new outboard for 6m boat with pod

[Nabba1]

Hi guys,

Looking at upgrading the old mecury EFI 2 stroke as its starting to become unreliable after a solid 13 years service. I have an old 6m huntsman with a pod which I love (especially offshore) so am going to keep it until it sinks hahaha.

Talking to a guy at a boat shop where I get the motor serviced and he said that some motors are better suited than others to being mounted on pods due to the extra spray they cop etc but wasn't specific about which ones.

Does anyone know anything about this? I'm pretty easy what motor to buy as I think these days they are all pretty good and reliable and I'm certainly looking forward to the fuel savings and extra range. leaning towards a mercury 4s or yammy in the 150 to 175 at the moment.

All advice welcome, cheers

[Luke G]

200 lightweight yammy or suzuki would be perfect.


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[mitch_wahoo]

Just fitted a new 150 4 stroke merc on my 6.1m Hydrofield with a pod. Awesome motor. The balls this thing has is awesome. Motor doesn't even seem like it's working.

[Moonlighter]

What you need to watch more than anything on the older style hulls that are podded is engine weight. They were designed for the simple, relatively light old 2 stokes that were all that was available in the times they were built.

A few years ago a bloke I know needed a new engine on his Haines 19 footer runabout. V19R or something I think it was. He'd had it podded with quite a long alloy pod some time before that and had a 2 stroke merc 150 on it. Even then with the merc on the back, it always looked very low in the water at the stern to me, almost alarmingly so at times when we were fishing near him offshore.

So he went to the local Yammy dealer asking about a 150 4 stroke. To their credit, they took one look and told him they would not sell him one as it would be too heavy and in their opinion, he wouldnt be happy. They said they would rather not have a customer than one that would inevitably be very unhappy.

He went away impressed with their honesty and ended up with a white motor, which was the lightest, at that stage, by a fair margin in the new technology motors.

So what I am saying, is be very careful not to increase the weight on your transom pod much with whatever new motor you choose. See if you can find out the real weight of your current donk, including oil bottles, and try to stick as close to that weight as possible.

As far as coping with spray is concerned, I will comment on the Suzukis. I went out recently with a mate who has a Kevlacat with twin 140's on it, done well over 1000 hours.

Well, it was a pretty rough day, we were sitting on 4500rpm and a very decent speed, and I can honestly say that i had never seen so much water thrown over engines before in my life. On those Kevlacat hulls, the water that gets thrown across between the motors is a sight to behold. It wasnt just spray, it was like someone was throwing 20 litre buckets at the cowlings again and again and again. It was actually quite shocking. And amazing at the same time.

Yet they never missed a beat, and after we got home and he lifted the cowls, nice and dry and clean in there. So if ability to cope with spray is high on your agenda, I couldnt think of a higher recommendation than that.

[Spaniard_King]

Just fitted a new 150 4 stroke merc on my 6.1m Hydrofield with a pod. Awesome motor. The balls this thing has is awesome. Motor doesn't even seem like it's working.
Mitch whats the reasoning for mounting that engine to one side??

I replaced a 140 Suzuki on an 18ft Hydrofeild (new model boat) late last year for a customer and his was mounted in the middle?

[Spaniard_King]

200 lightweight yammy or suzuki would be perfect.


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Why would they be perfect Luke?

[Luke G]

Why would they be perfect Luke?

Most power for the lightest weight, 6m glass boats need grunt to perform and provide good fuel economy.

Thats if the pod can handle the extra weight, next best would be the lightweight 150 merc, 20kgs lighter then the zuke and yammy.

IMO the 140a suzuki might be a touch too small, great for 5-5.5 but any bigger and you have to work it and loose some of its perks ie fuel economy. Great motor though got one on my little origin.

I like to match my boats to the max power its rated for.

[Spaniard_King]

Luke the number on the back of the engine cowl does not mean it's suited to any particular boat, Do you think how that engine develops it's HP has anything to do with how a particular engine would perform on several different hulls?

[oldie]

be interest to know why motor was fitted off centre?

[mitch_wahoo]

Spaniard king. There offset because of the step under the hull in the middle of the boat. If the motor is centre mounted they can get bad cavitation.

[Luke G]

Luke the number on the back of the engine cowl does not mean it's suited to any particular boat, Do you think how that engine develops it's HP has anything to do with how a particular engine would perform on several different hulls?

Your 100% correct, for example:

Yamaha / suzuki still make the V6 200's, why would they do this you might ask? Well as you say some hulls will perform better with the extra torque and weight that V6 can provide.

