Would You Buy Another Tohatsu??

[conchaway]

The engine is a little better than Honda-- or used to be. Do NOT use regular gas in ANY outboard engine!

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by conchaway

The engine is a little better than Honda-- or used to be. Do NOT use regular gas in ANY outboard engine!

Regular 10% ethanol is fine.........just use stabilizer if you are not going to use the engine for a while.

Where do you guys come up with this stuff?

The owners manual on my 2011 Mercury (Tohatsu) 5 hp 4 stroke says use 10% ethanol, and it has worked great with that for 9 years

[Chotu]

Adding to the diagnostics information, the oil came spurting out of the dipstick receptacle after about a serious 60 or more hard pulls in the pull starter.

The engine was cold because it never started.

[bmm32005]

I have the 8 hp and what I do is when the carb gives me trouble I just replace it. I keep a spare on the boat and my wife holds an unbrella under the motor when I swap it out. Just in case I drop something overboard.
I'll rebuild or just clean it out and re-assemble it.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by bmm32005

I have the 8 hp and what I do is when the carb gives me trouble I just replace it. I keep a spare on the boat and my wife holds an unbrella under the motor when I swap it out. Just in case I drop something overboard.
I'll rebuild or just clean it out and re-assemble it.

Same here, but with Honda small engines. Never had any problem with the carb on my 8hp tohatsu.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Because if there's water circulating with the oil, it's turning to steam. That's the pressure.

You can’t pressurize a crankcase, it’s vented

[Westcliffe01]

Chotu, if you overheat an engine, ever, it is highly recommended to retorque the cylinder head bolts. Usually the overheated head and block will stretch the bolts reducing the load on the gasket. If you have multiple overheats it is probably worse. If the head gasket blows it is a way to get coolant, raw water in this case, into the oil. Do a careful compression check, repeat it after putting some oil in the cylinder to seal the rings and see what you find. Probably the head gasket is shot and maybe the head surface is warped.

Originally Posted by Chotu

I think I just got a lemon, then.

This thing, though 5 years old, probably has 20-30 hours on it, max.

To have a thermostat go bad, causing the thing to overheat (and seize), now to have seawater getting into the oil is just an awful lot of problems to be having on a brand new (5 years ago) outboard I bought for reliability.
.

[Westcliffe01]

I have a 2.5 Suzuki 4 stroke and have the same carb issues others have reported. I also have an older 9.9 2 stroke Tohatsu and it has been great till the ignition failed. Can't buy an oem cdi anymore and aftermarket does not seem to be a direct fit.

[nortonscove]

Around here it is Yamaha that seems to be the gold standard. Father inlaw has one and it's been fantastic. I have the tiny Mercury and it has been pretty easy to deal with over the past seven years but I'd take the Yamaha any day over the Mercury. Yamaha is far and away considered the best by the local fishermen but of course they usually have a couple of the large ones bolted out back.

[contrail]

I have owned three Tohatsu's, a 3.5, a 25, and now an 18. They are the three best outboards I have ever owned, and have been excellent. They are (were) all two strokes, however, and have mostly been run outside of the US.

[chasfgr]

Originally Posted by geoleo

IMHO TOHATSU is the best OB there is.

If you buy nearly any current small hp outboard it will have been made by Tohatsu, and rebadged.
The advantage with the Tohatsu is that you don't have to pay extra for the change of name.

[33trippindaisy]

WOW! Lots of prolems from small engines , likely to have nothing to do with the engine itself. Why would anyone still use gas with ethanol in it? You either buy it without ethanol, or put ethanol killer in the tank, to treat the fuel.

Follow Mike O's rule and run those engines dry every time you use them, and consider using in line fuel/water separators. Small ones can be had for less then $25.00 and these days I would not use a any outboard motor without one. Not any gas engine for that matter.

Because the suitcase design of my Honda Genny 2000i, I just take mine to my guy every year for a quick carb clean and tune up, & if he thinks it needs re-jetted I do that too. Simply put, maintaining these little things requires a bit of pre-ventative maintenance, and I'm sure most all of us do that anyway on most of our equipment.

