Mercury 200 EFI vs Mercury 200 Optimax

[Vitamin Sea]

Hello to all Ausfishers, long time reader, first time poster.

I'm hopeing that you guys' can help me with a making a decision that my wife and I have been procrastinating about.

I have a Haines Hunter 19C, oldie but a goldy in good condition, a couple of weeks ago the trusty '91 175 Johnson decided to die on the way to Tangalooma:'(

Have decided to purchase new motor, tossing up between the 200 Opti and the 200 EFI, am looking at a price difference of $4600 between the 2 of them.

My boating / fishing is usually out of Moolooaba ( banks ) or Moreton Bay, inside and outside.

Could you guys' please provide some advice on the Pro's and Con's of each motor, feedback from personal experience with them would be greatly appreciated.

PS: Am getting hydraulic steering fitted at the same time as the donk, Hydrive Bullhorn, any comments?

Thanks

Bill

[PADDLES]

billy, $4600 buys a heap of petrol. also factor in the interest on that $4600 (if you're borrowing the money). work out your hours of use for the year and figure out if it's worth it for you to spend the extra money. there'll be a "crossover point" where if you do enough hours per year the extra expense in purchase price and servicing will be paid for by the fuel savings. good luck with your decision mate :)

[Bashir]

Lot of money to spend on an old boat, if you want to save a lot of $$$, I have a 2001 200hp efi and its for sale, PM me.

[Vitamin Sea]

Paddles, appreciateyour input, agree about the $4600 buying a lot of petrol, my initial thoughts also.

Do about a hundred hours a year, would take quite some time to make up the difference in juice....

However, I do continually whinge about how much fuel a convetional 2 stroke in the upper HP takes to feed, would hate to look back in 6 months and say why didn't I get a DI when I had the opportunity!

That's why I would like to hear from you guy's who have these motors to give me the facts, which we all know are hard to come by when we are talking to dealers!

The boat, well she is old but in very good nick, don't see the point in spending 60K on a flash new one that won't do it any easier or better than what I have now

Bashir, have sent PM

Cheers

Bill

[snelly1971]

Hi Bill i have just fitted my 6m plate with a low houred 98 v6 200 Mercury...very happy with it....getting around 50 NM for 70 liters.....i had a 96 yamaha 200 before this and the mercury seems to be alot more responsive...(EFI) i suppose and idles around alot better with less smoke.....The optimaxes are nice but as the others said $4500 is alot of fuel to save...
Cheers Mick

[Wayne_Red]

Hi Bill
I can't comment on the motors as I don't know about the opti's. I used to run a 200 yam 2s. You may not get the $4600 back in fuel saving or it may take long time. But the cost of a new motor plus $4600 is soon forgotten. Every time you fuel up a big standard 2s you will feel it in the pocket for years to come. As you said, old boat but you like it and will probably keep it and the new motor for a long time.
Regards Wayne

[Vitamin Sea]

have just fitted my 6m plate with a low houred 98 v6 200 Mercury...very happy with it....getting around 50 NM for 70 liters.....i had a 96 yamaha 200 before this and the mercury seems to be alot more responsive...(EFI) i suppose and idles around alot better with less smoke.....


Snelly, 50nm out of 70 litres is good going in my books, my average trip to the banks is about 120 k's for about 140 litres of fuel, expensive day out....what saving would you get from a Opti?


But the cost of a new motor plus $4600 is soon forgotten. Every time you fuel up a big standard 2s you will feel it in the pocket for years to come. As you said, old boat but you like it and will probably keep it and the new motor for a long time.

Wayne, couldn't agree more, it's the everyday costs that hit us, once it's bought it's bought

thanks blokes

Bill

[Shanoss]

I put an 04 200 suzuki on my haines 213. Nothing like a new motor on an old hull. For me it was about reliabilty and range. Go with the efficient one.

[snelly1971]

They reckon 20 % better with the opti but all depends on how you drive it too i suppose....went down the coast last weekend here for 3 days and burnt 420 liters but i was carrying about 750 kg of gear...done about 20hrs all up which i thought was quite good...had to travel 60 nm there + return rest of the hours were just mainly idle to low rev.....cheers Mick

[snelly1971]

Yep Shanoss....saving at the moment for a 250 Suzi...$23,500......i cant wait....

[Shanoss]

Yep Shanoss....saving at the moment for a 250 Suzi...$23,500......i cant wait....

crikey mate. that is bloody cheap! the 200 cost me 22000 and i thought that was cheap at the time. good buy for that amount. You'll never look back. Well, you may look back at everyone behind you but thats about it

[snelly1971]

An AB diver here has recently opened up Active Marine....i am mates with him and off course Tassie is mainly all Yamaha`s so he is trying to get a bit of the action.....i have been in a couple of 23-27 ft Noosa Cats running twin 250.s and am very impressed so as i said ....i getting one eventually.....

[Shanoss]

Its funny how States seem to have preferred brands. I remember when i lived in Darwin just about everyone had a Yamaha. Come to think of it, Qld seems to have the same thing. Maybe yamahas are still the biggest?
Anyways, I'm very happy with my zuki.

[litenup]

Bill, I have 19C with 200 Opti. I haven't had rig long, just had pod fitted and putting it back together. Opti gets same fuel consumption as 130 Honda that I had on previous boat(1.2 lt per nmile). Opti has a better resale value. The big difference to me is range, I don't have to carry as much fuel. I have a mate with 175 opti, uses 1 lire per nmile on old 18 ft Cruise Craft. I recon 175 would be heaps, and uses smaller block. I fitted 200(2nd hand), but would have been happy to find 150-175. Before you fit new motor get the transom checked by a fibre glass repairer, mine seemed alright but it wasn't. Have a look at a 4 stroke. The dealer could be offering a bigger discount on the EFI to clear stock.
Cheers Pete

[snelly1971]

Dont worry i think the tide is turning here...there is alot of crabby 4 stroke yamaha owners here having various problems with there motors.....there is probably 6 ab boats now running suzi`s and give it twelve months and the word will spread....gossip spreads quick in a little place....and Bar Crushers are very popular here with most of them running Suzi`s.......