Thats also why there can be a big difference between lets say a 140 suzuki and 150 suzuki (ive owned both and a 175, but thats another story) because the torque is better on the bigger block, especially if fitted with vvti in my experience with 4 strokes anyway.

I had a boat with a 115 on the back, great motor but lacked low end grunt to plane when loaded, i had been in a boat with a 140 and I knew it was similar so I got the 150, my boat could handle the weight and it was a night and day difference!

Its important not to upset your hull's balance, in some circumstances heavier 4 strokes are not the answer, if your hull feels nice and balanced its probably wise to stick to a motor the similar weight, you can counteract the extra weight of a fourstroke sometimes by relocating batteries etc but it all depends on the set up.

The lightweight 200's may not be perfect, but ive seen huntsmans with 225 optimax's that weigh similar to the 4 strokes on small pods, the worst thing you can do is underpower your hull imo.


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[oldie]

did the boat have twin outboards before? or was the old motor also fitted in that location?

[mitch_wahoo]

It had twins originally. Then had a single. There all side mounted usually. My dads got the same boat. Engine was side mounted from factory. Theres about 6 other boats in town that i know of that are all side mounted.

[caravellerob]

you can mount them in the middle they need to be 3 inches higher if a 25" shaft. I mucked around with my old 16ft jaguar (88 model) with a jacking plate and tha was what I found worked best. Mitch is that motor 20" or 25" shaft the 150 Merc

P.S. sorry for the thread hijack.

[mitch_wahoo]

Yeh you can use a 25" shaft in the middle but it creates more drag. It's a 20" shaft

[ReefRobber]

Mate if I was going 150 I'd go the merc. Big cubes and light weight. 175 and I'd lean towards the yammy.

[LittleSkipper]

Your 100% correct, for example:

Yamaha / suzuki still make the V6 200's, why would they do this you might ask? Well as you say some hulls will perform better with the extra torque and weight that V6 can provide.

Thats also why there can be a big difference between lets say a 140 suzuki and 150 suzuki (ive owned both and a 175, but thats another story) because the torque is better on the bigger block, especially if fitted with vvti in my experience with 4 strokes anyway.

I had a boat with a 115 on the back, great motor but lacked low end grunt to plane when loaded, i had been in a boat with a 140 and I knew it was similar so I got the 150, my boat could handle the weight and it was a night and day difference!

Its important not to upset your hull's balance, in some circumstances heavier 4 strokes are not the answer, if your hull feels nice and balanced its probably wise to stick to a motor the similar weight, you can counteract the extra weight of a fourstroke sometimes by relocating batteries etc but it all depends on the set up.

The lightweight 200's may not be perfect, but ive seen huntsmans with 225 optimax's that weigh similar to the 4 strokes on small pods, the worst thing you can do is underpower your hull imo.


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So if your transom is rated to carry 175kg like mine is with a max HP of 80 and the outboard you wanted to install had a HP rating of 80, weighed 181kg dry, not including oils then it would not be wise to fit such a heavy outboard? I wouldn't think so! Cause my current 2 stroke only weighs 136kg dry, not including oils.


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[Luke G]

So if your transom is rated to carry 175kg like mine is with a max HP of 80 and the outboard you wanted to install had a HP rating of 80, weighed 181kg dry, not including oils then it would not be wise to fit such a heavy outboard? I wouldn't think so! Cause my current 2 stroke only weighs 136kg dry, not including oils.


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Its pretty obvious not to go for a motor heavier then what your hull is rated for, an option could be the 155kg 80A suzuki however.

[LittleSkipper]

Its pretty obvious not to go for a motor heavier then what your hull is rated for, an option could be the 155kg 80A suzuki however.

Currently waiting on the release of the new 75-115 Merc 4 strokes, the 75hp will be approximately 18kg lighter.


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[scottar]

So if your transom is rated to carry 175kg like mine is with a max HP of 80 and the outboard you wanted to install had a HP rating of 80, weighed 181kg dry, not including oils then it would not be wise to fit such a heavy outboard? I wouldn't think so! Cause my current 2 stroke only weighs 136kg dry, not including oils.


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Before you make the decision on a new donk, get the weight difference (bottles/buckets of water probably the easiest) and place it as close to the transom as possible and see what sort of difference it makes to the handling - especially slow to medium speed planing in a bit of chop. I have been behind the wheel of two different Seafarer Victory's over the years. One with a 2.6 Litre 150Hp and One with a 3.3 Litre 200Hp. In rough conditions the 60 odd kilo's difference between the two motors made a huge difference to the point I ended up fitting trim tabs.