Quote:
Originally Posted by SVTatia
Be careful though, as an example, Mercury outboards are rebranded Tohatsus. |
I am a
Mercury tech, but have worked on most of the big brands. primarily i
work on 150hp and up and the majority of my
work here was 2010-2014, although i worked on Optimax 225's's and Verados untill recently. all twin engine rhibs 7m-9m. Mercury optimax 150's & 225's, mercury verado 225hp,
Evinrude Etecs,
evinrude 30hp & 50hp MFE,
Honda 250 4 strokes. we use and abuse our
boats and these engine probably get more of a workout in a few years than most people get out of their
boats while they own them, of course on the other hand most people take care of their boats.
Mercury Optimax is complete garbage. its the
boat i had the most trouble and tech calls for. constantly fixing them. the
laptop diagnoses
software was clunky at best, like 1990s shareware look and usefulness. Mercury is particularly nasty (Cummins too) about its subscription model for using the
software. annual subscriptions, and have to do an update every week or so or it would lock you out. the
seals were poorly designed and a lot of saltwater sprayed inside which ate into the
aluminum engine components,
electrical cables were similar.
The Mercury Verado 4 strokes were absolutely lovely. everyone fought over those boats. they didn't break down much and the controls and
steering was smooth like butter.
Evinrude Etecs i liked, they seem to just run, but their controls and
steering was rough and stiff. the ones we had were older, but they outlived several of the other boats optimax.
Evinrude MFE's i liked, but i got to play with them when they were new. they were supposed to run on
diesel or
2 stroke mixed
fuel, just press a little button and it switched. i never seen these really run well on
diesel. thier little control brain box was very sensitive and broke a lot, ironic seeing they were meant to dump from a plane or be submerged. reality they didn't do anything well and were not necessarily less onry than their old
school 80's/90's
2 stroke outboards. cool
concept but i suspect just more gov
research dollars spiraling down the drain.
The honda's were nice, but big. those models supposedly had issues but i didnt have much problems with them. different software and interface box of course. when they did go bad it was kind of nice because so many people have them you could search
forums for help if you had hard to diagnose issues. they had a 90hp
honda for the
race bunce at my yacht club in
san diego. there was no fresh
water spigot at the pier and it never came out of the water, so it was never flushed. always ran good and smooth.
for
manuals the mercury
manuals were bad, the evinrude were a bit better. like the hondas the evinrude were popular engines and we found some stuff on tech/fishermen
forums, not as much support as hondas though.
the best engines i have seen are hands down the Yamaha's, quite, smooth, never seen them down much or for long. not a US manufacturer so we didnt see them often. the few i ran into i remember thinking how quite it was. a 90 if i remember right but i cant remember if it was 2 stroke or
4 stroke.
on my first ship ~2000 we had to get a
zodiac for something i cant remember now. the
fabric bottom, roll up floor type, and i think the ones we got were a little aged as well. well they had a problem getting gas engines so the supply types just ordered two 30hp
yanmar diesel outboards without asking anyone, as the engine rating was 30hp - 30hp 2 strokes!. these things were massive like 3-5 times the size of a 30hp 2 stroke. the boat was a champ and it was a bit wet sitting there but it did work. HOWEVER the torque of the diesel was so much it almost bent the boat in half with the engine almost underwater...at not even half throttle. a little scary looking behind and the tiller is almost at a 90. good engines though i liked them, good on
fuel, although we never got much to half throttle lol. heard just like inboard yanmars that
parts are expensive. rare to even see any now. they would be a good fit for a 75-90hp boat maybe. a lot of weight back there
for small engines i personally owned i had an old evinrude 15hp 2 stroke that was apain and recently a honda 10hp
4 stroke, and a 10hp nissan/tohatsu 4 stroke. i liked the honda and tohatsu, did a lot of work on the tohatsu but it felt like it was easy enough to maintain. parts were a pain but i managed to get them. i didn't have to do much to the honda, but it didn't get used much while i owned it as it was a long shaft and the dingy was a short shaft transom. biggest problem is i deployed and didnt drain the fuel from the carb, which gunked it up pretty badly. when i rebuilt the carb, a little plastic washer bounced off my
dock steps and right between two boards in the
dock into the water. of course you cant just get the one little plastic washer. it was $250 for a new carb. i hate messing with carbs with a passion. the tohatsu was a heavy
motor compared to the honda. i dont know how good/bad the small mercury but i have seen signs theyre not good. supposedly the Tohatsu only made the powerhead for them and all the regularly breakable stuff is mercury.
i
sold my
dinghy and the outboards before leaving
San Diego. figured id buy here once my schedule was easier and i could go do stuff. when i buy another outboard it will be fuel injected - No carburetor! i did learn to pull the fuel hose and let the engine run out of fuel, however the problem is all the gunk and alcohol in the fuel now. carburetors are exposed to oxygen which combines with the gunk and alcohol to
varnish and gunk up the carb. the fuel injection is sealed so there are less issues this way. the experiences i had with honda's and mercury verado's 4 strokes seems to back that up.
when i buy a new
dinghy and outboard it will probably be the new 25hp Yamaha EFI 4 stroke. it is as light as the 15hp without the pain of carburetors. i do/intend to do more in the north so a little more HP is a necessary to fight bigger currents. that also necessitates a slightly longer rhib than my last 10ft. a carb
motor is ok if you have a
trailer boat and you can bring it home every trip to flush and take care of it. for a boat always on the water and exposed to
salt air, you cant wait until its convenient which means there is more
maintenance. in the end i didn't use the dinghy as much because i didn't want to play with the outboard after.
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