Re: Yamaha/Mercury 225 4 strokes
There are a few reasons for this.<br />1-the various government agencies (mainly the EPA)has established new emission standards for all marine engines sold in the US.Basically that means the want Hydrocarbon's reduced by 8 1/3% per year for 9 years(after 2008 they will come up with more cuts I'm sure)<br />2- this means the manufactures had to go away from old 2 stroke technology and quick.All the manufactures had their own DFI and 4 strokes in the works but to engineer a engine from scratch costs allot more then paying another company for the rights or license to use their engines.<br />So to make a long story shorter Merc entered into a agreement with Yamaha( 5 years I think) to use their engines on Merc exhaust housing with Merc gearcases .75,90,115 hp Merc engines are Yamaha powerheads, the 225 Merc 4 stk is all Yamaha from skeg up.This gives Merc time to developed there own engines without the throwing engines out into the field and having another Ficht or Optimax fiasco.Also all the lower hp 4stk Merc engines are made by Tohatsu.<br />Bombardier and Suzuki have a similar agreement with there 4stk engines.<br />The next big thing early next year is the unveiling of Mercury's own designed high horsepower 4 stk.
