The port engine on my Grady quit running while heading back in last week.
The problem was diagnosed as a faulty low pressure fuel pump. It's a pretty
inexpensive part, so I told the dealer to replace it and the five other ones
as a precaution.

But that same day, the owner of the dealership called to pitch me on
four-strokes. With my old motors as trade, and reusing my existing gauges
and binnacle, it became pretty cost effective to replace the old
two-strokes. I figured that the fuel (gas and oil) savings alone should
be about $3-4000/year. But more importantly, I'm going from a 5 year old
motor with no warranty, to a brand new motor with a 3-year warranty.

I may not keep the boat the 7 years it would take to recoup (in gas money)
the additional cost of upgrading. But if something major went on the
two-strokes in the next couple of years, I'm way ahead with the new engines.
Also, if I sell the boat in 4 or 5 years to upgrade to a different boat, I
figure it would be much more marketable with 4 or 5 year four-strokes, than
9 or 10 year old two-strokes.

I'll be sure to post performance data on the engines vs. the old ones once I
get past the break-in.

The new engines are twin Yamaha F250 four-strokes.

NOYB wrote:

The new engines are twin Yamaha F250 four-strokes.

Not E-Tec's?

"-rick-" wrote in message
. ..
NOYB wrote:

The new engines are twin Yamaha F250 four-strokes.

Not E-Tec's?

I'm tired of buying oil.

NOYB,
Did you consider a E-Tec instead of the 4 stroke, and what was your
reasoning behind buying the simpler, less complex, but HEAVIER 4
stroke, vs. the realitively new high tech, complex but much LIGHTER
E-Tec?

NOYB wrote:
The port engine on my Grady quit running while heading back in last week.
The problem was diagnosed as a faulty low pressure fuel pump. It's a pretty
inexpensive part, so I told the dealer to replace it and the five other ones
as a precaution.

But that same day, the owner of the dealership called to pitch me on
four-strokes. With my old motors as trade, and reusing my existing gauges
and binnacle, it became pretty cost effective to replace the old
two-strokes. I figured that the fuel (gas and oil) savings alone should
be about $3-4000/year. But more importantly, I'm going from a 5 year old
motor with no warranty, to a brand new motor with a 3-year warranty.

I may not keep the boat the 7 years it would take to recoup (in gas money)
the additional cost of upgrading. But if something major went on the
two-strokes in the next couple of years, I'm way ahead with the new engines.
Also, if I sell the boat in 4 or 5 years to upgrade to a different boat, I
figure it would be much more marketable with 4 or 5 year four-strokes, than
9 or 10 year old two-strokes.

I'll be sure to post performance data on the engines vs. the old ones once I
get past the break-in.

The new engines are twin Yamaha F250 four-strokes.

"Reginald P. Smithers" wrote in message
oups.com...
NOYB,
Did you consider a E-Tec instead of the 4 stroke, and what was your
reasoning behind buying the simpler, less complex, but HEAVIER 4
stroke, vs. the realitively new high tech, complex but much LIGHTER
E-Tec?

Two reasons:

I'm sick of buying oil. The last thing I need is to have to buy $40/gallon
oil.

Grady's come with Yamaha's, so it will have better resale down the road with
Yamaha's.

"NOYB" wrote in message news:njGcg.1081
Two reasons:

I'm sick of buying oil. The last thing I need is to have to buy
$40/gallon oil.



You might feel sicker when you have to buy Yamaha's $25 oil filter for each
oil change. The manual recommends every 6 months or 100 hrs. WHICHEVER COMES
FIRST. It also says to change more often if you do a lot of low speed
running or trolling.

"Billgran" wrote in message
.. .

"NOYB" wrote in message news:njGcg.1081
Two reasons:

I'm sick of buying oil. The last thing I need is to have to buy
$40/gallon oil.



You might feel sicker when you have to buy Yamaha's $25 oil filter for
each oil change. The manual recommends every 6 months or 100 hrs.
WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. It also says to change more often if you do a lot
of low speed running or trolling.

$50 twice a year? $100 for oil filters per year? Compared to 20 gallons of
E-Tec oil at $40/gallon, it's a no-brainer.

Don't worry too much joining the four stroke club.

Now that you're well into your thirties, it isn't all that unusual to
require four strokes to develop the same sort of motive power that you
can remember from the glory days when two strokes were sufficient. As
the hull gets heavier and slower and picks up a few nicks and barnacles
it is very common to require a four stroke to sustain performance.

The good news is that reports from satisfied users of the four stroke
models indicate a general impression that the ride is more
sophisticated, refined, and somewhat smoother than the high speed two
stroke units. A two stroke is just perfect if your intention is to
sprint as quickly as possible to the finish line, but for a long
sustained run you will discover that the four stroke has a number of
advantages.

Like the outboard repairman once told me:
"As long as you can get it started with no more than just a few pulls,
you can continue to get a lot of enjoyable service from a beat up old
Johnson."

wrote:

Like the outboard repairman once told me:
"As long as you can get it started with no more than just a few pulls,
you can continue to get a lot of enjoyable service from a beat up old
Johnson."

That's one for the quote file.

I got the motors a few weeks ago, and was running it with 15 1/4 x 17"
props. That was too little prop for my boat (it ran the motors to 6100 rpm
and 43 mph)


At the 10 hour service after break-in, I repropped to 19" pitch.

Performance is phenomenal. Who says that the new four-strokes don't pack the
punch of the 2-strokes?

Top end is between 46 and 47 mph at 5600 rpm...and that's with full
eisenglass up, 3/4 fuel (1200+ lbs), generator, and 5 people plus gear.
Mileage was an astonishing 1.1-1.2 mpg at WOT. The older 250 OX66's ran
that boat to 43 mph, but only got about 0.7mpg at WOT.

Most economical cruise speed is anywhere from 3800rpm (28mph) to 4400 rpm
(34 mph)...yielding about 1.5 mpg.

At trolling speed, fuel burn is half what the 2-strokes burned. And at
"just-on-plane" speed (18.5-21mph), the new motors get 1.3-1.4 mpg...and the
2-stokes got 0.8 mpg.

Did I also mention that I can carry on a full conversation on the cell phone
while running WOT?

I figure these motors will save me about $2,000/year in fuel/oil
costs...which pays for the extra $140/month in my payments. When you add in
the extra cost for insurance, though, I break even. Still well worth it
considering the warranty, and the pleasure of no-smoke and quiet operation.








"NOYB" wrote in message
ink.net...
The port engine on my Grady quit running while heading back in last week.
The problem was diagnosed as a faulty low pressure fuel pump. It's a
pretty inexpensive part, so I told the dealer to replace it and the five
other ones as a precaution.

But that same day, the owner of the dealership called to pitch me on
four-strokes. With my old motors as trade, and reusing my existing gauges
and binnacle, it became pretty cost effective to replace the old
two-strokes. I figured that the fuel (gas and oil) savings alone should
be about $3-4000/year. But more importantly, I'm going from a 5 year old
motor with no warranty, to a brand new motor with a 3-year warranty.

I may not keep the boat the 7 years it would take to recoup (in gas money)
the additional cost of upgrading. But if something major went on the
two-strokes in the next couple of years, I'm way ahead with the new
engines. Also, if I sell the boat in 4 or 5 years to upgrade to a
different boat, I figure it would be much more marketable with 4 or 5 year
four-strokes, than 9 or 10 year old two-strokes.

I'll be sure to post performance data on the engines vs. the old ones once
I get past the break-in.

The new engines are twin Yamaha F250 four-strokes.