zmk1962

Great to hear you got it working, and the price is awesome ! ... the operation you describe is identical to how I described my cannon working in my original reply. The aluminium looks like it's CNC machined from a single billet - very solid bit of kit. Regarding the handle nut, it's not something you have to use on a regular basis. You may consider undoing it once a year to lubricate the shaft. Given that, if it's doing the job today, I'd just remove it, clean it up with a wire brush, spray paint with a rust inhibitor paint and refit it. It will have years of serviceable life. Cheers Zoran PS - now to go get some kings with it !!!

I owned and ran a Merc 200HP EFI 2St from 1999 until 1month ago. I always used Quicksilver Premium 2St Oil TCW3 except when I could not get my hands on it (none in stock or I was travelling) - on those occasions I tried Penrite and Valvoline and found both of these to be much more smokier on start than Quicksilver. My motor went to a new home after 21yrs with perfect compression, no bearing issues etc. Quicksilver is a very shrewd marketing/branding strategy executed by Mercury. Mercury branded products can ONLY be sold by Mercury dealers. Quicksilver products can be sold by non-Mercury dealers, retail outlets - a shop, RTM etc etc etc Quicksilver distributes Mercury OEM (produced) products. So for instance a Yam owner may consider Quicksilver oil, just like they would consider Valvoline ... but they may not consider Mercury oil with the same level of interest as it seems to be labeled very brand specific. Interesting fact, in the english language the element mercury (chemical symbol Hg) is also known as "quicksilver" ... so there you have it, quicksilver is just mercury by another name .... very very shrewd marketing !!!! Cheers Zoran

Hey @M1100S how did you get on with this project? Any progress? If you are still working on it could you post a clearer picture of this side .... cheers Zoran

It was great to catch up Antony. We’ll have to do an offshore raid soon. cheers Z

Nice feed of fish Rick and good to see you back on the water after a long break. cheers Zoran

Great stuff and report and feed. You’ve got to love it when a plan comes together. That’s a nice red for Sydney. cheers Zoran

Impressive! Love the power cylinder innovation which seems to be at the heart of this. At first I thought it was power operated hydraulics but then realized it’s an electric ram. So no hydraulic lines just wires. Wonder how long before OEM copies start to appear?? thanks for sharing Antony cheers Zoran

There is a kitchen section on FR - show is the goods 👍 cheers Z

Can’t complain about that. Yum. Well done and great photos. love the post title as well 👍👍👍 cheers Zoran

In some ways it’s not about how often you get to WOT. The main thing is your motor needs to be able to get to WOT With the fitted prop otherwise you are over propped (too much pitch) and putting undesired burden on your motor in lower RPM. if you hit WOT very easily then chances are you are under propped - and you may benefit from a higher pitch if you are chasing economy and speed - but you may lose some hole shot. cheers Z

Hi Jeff, the rule of thumb I noticed was that each movement in pitch (up or down) will affect your theoretical speed about 6% at a given RPM range. Its the propeller RPM that will determine your speed (assuming your motor has sufficient torque to spin the selected prop at low and max rpm,)... so when you mention engine 6150RPM... you need to take into consideration the RPM reduction in the lower leg gearing ... usually somewhere between 1:1.75 --- 1:2.08... then you will have the prop RPM. Here are two sites you can model the effect of spinning different pitch propellers. Simple MAX theoretical speed calculator (enter prop rpm and pitch)... You can use this to work out what the max speed is, and then what you are observing and hence your propeller slip factor....if its more than 15% you need to tweak your prop set up. http://www.rcpro.org/rccalc/PitchSpeed.aspx This is a more complex calculator where you have all the relevant variables - it will calculate the answer for whichever variable you leave blank. http://www.csgnetwork.com/marinepropcalc.html I used both of these sites extensively when I was modelling my repower. Regarding your mates boat - are the propeller diameters the same? Are the boay weights and weight distribution the same. There are many many variables. When I spoke to sites that had repowered boats like mine and prop pitch selection, they gave me an example of two identical boats (in that case Carribean ReefRunners) where one was successful with a 16p and the other 17p. The only difference was how the owners had set up the boats. Hope this helps. Cheers Zoran

