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Posted this before the Tsunami made it impossible to get the new 300 Yamaha 4 strokes. Wanted to run this by the group again, now that my local dealer can get 'em. Anyone have experience with, or comments about these engines as replacements for our 250 Etecs. Apologize for bringing up outboards. It usually stirs things up, but I value the wisdom of the faithful.
Thanks,
Kipp

They have proven to be great engines. I regularly fish a 30 Grady White Marlin with the new F300s and they quiet and powerful. The new electronic controls are very smooth.

The only downside is the price as street price per engine is still $20k each and the new controls/harnesses are another expense. That and the fuel economy is down compared to the older F250s. You can pull up Yamaha performance bulletins and compare it DFI 2 strokes and other 4 strokes. These new four strokes are a large displacement engine.

Yamaha has made the older F250 3.4 liter four stroke with cable controls the value priced engine and they are still available but then you run into a weight issue. But depending on how your currently sit, the weight in the rear maybe a good thing.

If you are happy with your current Etecs, that would make life pretty easy to simply do a swap. But if your long term plan is to keep the boat then a transition to Yamaha does make sense if you plan on repowering again in 5-6 years.

Any reason for the jump to 300s over the 250s? The increase in performance may not be as big considering they are the same block.

Out east I hear nothing but good things about the Etecs. Bob Lico seems to be the expert on 4-strokes. Maybe he'll chime in.

Kipp - my son Capt. Brent is now running a Yamaha 350 four stroke on his bay boat and loves it. He's been on the Yamaha guide team for years now and swears by their 4 strokes.

He's duck hunting in Stuttgart right now but I can put you in touch with him for a first hand chat. A pair of 350s would make ole TS really step out......

UV

To echo a few others. A friend recently repowered his 23 regulator with an F250. When considering the additional cost of the 300, minimal WOT increase and worse consumptions numbers the f250 made more sense.

You should see if you can find the yamaha performance bulletin of your current hull

I believe the early large Yamaha 4 Strokes (particularly the 300hp) had some major problems including powerhead and lower unit. However, I heard Yamaha stood behind their product and did a lot of warranty work. I have a fishing buddy with a 25 Parker that put a first year 300 Yamaha 4 Stroke on the boat. In less than 18 months he went through 3 powerheads and had significant problems -- most notably was that you couldn't slow troll for more than an hour -- you had to hook it up and get the rpms up over 3500 or the motor would stall.

However, Yamaha charged him ZERO and eventually repowered his boat, at their cost, with a new generation Yamaha 250 4 stroke and took the old motor back for full refund. They sold him the 250 for dealer cost, so he was not unhappy. He lost some fishing time over the 18 months, but eventually the new motor worked perfectly and he got 8k back in his pocket.

I've heard the new 350s make a horrendous clunk when you put them in gear, otherwise I haven't heard a thing personally -- although I do recall Bob Lico having some solid opinons against the high horsepower outboards.

I do wonder how I had 240hp Volvo diesels spinning 1 1/2 inch aquamet 22 shafts and these 350hp outboards only spin what a 7/8" shaft? I know diesel torque is different, but still, that is a significant difference.

Tom

Kipp,

I understand that the 300's are fine, but the 350's supposely were having some problems.

DQ

Kipp,

I friend just repoered with the 300's here in NJ. Maybe try a different supplier.

Kipp... can you give us another picture of "targeted species" ?
thanks

They just replaced a set of 350's with the 300's at work... 200 hours so far so good..

i have to give a little background information so we all ar on the same page. oakdale yacth do to extreme logistics handle most of the 250/300 350 hp yamaha in the area not because of pricing but mainly the nature of the beast. a big yamaha cannot be serviced in the water so now we have this 36' grady white taking up yard space while one of the 350hp outdrives gets repaired now times that by 10 to 15 34' boats nobody has that space to have all those boats waiting for approval for yamaha warrantee. the outboard repair facility is entirely dedicated to 250/300/ 350hp yamaha and on occasion a 300 susuki it would be extremely rare to see a 115hp yamaha they can take these small boats anywere on a trailer. ok so willie the chief yamaha mechanic and expert ecu. guru does his thing day in day out on those three engines and is given full authority from yamaha america .
i will leave my opinion out because my good friend owns a 30' grady white with twin 250hp and i fish all the time on that boat .that being said ; a twin/ triple yamaha big block with most likely destroy a lower unit within 400 hours with proper lower gear case oil changes and removal every year for winter if not maintained and slam into forward /reverse often you will be looking at that 3600.00 bill quite often. you can take this to the bank!!! take the extended 6 year warrantee . the powerhead cost 17,000 and absolutely no marina in the usa stocks one. it don`t work that way strickly a one on one exchange basics with yamaha america.i feel the yamaha is up there with the best of the four strokes.especially the nema 2000 controls/ steering/motor management.

I don't know how many hours you had on your 250 Etecs and/or your satisfaction with them, but based on what I saw at Port Eads, I know you and your team fish hard. The serviceable hours vs costs and loss of time when you're out of commission with these big 4-strokes would make me think twice about them. Those longevity hours seem short and those repair costs and on the hard time seem long. I sure as hell see a lot of them hanging on boats out our way, but they're not on boats that fish like you do.

Thanks for the input. Service is not our main issue. We trailer Targeted Species, and the dealer in Port Sulphur is my client. Many of the Venice offshore guides have been running them with NO problems However, will definitely spring for the 6 yr warranty. We are mainly hoping to improve our fuel economy. The 250 E-tecs don't do to well at trolling speeds, which we do sun up to sun down. Looks like 300s will do better. Any thoughts on that. Bob, how many gallons per mile does your podna's Grady burn?
Thanks again,
Kipp

Here is a similar beam and weight hull.

http://www.yamaha-motor.com/assets/prod ... 07_occ.pdf


The new Yamahas four strokes dont get the economy of DFI 2 strokes at lower speeds. Honda also has their new 250hp which is nice.

i have spent at least 100 hours on my friend (john dolan) marlin 30 with twin 250 hp yamaha four stokes . motors are damn near silent at troll speed.using the motor management system as a guide which has been flawless since new we show 2mpg at troll speed.

Thank you, faithful. Took Targeted Species to my Delta Outboards friday. Will be sporting 300's for the 2012 season.
Kipp

kipp i realize this may sound like a B/S story but i swear it is true. john was reeling in a fish on the grady white and the fish tangle the 50lbs test mono on the lower unit of the starboard 250hp yamaha . he had to cut the line and let it be. on the way home we lost the lower unit. to this day i cannot believe we blew a lower unit plus hard parts (output shaft) with a few feet of mono. stupid 3800 dollar loss if we knew better he would have jump over and took the mono off. rule number one with those 300hp be patient!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go forward to neutral WWWWAIT then reverse!

Kipp

Congrats! You will love the new digital controls.