An alternative to mercury

[Carter Powell]

Is there any possibility that any other engine builder might build a lightweight sport motor in that 250-300 H.P. class. I just keep thinking that the end of our humble sport may be coming to an end.

Best wishes always, Carter

[mr fun]

sadly think your 2nd statement is where in lyes your answer, on another thought ,,, PADLE BOARDS , Im hanging on to my old Dinosaurs

[aj06bolt12r]

Its difficult to produce a true lightweight 250-300hp motor that meets modern emissions standards.. It would require a lot of money in R&D.. The manufacturers know where the money is and that is with the big heavy 4 stoke engines for the offshore boats where they can sell 2-5 to each customer at a time... There just isn't enough demand I guess... Defund the EPA!

[108]

Because emissions matter to those 6 x 500hp center consoles, It's not that a 300hp 15 inch with a sporty can't be made and not cost $30,000, all the parts are there, it's that it won't be made,

[David - WI]

All of the Opti and E-tec two-strokes were 3-star CARB rated... and probably cleaner than most (or all) of the current high-performance four-strokes. It wouldn't require any​ R&D to build them again, unless you wanted to make them even lighter and more powerful using more modern materials & methods.

[aj06bolt12r]

All of the Opti and E-tec two-strokes were 3-star CARB rated... and probably cleaner than most (or all) of the current high-performance four-strokes. It wouldn't require any​ R&D to build them again, unless you wanted to make them even lighter and more powerful using more modern materials & methods.

Are emissions requirements the same today as they were when Optis and Etecs were sold? If so for how much longer? Sincere question because I dont know..

[Tcatrett]

This is why I have a 4 stroke 150 pro xs on my XB02. Weight is ok on it. Going to have a tunable ecu soon. Then engine mods to follow. 2 stroke stuff is getting hard to replace. Guess we just have to build our own.

[David]

Are emissions requirements the same today as they were when Optis and Etecs were sold? If so for how much longer? Sincere question because I dont know..

Same standards today.

[David]

I was in Shanghai some years ago and one could not see the sky for the pollution on a ‘sunny’ day. There was sort of a glow where the sun was.

That is the big city no EPA model. I want a smart EPA. Trickier to achieve. Since Canada has a monkey see monkey do approach to US regulations, yes the EPA does matter to me.

[skialot2]

I remember when the Hudson River was basically sludge filled and devoid of any life. It's clean and full of life again.

[Speed Jr.]

Is there any possibility that any other engine builder might build a lightweight sport motor in that 250-300 H.P. class. I just keep thinking that the end of our humble sport may be coming to an end.

Best wishes always, Carter

Short answer is no. There's no profitable size of market for them. Coming to an end? Everything is so much better than when I first got in to this hobby. I couldn't imagine the equipment available today when I was growing up. We are in the heyday of this hobby.

Jr.

[mr fun]

just a random thought ,,, to get the performance we"re talking about there are fewer and fewer places to do it safely pushing us further and further into open water that is seldom calm enough for an STV or Ally to run for a prolonged period , soon big wakes or weather events force you to slow to a safe operating aspect and the bigger hulls walk right through it and never let up, kinda of a bummer thus the need for the larger higher HP motors to push those hulls those speeds giving engine manufacturers incentive to produce units that fill that requirement, gotta step up or stay in the back , just fact. It's that old saying " get up and run with the big dogs or stay on the porch " just sayin

[LakeFever]

Baicor marine makes some wildly good products. They recently began casting 15” offshore mids. It’s not a giant stretch to extend that capacity to casting repop 2.5 blocks im sure they could pull this off. The big bottle neck is the crank shafts. It would be great to see fresh small bearing style horn front half’s also cast and some competition in the efi tuning and controller market as well.

I do agree with above that we are in the true heydays of this sport. All the combos have been tested and what’s proven to work is information fairly easy to obtain now. The parts are running out though that’s for sure.

[Instigator]

Just saw this.

May be smoke and mirrors but the wizard behind the curtain is real.

Would love to see them roll up their sleeves and get busy.

After Mercs blood bath of their competition w/their new 4 strokes, Honda had help wanted listings for everybody in their OB division!

I thought about sending them a resume but was sure the world would grind to a halt if they hired me!

Pretty sure they still have my wanted posted poster by the back door of their R&D dept in Sebastian from me harassing them every time I had an open exhaust hot rod 2 stroke in the area ��

https://marine.sc.dev.local/outboard...highpower/m300

[LakeFever]

Maybe mercury will come to their senses and hopefully they did not destroy the molds for the 2.5 stuff and start selling blocks, cranks, and crate motor type power heads. Look at how massively successful that program was for GM selling pre built brand new crate motors for stock car racing and hot rods and so on. I would say that program was so successful it pretty much dominated the hotrod scene and was the death knell for guys building Dodges and Fords due to the huge cost advantage of going Chevy. The only thing that dented this was the ls swap crowd eating into the crate motor market but that stuff is all old now and I’m sure the crate motor division is about to boom again for GM.

Merc ought to do the same and if they have an ounce of business savvy the price point needs to be attractive. Sell thousands at less profit is a lot wiser than selling ten at outrageous pricing.


Hmm maybe BRP could do this instead lol wouldn’t that be hilarious seeing the former owner of OMC cast and sell merc repops