Something went weird on my posts fonts between the desktop (posted) and the mobile (illegible). If you can’t read it - It says: SENSEI SCRATCHIE ! Really look forward to the catchup. cheers Zoran

Hey Jeff.... you are a living legend mate. You have mastered your craft, you selflessly share your knowledge ... and you champion the Fishraider spirit ..... In my books that makes you ...... SENSEI SCRATCHIE Cheers and Thanks Zoran

barbs ?

Is spiraling on the drop down necessarily bad?? Don’t most dying fish spiral down anyway - so this is mimicking natural behavior ? just asking as I am not an SP expert by any scale. cheers Zoran

Love the innovation and insight? What water depth (pressure) have you explored and what do you think is the max the gear will withstand? There are a few similar videos of Browns (400-500m) deep but it would be interesting to create a FR one !! Cheers Zoran

Hey Raiders, Just an update regarding fuel economy. Yesterday I had the chance to go top up the fuel tank. It took 39.3L for the 64km Syd Harbour trip. That validates the instant VesselView readings I had reported above. Calculated averages shows 0.614L/km or 1.628km/L vs 1.3L/km or 0.74km/L on the old 200HP. Better than 100% efficiency improvement.... and as the motor runs in I should be able to squeeze out a bit more. I am absolutely stoked. Cheers Zoran

Great stuff... hope your repower is as successful as mine. All the best. cheers Zoran

Jerry, you are a gold mine of information. Thanks for sharing. Agree with what you have said regarding 2st and 4st torque and about gearing and prop pitch selection. One additional thing I will add, you can also change torque by increasing the volumetric capacity of the cyls (increasing cubic capacity, or number of cylinders, supercharging, turbo charging etc) and by increasing the length of the crank shaft (bigger lever). In other words you can design and build an engine to deliver more torque across a given RPM range. I wrote about this in the other post. Also agree on your comments re 2 stroke and E-tec. Sad as it is. It's hard for a manufacturer to go solo, no matter how great the tech, as commercial success requires an ecosystem of dealers suppliers and more importantly skills in the market place to make the technology accessible to the consumer. There was always going to be more 4stroke skill in the market than specialised DI 2stroke skill. I just hope there is enough competitive spirit left for the 4stroke manufacturers to keep driving innovation. Cheers Zoran

Thanks Luke. Re reliability. Well those that have followed my FR posts may remember that I look after my gear and I had the Merc 200 for 21years with only 1 failure at the 18yr mark. So I personally have confidence with the Black brand. On the other hand I inherited a Yam 225 And ran it for 4 years and it developed a crack in the exhaust manifold - was told it was a common occurrence with that motor. As Noel said above you have to look at the specifics of the motor you are considering and I’d add look after it ! So specific to the Merc 150HP - it was launched in 2012 with no major flaws being reported so I gather the bugs are ironed out and the base design is proven. The ProXS is a tweak. Comes with 6yr warranty. There is a lifetime warranty on the valve train. The gear case is oversized (JonD commented on this in one of his posts). Single cam design and in general has some 20% less moving parts than the other brands 4st design. It’s a simple 4cyl 4 stroke designed for DIY servicing. Annual service or at 100hrs. Anecdotal comments on other boating sites have owners reporting trouble free 600hrs+... one outlier at 10,000hrs(let’s treat that as marketing) cheers Zoran

Thanks mate. Actually I stay in the Merc club and join the 4stroke chapter! cheers Z