[Vitamin Sea]

Hi Blokes

Thanks to all who have offered opinions/advice.

After speaking to the wife this morning she thought that we should get the more modern/fuel efficient/smokeless motor, so a new 200 Opti it is;D

Shanos: Looked at the Zuk, but another 4K, cannot possibly justify $22000, fitted motor alone.

Pete: A 175 Opti would do it for sure, but the 200 is only about 1K more, I consider that you will always be better off with 3 litre block as opposed to a 2 1/2 litre. Hope that transom is good!


Thanks again to all, hope that it will be kind to us

Bill

[Wayne_Red]

Congatulations Bill, wife always knows best.
take some photos of it when fitted and show us how it looks
Wayne

[Vitamin Sea]

Thanks Wayne

I will see if I can bum a didgi from someone and take some before and after shots.

Not a decision easily reached, even with the The Minister for War and Finances' blessing ( sort of )

Cheers

Bill

[landi]

hey vitaman sea,
I have a 5.7m tabs with a 135opti on the backat around 3k rpm I get nearly 2klm/ltr out of mine with an adult passenger. I can trawl off the shelf for up to 6hrs, travel there and back and put in $40 worth of fuel at the end of the day. Thats why Ive got an opti. Runs well on standartd unleaded. No smoke and the savings go back into my pocket for the next trip out.

[PADDLES]

good on ya billy, that'll be a top rig with the optimax on it. if you're doing 100 hours a year it'll be definitely worth doing it.

as an indication for you, i did the calcs i mentioned earlier (hours of use savings versus extra servicing costs and higher purchase price) for myself (5.5m glass boat with 135 2s) and i needed to do at least 60 hours a year to make it worth it financially.

[litenup]

Sorry missed the bit about steering. I fitted Hydrive bullhorn at same time as Opti. It's great, was given advice to go Hydrive over Seastar when it was 200hp.Cheers Pete.

[Nepenthe]

Good choice with the Opti, a mate of mine installed a Merc 200 efi on his new 6.2 Pacific CC and traded it on a 175 suzuki after only 20 hours, that baby was way too thirsty efi or not, chewing 45-55 lt per hour at 20 knots. Another bloke I know has the 200 Opti on a 20ft glass half cabin and quotes 25-30 lt per hour at the same cruise speeds.;)

Cheers Nep

[Vitamin Sea]

Hi all again
The dealer strongly advocates the use of Premium Unleaded, specifically BP Ultimate, not so much for the 98 Octane, but the fact that the fuel doesn't have the crap (dirt) in it that the others do...

What do you fellows think?
Bill

[just_cruisin]

How long are you looking to keep the boat for? The re-sale of an opti will sht all over an EFI.
Opti= Smoother running engine, great fuel economy
EFI= cheap, noisy, average fuel economy.
How do the weights compare?
What binnacles etc.. come with each?

My 2 cents!

[PADDLES]

billy, you're going to start another pulp vs ulp argument here :P

i'd give mercury marine a call to see what they recommend if i was you.

i understand that bp ultimate is one of the best fuels (according to some of my motor mechanic mates) but some of the other premiums are made up from all sorts of ingredients. do a bit of a search on here there's been plenty of debate on the issue, especially ethanol as a fuel additive.

[Steve B]

Mate, smart move going the Optimax. I was also weighing up the options between 4stroke and Opti. I know this is smaller than yours but it might give you some comparison. I just run in a 90hp Optimax on a 5m plate side console with plenty of extra weight (makocraft frenzy). I filled the 90 litre fuel tank and did 170km (according to GPS)up and back at monduran at various rev ranges as per manual. I still have just under half a tank left! I reckon I only used 50 litres!!!! No smoke, very quiet and gets up out of the hole at pace! topped out briefly at about 45MPH at 5500 rpm. I am sure that will get faster as it wears in.

Down side the oil is a bit expensive. I haven't checked to see how much it used yet, I have heard they range between 100:1 and 300:1

all the best steve

[Vitamin Sea]

billy, you're going to start another pulp vs ulp argument here :P

I Know Paddles, thought of that after I posted, should have joined in the current debate, good advice re; Merc Marine, thanks

Steve, time will tell, will be christened this week end one way or another, even if I have to go in the river to break it in!

Cruisin
I'm intending for long time use, better half has other ideas'::)
Re-Sale was one of the main factors

Cheers

Bill

[Graybags]

Remember,extra money spent now will mean more fuel savings with the optimax. I run a 115 optimax and it it is clearly leaner than my old 90 hp yamaha.Fuel will increase in price over the years as well.....

[mcgilld]

Vitamin Sea -
I'm the mate with the 175 opti - range was my biggest consideration - in Mackay the reef is a minimum 55nm. There was no second thought on which was best for myself . I'd gets as good, or better, fuel consumption than my old carb 75 Merc on a much samller boat. If range is an issue for you then i'd go for the opti - otherwise i'd do my sums on the 4600.
By the way, the dry weight of my Cruise craft is only about 50kg lighter than a 19C. Holeshot down low is remarkable and it pulls over 40Knots with a 17" prop. You may not need the 200 unless you're really loading up.