Re: new 25 hp 4-stroke EFI recall
just an update...
I got my 25 out a few times... now I have ~3 hours or run time on it. I'm pretty sure that I'm not underpropped with the 11" on it. I don't have a portable tach, but I think I made a good guess on pitch. With a medium load in the boat, (2 adults, a couple small kids and light gear) it'll hit 28 mph (wheel speedo) and sounds good at WOT.... with 2 adults, and light gear, it'll see 30 mph... and with me alone, basically with an empty boat it'll hit just over 33 mph, and although the motor's spinnin' up, it does not hit the rev limiter.
Performance-wise, it seems to be about what I should be getting out this rig.
Now my review of my motor....
It starts easy, and is quiet but definitely not silent at idle. Maybe I was hoping for too much, but I would've liked it to be quieter. The difference in loudness is most impressive at mid throttle settings (slow cruise)... you can still converse with passengers without having to shout.
I don't like the twist grip gear shift that's part of the tiller. It's not very smooth, and takes more than a firm twist to shift gears. Sometimes it feels like you've got to force it and it just doesn't feel good.
Maybe it has something to do with still being in the break-in period... or that the spring water here is very cold... but the idle seems a bit high, and also tends to surge whenever you shift into gear. Maybe that's just the way it is.... it's like the CPU or whatever it has, senses a rpm drop when you shift into gear, and quickly gives a bit of throttle boost to compensate. After a couple seconds the rpm's drop back down. But this, coupled with the clunky shifter, means that rapid changes from fwd to rev (e.g. when docking) are not smooth, partly because the idle is up a bit (on it's own). It's bad enough that I don't know if wifey will be comfortable docking it. My friend almost smacked the dock when I let him drive it, because of the difficulty in getting it out of gear, and then quickly into R for braking.
Lastly, I really don't like the manual tilt operation. It locks to the trim bar when in Neutral or Reverse. It unlocks when the motor is in Forward. This means that you have to be in forward to either switch to the 'shallow water' setting, or to tilt the motor up all the way. I find this to be a PITA! When coming into shore with the potential for rocks, you either have to shut the motor down (in fwd) and put it shallow water mode and restart, or you have to fight the motor up at idle (in fwd) to get to the shallow water drive position. If you chose the 2nd option, you have to tilt not only the weight of the motor, but also against the force of the motor is pushing against the transom. Now that I have this motor, I remember having a 9.9 merc in the 80's and that had a similar setup. I thought it was stupid then too. Older OMC's are much better designed tilt-wise. Just a lock and unlock position, nothing coupled to the shifter. Can be pulled up to shallow drive position with engine running in neutral.
I would like to be able to modify mine so that it operates the same way as the OMC's, but I'm not sure if it's feasible. I may end up removing/disabling the lock mechanism altogether. (?) I'd just have to be careful not to reverse so much as to lift it. The motor is heavy enough that I don't think there is any chance that rope starting it in neutral will tilt the motor up, so I don't know why the thing is designed to lock in neutral in the first place.
Perhaps this coupling of the tilt lock to the shifter is why the shifter feels so cruddy??? Too many parts connected to the twist grip.... (?) Hmmmm...
Anyway, that's the review so far.... not overly glowing, but the motor seems to run great, other than the business of the hovering idle. As I said, performance seems good, and fuel economy seems great (so far) compared to a 2 stroke 25 hp.
By the way, yes 10% ethanol is common around here..... premium is still straight gas. Although the manual says the motor will tolerate 10%, it'll get straight gas unless I'm stuck with ethanol somewhere.
Oh, and I still haven't done anything about the recall.
that's my $.02
