Who Makes the Best / Worst Outboards ?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Tellie

Not bad for a Britsh motor, impressed me enough to buy a MG convertable. That cured me of British engines.

Indeed. I had a Triumph Spitfire, and its engine was built on the same block as the 5hp Sea Gull.

But it usually started on the second pull.

[senormechanico]

Thread drift alert!

How's this for a regretful mistake?

I once bought a 1964 Triumph Spitfire for $950 after turning down an Austin Healy for $600. I didn't like the fact it had side curtains while the Spitfire had roll up windows, and the leather upholstery was raggedy.

On the plus side, with the Spitfire I could change the front disc brake pads without even taking off the tires. I just popped the hood which was the whole front end, and sat on the tires. Two clips, two pins and the old pads practically fell out. Front brake pad replacement time, about 20 minutes total.

[Minggat]

I once heard someone say that a Sea Gull could be rebuilt in one hour. The thing they don't tell you when you buy it is that you have to do it everyday.

Healys, Triumphs, MGs. I have an MG. The Midget. It's Nissan powered now.

[s/v Beth]

Getting back on topic- The best OB I have ever had was a Honda 9.9. I regularly take it from Hypersaline to fresh water and back. Never fails to start, I haven't even replaced one part. Still charges batteries with that little alternator. Man what a machine!

[hummingway]

My Honda 5hp 4 stroke starts first pull most times. Very rare when it doesn't. It'll zip me where I want to go then run at an idle for a couple hours while I try to confuse the fish with strange contraptions. My only complaint is it seems to sometimes scare the fish ...

[Wotname]

My best outboard was a Seagull because it ALWAYS worked.
My worst outboard was a Seagull because it ALWAYS needed some maintenance before it would work.
It was the same motor. So it was reliable in the sense that it could always be made to work

I swear it could be fully overhauled with nothing more than a swiss army knife and whatever the tide carried in.

A wonderful piece of history to look at but it was a happy day when it replaced with a Japanese outboard

Originally Posted by Minggat

I once heard someone say that a Sea Gull could be rebuilt in one hour. The thing they don't tell you when you buy it is that you have to do it everyday.

Healys, Triumphs, MGs. I have an MG. The Midget. It's Nissan powered now.

[svstrider]

Originally Posted by Wotname

My best outboard was a Seagull because it ALWAYS worked.
My worst outboard was a Seagull because it ALWAYS needed some maintenance before it would work.
It was the same motor. So it was reliable in the sense that it could always be made to work

My first outboard was in 1977 and was a Seagull. I had the boat for 2 years and sailed around Indonesia. I think I spent more time rowing that bloody engine around than it ever did moving the dinghy. I am not sure what possessed me to buy it. Most have been a drug induced brain fitz.

It was SO BAD that I could not even sell it to the Indos.

[Laidback]

Originally Posted by skipmac

I forgot about the Seagull, probably a mental block since I rate it as one of the top 5 worst boating purchases I ever made.

Bought it because Don Street claimed they were the best outboard you could buy; reliable (hah!), easy to work on (hah again, not my experience and since they're always broke they ought to be easy to work on) and have high torque so can be used to tow your boat if the main engine fails (maybe but never could get it to run long enough to find out).

That piece of $!@#$ never ran right from the first day I bought it brand new. Learned never to try to crank it in polite company as the process always inspired me to expand my four letter vocabulary into new realms. Learned how to cuss in five languages and when that ran out I made up new words.

First prize for worst outboard ever made, hands down Seagull.

My Favourite Outboard - NOT because it ran better than Evinrude or Johnson or even the Japanese upstarts - but because I could always start this 4hp long shafted O/B with its 4 bladed barge prop and my snooty girlfriend of that time could not ! It gave me a huge boost !! Hooray the Brits!!!

[Philsboat]

I had a1986 8hp Mariner (Yamaha) 2 stroke for 15 years on a 23' sailboat.Great motor,easy to start.Had a problem with stalling and plug fouling for two years that the Mariner dealer couldn't fix.Turned out to be a leaky fuel pump diaphragm.Gas was going directly to the base without going through the carb.Other than that a really good motor.

Phil

[Pete the Cat]

Have a new Honda and it sucks. Hard starting. Runs OK after it gets started but it is heavy and cranky. Would not buy another. Have an old Nissan that is great and I am going back to it.

[CSY Man]

Bought a Yamaha 4 HP, 4-stroke last year.

Hard to start when cold and after a few days/weeks sitting.
Starts easy when warm.

Vibrates at certain RPM,s..Guess a counter-balance shaft like on a single cylinder motorcycle would be too heavy or too expensive.

Surprised at the power:

Previous motor, 4 HP Evinrude, 2-stroke, 2-cylinder would push me and the 103 lbs inflatable dink at 7.5 knots, this Yammie 4HP does it at 10.4 knots, on the plane and sipping right along..Must be more than 4 HP on tap, or I have a lucky combo with prop/motor/dink/trim (in addition to superior seamanship.)

[Dockhead]

All these bad outboard experiences! All of ours have worked just fine. We've had various Mercuries, and we never had a bit of trouble with any of them. Present dink motor is a two-stroke Mariner (Mercury) 25 -- it's great. Light for its power (50kg), smooth, and so far completely reliable.

If I'm not mistaken, I think the motor is actually made in Japan by Tohatsu (or Yamaha?).

Previous Mercs in our ownership were a 15 horse and a 5 horse, both 2-strokes.

We also have a Yamaha 2-stroke 5hp at our lake house, which we use on a fiberglass skiff. Also dead reliable in years of use.

Guess we've just been lucky?

[Islandmike]

Our Mercury outboard is a 4 stroke and is made by Yamaha....

[Minggat]

I have 2 outboards (2 dinks). Both of them were free to me, so there will be no complaints in this post.

The first one I aguired when someone left it on the path to the dumpster in my former marina. It was still shiney/glossy at the time. It's a 2.5 hp Merc that I use on my Walker Bay. It was locked up because someone had apparently laid it down with salt water in it. I took out the plug and carb, dumped some gas/oil mix in it and broke it free. Got it spinning quite nicely and stuck the plug back in it to see how it spin with compression. For some stupid reason I connected the plug. Out of the water, I pulled once and it fired and ran until the tiny little bit of fuel was spent. No carb. I never got around to replacing the impeller. It still fires very easily despite my best effort to neglect/abuse it.

The other one is an 8hp Evinrude. Also aguired by the dumpster. It was locked up because the handle was not in the start position. Twisted it the the start position and have been using it happily on the go fast dink ever since. I'm thinking that someone just wanted to "upgrade" to a 4 stroke.

It takes all kinds.

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by Island Mike

Our Mercury outboard is a 4 stroke and is made by Yamaha....

What do you base this on? All small Mercury 4 stroke outboards are simply Tohatsu motors with mercury decals on them..... or have been for quite some time.

I did pretty in depth research on this before I bought... the Mercury dealer swore there were differences... nothing but the decals are different. Even the paint is the same (which is surprising as Merc used to have a proprietary process they marketed heavily).

Mercury, Nissan, and Tohatsu 6hp and below all come off of the same assembly line at the Tohatsu plant.

There is a different prop that can be purchased only through Mercury, it is a high thrust (5.99 x 7? can not recall exactly). I bought it... for $139... and it is probably better suited for use by someone using these motors for a kicker for a large power boat....