Tohatsu makes all the small engines these days, no matter if it says Merc or Suzuki or Tohatsu. The newer ones with EFI are far better if you can fit one in. They even come with internal water separators under the cowl. Obviously the smaller ones do in fact have very small jets, which make Non-Ethanol fuel a must.

Humbly I do believe that Tohatsu is the best small engine you can buy, and yes I have run Honda and Yamaha before as well, all new when purchased. Tohatsu is/was a motor designed for the Japanese Commercial fishing fleet, and when maintained are a great value for the money. I'm currently running the 20 hp 4-stroke EFI with Electric start and bought it new for $2900.00. Still working perfectly.

The OP might be affected by the storage position of his motor while sailing, allowing the oil to move into the crankcase. I'd try to build an upright bracket of some type. It might well end your troubles. Then again, every company puts out a lemon every now and then. Peace, out!

[Chotu]

An upright bracket?

How does this help a Tohatsu that had a bad thermostat causing it to overheat (yet still have a strong telltale stream) and seize??

After getting it going for again, I now am getting water in the oil.

Pretty sure an upright bracket isn’t helping.

I got junk from tohatsu and their cooling system design is faulty.

Originally Posted by 33trippindaisy

WOW! Lots of prolems from small engines , likely to have nothing to do with the engine itself. Why would anyone still use gas with ethanol in it? You either buy it without ethanol, or put ethanol killer in the tank, to treat the fuel.

Follow Mike O's rule and run those engines dry every time you use them, and consider using in line fuel/water separators. Small ones can be had for less then $25.00 and these days I would not use a any outboard motor without one. Not any gas engine for that matter.

Because the suitcase design of my Honda Genny 2000i, I just take mine to my guy every year for a quick carb clean and tune up, & if he thinks it needs re-jetted I do that too. Simply put, maintaining these little things requires a bit of pre-ventative maintenance, and I'm sure most all of us do that anyway on most of our equipment.

Tohatsu makes all the small engines these days, no matter if it says Merc or Suzuki or Tohatsu. The newer ones with EFI are far better if you can fit one in. They even come with internal water separators under the cowl. Obviously the smaller ones do in fact have very small jets, which make Non-Ethanol fuel a must.

Humbly I do believe that Tohatsu is the best small engine you can buy, and yes I have run Honda and Yamaha before as well, all new when purchased. Tohatsu is/was a motor designed for the Japanese Commercial fishing fleet, and when maintained are a great value for the money. I'm currently running the 20 hp 4-stroke EFI with Electric start and bought it new for $2900.00. Still working perfectly.

The OP might be affected by the storage position of his motor while sailing, allowing the oil to move into the crankcase. I'd try to build an upright bracket of some type. It might well end your troubles. Then again, every company puts out a lemon every now and then. Peace, out!

[Tupaia]

4 stroke outboards especially small ones have no place at sea. Too many moving parts to corrode and way too heavy. On my second 2 stroke Tohatsu 9.8hp in 20 years. Even managed to part ex the first one for a good price after 13 years, safety stops all gone, pull start was a piece of wood and the gear change was a set of mole grips. Never failed to start even after a couple of months on some occasions. At 26kg for 9.8hp easy pull start gearing and 2 cylinders make it very smooth running. This IMO is the best outboard on the planet.


And yes Tohatsu make all the small blocks for most manufacturers.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

4 stroke outboards especially small ones have no place at sea. Too many moving parts to corrode and way too heavy. On my second 2 stroke Tohatsu 9.8hp in 20 years. Even managed to part ex the first one for a good price after 13 years, safety stops all gone, pull start was a piece of wood and the gear change was a set of mole grips. Never failed to start even after a couple of months on some occasions. At 26kg for 9.8hp easy pull start gearing and 2 cylinders make it very smooth running. This IMO is the best outboard on the planet.


And yes Tohatsu make all the small blocks for most manufacturers.

That’s the dream.

However, these are not sold in the States.