.

[Deep C]

I was an OMC and Yamaha dealer many moons back. The grey ones had far fewer problems. I know of Admins ongoing fight with the verado black deaths he had on the blue rocket. In the marinas I get to see which engines are getting fixed and again grey ones require the least extra love...
A buddy of mine charters an old Sea Ox in your size and has gone grey on the back. Now he runs 225hp which is more than enough but I'm thinking 150 will come up light and you'll be pushing it hard to get anywhere.
When I chartered in small boats i had my 20' Aquasport that I repowered with new 115 2 strokes and ran til they broke. When I switched to the Yammie there I never had an issue a gain. On my Dusky and Makos I had Yammies, also two strokes. With them though I bought them as rebuilds from a company thats located in Homestead, Florida... About a third or even quarter of the price of new and solid warranty to go with them though they ran so good I never had a problem in the three year warranty period. I think their name was RPH...

[Capt. Terry]

THANKS DEEP. THIS SEA OX IS GOING TO HAVE A NET REEL ON HER......SO I HOPE AND PLAN ON PUTTING THE WEIGHT ON HER IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. A FEW GUYS UP IN THE BAY HAVE THE GREY 150 HP 4-STROKES ON THE STERN OF THE SAME SIZE RIGS WITH WHEELS ON THEM WITH UP TO 600 YARDS OF NET ON IT. THEY SEEM TO LIKE THE SET UP. I AM JUST WORRIED ABOUT EXTRA AND UNNEEDED WEIGHT. I WOULD LOVE TO GET INTO A REMANUFACTURED GREY 150 HP FOR UNDER 5K OR SO,........ITS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THIS AREA,.....OR AT LEAST I HAVEN'T STUMBLED UPON IT YET. THANKS AGAIN.

[Questsportfishing]

your going to work her, you have reliability, great binicals, gauges, wires and they run. the four stroke in that model is not that heavy for weight to hp rating and with the wheel you can turn it is golden.

[joshmon71]

plenty of guys in this area (3 I know personally) are having injector issues with their grey Yammie 4s. seems systemic. maybe its the gas up here. dunno. none of them are happy. NO way you need to be cleaning injectors or replacing like they are. Something smells bad.

Id check out etechs myself as light. hear good things.

I run black vrod and no issues, but make sure it is rigged right.

best call is whom is your local tech and what does he service?

[Deep C]

Would have to be the fuel and even then really bad fuel... I'm 1700 into the 31' and her yammies... a bunch of that time took place over in the Bahamas where gas doesn't even resemble gas. I think its a blend of paint thinner, corn oil, and rum run off from the local bars... I blew up a set of Volvos running that piss through em but the Yammies have been flawless.
I have had near 5000 hours on one and two other at 4000. The one on my skiff has never even coughed...

Using it for what you plan to the 150 is great... Its a tuned down 200/ 225... 2 or 4 well worth the jingle... I'm pretty sure that place in Homestead ships...

[DRIFTWOOD]

Captain terry - I have a pair of HPDI yamahas I had rebuilt after 1500, run ike a dream. If you are concerned about weight those Evinrude E- tec;s look super, good waranty, light weight, run good and I have never seen one torn apart at any marina.

catch em up

[Capt. Terry]

I HAVE CHECKED INTO THE E-TECS NOW AND GOTTEN PRICES ON 'EM. THEY SOUND VERY INTERESTING......GONNA DO A LITTLE MORE RESEARCH HERE. THANKS TO ALL.

[Fortunamate]

in my mind there are only 2 choices Etecs or Yammies thats all you see at my docks is Etecs or yammies and were run twin 03 2 stroke yammie's themself other than they sat on the boat in storage for 3 years with no up keep. run great lots of power