4-strokes
I have Suzuki 4-strokes and I attempted to beach lunch my cat one day. It was one of the worst days of my life. The good news is that the engines did get a lot of surf on them and they were fine. Most of the 4-stroke manufactures use many of the same parts as their two-stroke outboards. The only way to get water inside one is to suck it down the air intake, and they engineered the air intake with the same dry design as the two strokes.
Now if you ever did get water in an outboard, I would much rather take apart a two-stoke than a four-stroke. I used to race motocross and taking apart a two stroke is not nearly as big a deal as a 4-stroke. My Suzuki’s have some non-stainless steel in house clamps and screws under the housing, and I have gotten some water in there. Ever year I replace a few with stainless ones.
If the 4-stroke weighs extra, that could be a concern, because trying to back a stern heavy boat into the surf is a nightmare. Even besides the beach, extra weight of a 4-stroke usually means less performance. Many times, the boat was designed for a little less weight on the stern than what the 4-stroke is, so compare the weight of the engine you are looking at to 2-stroke in the same category and other 4-strokes.
Here are few pointers for looking at 4-strokes. The ones developed from auto engines are usually heavy. These include Honda 90 & 130’s. They were developed from the Accord engine. Suzuki 60 & 70’s were developed from their Geo engines and are also heavy.
Good, lightweight, 4-strokes were either developed from motorcycle engines or made just for outboards. These include all Yamaha 4-strokes, Suzuki 40 & 50’s, Suzuki 115 to 140’s, and Honda’s new 225.
Most Honda’s under 130’s are carbureted, which I feel is not modern enough and less reliable than modern fuel injection. Yamahas are great, but I believe they all use a camshaft belt, which means you eventual have to replace it or run the risk of it breaking and causing major damage if the pistons hit the values, just like in most small cars. Suzuki is the only manufacture to use all electronic fuel injection and chain driven camshafts.
The next thing to consider is the availability of service and parts. Suzuki in the U.S.A. doesn’t have very many dealers and parts are expensive. With both Suzuki and Yamaha you can buy the engines as an Evinrude or a Mercury which sometimes can be an advantage in finding warranty service and parts.
Evinrude/Johnson went bankrupt a few years ago and parts were difficult to get for their fourstroke, which really were Suzuki’s. Now they are own by Bombardier. Mercury has been financially stable.
When replacing normal maintance parts, try your auto parts store. I had to special order the oil filters from Suzuki and they cost $20 a piece. The next time I went to the auto parts store. The store could not find the Japanese filter number in their computer, so I went through all of their Frame motorcycle filters until I found one with the same inlet and outside dimensions. They cost $4. I have replaced them with the same Frame filter for 3-years now without any problems. I did the same thing with the fuel filters.
Personally, I love 4-strokes. They get great gas mileage, idle so quietly you forget their running, never foul their plugs, and they don’t smoke or smell. At night, because they are so quiet and idle so good, you can leave them running so you can leave the lights on and not run the batteries out. All-in-all they are just better to live with. I would never go back to a 2-strokes.
Don