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Well I'm now in the market for an outboard for my tiki 26. My dilemma at the moment is which one.

I could buy an 8hp 2 stroke or a 6hp 4 stroke. They are both the same weight. Does the extra 2 hp cancel out the extra torque of the 4 stroke?

Ok the 4 stroke is quieter and more economical, but i've heard the modern 2 strokes are actually comparable. 

I'm interested in some views on this, thank you!

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Either will work but I would go for 4 stroke , 

the prop is also important , the 8 hp yamaha hi thrust with the big prop will stop and reverse your boat much better although they are not cheap and may be more motor than you need. A small prop on a 6 to 8 hp is designed to push a dinghy but will still work for you most of the time. The 4 stroke is more suited to low speed quiet cruising and is way more pleasant to listen to.

Perhaps less maintenance on a 2 but it is not hard to do an annual oil change on a 4 stroke.

If it was me I would be going for the 4 stroke. I'm pretty sure the 2 stroke motors leave a slight oil slick on the water as you motor along? I think its for this reason that 2 stroke ob motors have been banned in lots of countries.

happy decision making

Thanks for the replies guys.

From what I read these days, that is all about the fuel delivery with the old carburetor types, which is also why they use more fuel. The Direct injection (DI) types of today's models don't have this prob. Just wondering if any one has had any experience with a modern 2 stroke.

Apparently the Evenrude  Etec 2 strokes are actually quieter and more fuel efficient than a 4 stroke, and recently received an american clean air award, the first outboard to get one.   

G'day Frank,
I am an new member hear but from my past experiance you can't go less than an 9.9 high thrust drive outboard motor and if you do buy one cheack the propeller as the morden ones are now fitted with an rubber bush. So i suggest that an spare propeller would be a wise move as when the bush gose , you can replace the prop and send in the woren one for replacing the rubber bush.
Big tane.
Toora.

Oh well, I bit the bullet and just purchased a Tohatsu sail pro 6 hp four stroke. It has an ultra long leg, high thrust prop and a built in 5 amp charger.

http://www.tohatsu.com/outboards/6_4st.html

sounds good are you in NZ?  It would be good to know what it cost and how you find it performs when you get it going,

Yep i'm in NZ, got quite a good deal $2250 NZ which is cheaper than the merc 6hp short shaft with normal prop and no charging unit. I'll let you know how she goes, hopefully by early in the new year.

Hi Frank,

I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with that Tohatsu.  I'm in the middle of building a new cockpit and when it's finished that's the exact same engine I'm planning to fit.  My existing engine is a Mariner 5hp longshaft 4 stroke and I want something with just a bit more grunt for when it's pushing into a head sea.  Also I've occasionally had cavitation when pitching a lot, and I think the extra long leg might help.

Regards

Rob

Frank Higgott said:

Oh well, I bit the bullet and just purchased a Tohatsu sail pro 6 hp four stroke. It has an ultra long leg, high thrust prop and a built in 5 amp charger.

http://www.tohatsu.com/outboards/6_4st.html

Thats a tempting price for a 25 inch leg 4 stroke brand new, less than half of a 9.9 yamaha, I wonder it 2 of them would work on my T 38 , probably the props will be a bit small,for the heavier boat. Tohatsu have a fairly good reputation for reliability too.

I will see how the 2 x  secondhand  9.9 motors I have bought work out.

Yamaha are generally a slightly more expensive motor it seems, mind you the warranty is 5 years compared to 3 with the Tohatsu.

Tohatsu actually make the small outboards for a lot of the other brands on the market today ( under 9.9hp ), I think Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda are the only exceptions, and of course the Chinese ones.

Make sure you shop around, I must admit I got a slightly larger discount due to a deal within the yacht club I belong to, but the other price I got was only $100 more, still way cheaper than the others.

I think Nissan do an ultra long as well.

Did you buy that T38 that was recently on Trade me in Tauranga? She looked good! Very curios as to what you paid. 

I think you're right the 9.9's will suit that boat a lot better.

yes its the t 38 from tauranga i bought earlier this year paid not a lot less than the 65k asking price, its a very well built cat, hopefully we will prepare to take it to fiji in the next few years, I want to build a bimini shelter over the cockpit and a few new sails, autopilot setup etc.

Hello Robert,

I've recently launched my T26 and just stepped the mast. The Tohatsu 6hp ultra long has turned out to be an excellent choice. She gets up to about 6kts easily at a quarter throttle. My boat at this stage is very lightly loaded though. Just make sure the design of the outboard mount allows sufficient depth for cooling and cavitation prevention. Mine will benefit slightly  once the boat is more realistically loaded bringing her down in the water a bit more. 

Robert Hughes said:

Hi Frank,

I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with that Tohatsu.  I'm in the middle of building a new cockpit and when it's finished that's the exact same engine I'm planning to fit.  My existing engine is a Mariner 5hp longshaft 4 stroke and I want something with just a bit more grunt for when it's pushing into a head sea.  Also I've occasionally had cavitation when pitching a lot, and I think the extra long leg might help.

Regards

Rob

Frank Higgott said:

Oh well, I bit the bullet and just purchased a Tohatsu sail pro 6 hp four stroke. It has an ultra long leg, high thrust prop and a built in 5 amp charger.

http://www.tohatsu.com/outboards/6_4st.html

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