Outboard poll.

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Col

Col

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From recent experiences (the most recent was this w/e-no water circulation) Mercury / Mariner 3.3's seem to be the most unreliable outboard known to man. Shear pin breakages, and oiled plugs seem to be the norm. Anyone else have trouble with this particular model?
I had a 4hp Merc - completely reliable. How can 2 models from the same company be so different.
To be fair to the 3.3, when it's running, it really does pull well.

So have you found the cure?
Do they "prefer" a certain brand of spark plug?
Do they run better on certain 2stroke oils?

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My 4hp Merc is excellent - really fast /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

not missed a beat - unlike my other engine /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Adrian
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Well my Mercury has done 1 hour and has done three shear pin's and is now having it's impellor replaced at a cost of £80! I was in my dinghy with Geoffs when the outboard just stopped, we checked the fuel e.t.c. but could feel that it was getting hot and no water was coming out of the tell tale pipe. Luckily we had the spare oars /forums/images/icons/wink.gif and were able to row the few metres back to the boat. I didn't see anything in the water, but the mechanic is almost certain that a bag or something has been over the intakes as there is no sign at all of any other damage. I must say that I would like to praise Chas Newans marine, I took in the outboard yesterday after the problem at the weekend and it was repaired the same day, what better can you get /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

I must say that when it goes it goes well, but the shear pin's seem to be very sensitive, or perhaps the engine is too powerful for them /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif, but the impellor was an expensive pain, but it can only have been something restricting the water in flow, so perhaps not the engines fault. I think I will be keeping an eye on my tell tale pipe in future, as I would th etemp guage on the boat, which would show water is flowing through and cooling it OK.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=purple> "You only see what you recognise, and you only recognise what you know" <font color=purple>
 
Don't really know in your particular case Col, but Merc always seem to badge other makers motors, hence the disparity between one size of motor and a seemingly similar size.

For my money it's Suzi or Yam. I have a 100HP Suzi and it's excellent - it really is! I also have a 3.5HP air-cooled Yam which I bought second hand for only £189. This little motor hasn't missed a beat, or broken a shear pin, or indeed given any other problems. It starts first time, most of the time. Being air cooled, it will never suffer from impellor or weed problems.

Oh and by the way....inspite of the modern trend toward 4-Strokes, I prefer 2-Strokes. So there...California Air Resourses Board (CARB) can stick that in their pipes and smoke it :-)

<hr width=100% size=1>Madoc Yacht Club
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I bort the tohatsu, think its the same without the posh end of the market badging, the plug is the one they fitted, the 2T oil is the morris stuff I use in the Lambretta, its been faultless all year, propbly done maybe 30 hrs? ish? have broke one shear pin cos I was pissed and left the dinghy bow line in the water and it got tangled.

My only comment was that it seems quite juicey, but dinghy is big and has a foot of weed on the bottom.

overall its pretty good

<hr width=100% size=1>Sod the Healey - I think I'll buy an E-Type.
 
You have to be choosy buying outboards. Different hp from the same maker can be very different. Some are designed in house, some are bought in and rebadged. Some are hybrid, eg the power head is bought in and rebadged but the leg is in-house.

The merc 4 and 5 is, as said, a rebadged tohatsu and is excellent. I have a couple of them, never had a problem, kids can start them. The 3.3 merc is totally different, and a lousy motor imho. I have owned one of these but got rid.

But at the same time the bigger tothatsus are also pretty unimpressive motors, sustantially inferior to mercs and yam.

As a general guide Yam and Mercs are excellent motors (better than Suz too, imho) but you have to get the right answer for the particular hp you are buying. You will also get differing opinions depending on whom you ask!

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What outboards want

...is a damned good thrashing. Oiled plugs and lots of other ailments are symptoms of puttering about sensibly in the marina, and failing to hand over the whole dinghy contraption to the teenager with strict instructions to thrash around outside the harbour. I fear that far too many twostrokes get puttered about, a bit, and put away, and all the oily plugs, water not pumped rond properly, stickified carbs etc probs ensue.

I had loads of motorbikes, lots of them 2stroke, and the best spark plug always seemed the one in the book. NOT the ah well this is the equivalnet in a diferent brand. Regardless, the colour of the spark plu shd be that of a Rich Tea biscuit - but this won't happen without the occassional thrashing.

Sepretly, i rate the yamahas, very good imho. The larger mercurys are light, but a pain to control as the throttle AND fwd reverse is all on the one stick which is awkward to control the thing.

There is "marine" twostroke oil which is loads more expensive than ornery (say motorbike) oil, tho if the thrashing as above is performed and an entire 10 litres or whatever used in an afternoon, i don't much see the problem, and worrying bout the type of oil used at 100:1 sounds a bit snakeoilish - unless perhaps it is les prone to gunking up carbs if hardly used and only a few litres of juice used per season.

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Had only two probs with our 3.3: broke sheer pin during first week of use and had water in carb bowl, causing intermittent stopping, after several hours of use. Not motor's fault! I religiously flush w/fresh water after each use. Am very pleased w/it.

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Re: What outboards want

do you mean that they will actually run at less than WOT then?

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Col

I can vouch for the reliability of your old Merc 4hp as it is still doing stirling service with us.

Runs like a dream and always starts.

Expenditure to date = £0.

Nick

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Had a 1995 5hp Mariner 2 stroke as an auxilliary. It was quiet and reliable, never missed a beat. Also had a mid to late 80's 55hp Mariner 2cyl 2 stroke as a main engine for about 3 years. Once again, other than a bit 'chuggy' at tickover it was reliable. Oiled the plugs and left me in the lurch once, but that was my fault (guessed how much oil was in the mix - shoulda used the bottle scale).

Prior to that I had a early 80's 50hp merc blue band. That was the most god awfull pile of dung. It would be running fine for hours, then suddenly loose all power and not rev at all. Tried everything, but could not sort the problem.

Current engine is a 96 75hp merc 3cyl. Only used it twice so far, but its looking to be pretty damn fine, if very very thirsty!

Dave.

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That 55 mariner was a rebadged yamaha. Good runner at speed but as you say rough spluttery idle.

The merc 50 -was it the 4 cyl? If so, a merc in house design from early 60s or late 50s, literally. I never had one or used one but people used to praise it. It got canned because would never get near meeting emission regs. The later Merc 50s were again Yamaha joint ventures

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I had a 50hp 4 cyl Mariner on a fletcher, best outboard I ever had. The little Mariner I use on the dinghy is quiet a nice little motor. Proper little engine with fwd and reverse gears and remote tank. Its a 4 stroke, only because I picked it up brand new for 300 quid. Quiet little motor and quiet pokey for its size. It'll push my boat along when its on the bracket on the transom. Easy for the kids to operate as well. They're the ones that give it most abuse and it seems to stand up to it.

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captain.gif
 
I have had mine 2 years now and it has never been serviced hardly used over the winter and only fouled one plug and gone through 3 shear pins due to my shallow water exploits in Alderney.

Apart from that it starts second or third pull and is stored flat on the floor of my boat outside. So I would buy another. Would like a cure for the shear pins though as they do tend to break quickly

I know alot of you are going to moan but I use a little 2 stroke oil not as much as recommended plus I always have Soltron in the fuel.

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>
 
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