Hi Jeff. I had named the trip to and from Browns the “long loud silence” - hahaha - we just could not talk over the 200. The videos I have posted above pretty well show it is quieter- especially in the main operating range 3500-4500. We filmed on iPhones which have directional mics so facing the motor records louder - so take note of the motor noise when the camera is facing away. At Idle and troll it was virtually silent. When I walked back from parking the trailer I had to ask if the motor was on Also flushing with the exhaust out of water it was as loud as my cruiser idling. The area where I flush is a soundbox - 2 brick walls and a colour bond fence - 82db. cheers Zoran

Well there are fewer options left these days for sure. But at the risk of creating a lot of discussion, I also have to say that not all 4strokes are the same and you have to do your homework based on your boating style and requirements. I firmly believe that my 200HP 2st to 150HP 4st worked because of the specific 4stroke motor I chose. I make that conclusion based on my research, where even way back in 2017 I explored repowering a 6m FG hull with a 150HP - regardless of 2st or 4st technology .... and by and large I was shouted down that I won't find examples as no one was doing that - especially with a 150HP 4stroke. Well as it turns out I found many many many examples of 150HP outboards successfully running 6m+ FG hulls all around the world: Australia (WA, Vic, Bris), Germany, USA etc. Going back to 2012. Some were dealer demos (taken with a grain of salt), but some were owner repowers. But all these examples had two things in common, they were either a 150hp G1 G2 or Merc 150hp 4st. Go figure. I could not find examples of other 150HP makes running 6m FG hulls. Begs the question of why were the dealers confident to put their names against the 6m FG Merc 150HP combo, and why were the private owners putting their money on the table for repowers. This took me down the path of understanding the underlying technology of those specific motors. I'll list a few examples below - they do mention business names - if the mentors have to delete or cull the list then just PM me and I'll share via PM. Carribean Reef Runner (6.2m, 1800kg hull, repowered in 2012) https://img.boatdeckcrm.com.au/media/8898ec7ef787d6fe3e4ff16f0cb459a51f1626283a1b246847c6981fd22ebea6/1408-Repower-bulletin-150-fourstroke-caribbean.pdf Revival 640 (6.4m, 1800kg dealers own boat - I spoke to him on the phone as well as the interviewer) Quicksilver Active (6.45m, 1360kg dry hull weight, with 6 pax on board) Germany In Australia you'll find Arvour fits the 150HP to their 675m !!!! And on it goes.... My conclusion was not all 4strokes are the same. Cheers Zoran

Thanks Noel... I too like to see real world stuff. I have no axe to grind, I'm not a dealer, I'm just sharing my experiences and if there is an opportunity I'm happy to take Raiders on a ride on Barrycuda. I would make one qualification to your statement "the old more torque with a 2 stroke business is dead and gone, modern 4 strokes have a much smoother torque "band"". In my experience your statement definitely applies to older carburettor and EFI 2 strokes but the data doesn't support that view for motors like the ETEC. Heres an ETEC G1 comparison to the Standard Merc150HP 4st - this is vintage 2013 data. Look at blue G1 curve. It catches up with the Merc at 2200rpm and by 2500 planing RPM delivers a torque curve some 20% higher than the Merc but pretty much flat and even, just like the Merc. In that 2200 - 5000RPM range that's all useable, consistent torque for us boaties. They have definitely ironed out that old 2stroke peaky torque behaviour. So I'd have to exclude the DI tech engines from your comment. Sadly BRP is not playing this game anymore, so we have all lost someone to keep the 4stroke guys honest and innovating. Cheers Zoran PS. I was seriously considering the 150HP G2 and the Merc 150HP 4st. Clearly both of these 150hp motors would have worked on my boat....but the nearest Evinrude dealer to my place is 20km away, and I have 3 Merc dealers within 10km with closes at 4.7km. That was a major decision to focus on the Merc even prior to the BRP announcement.

Hey Thanks Sam. In some way the stats show that in giving away the 50HP I lost the top end speed above 70kmh (something I never used). Below that the 150hp 4stroke pretty well matched the 200HP 2stroke in the amount of torque it produced to spin the prop. In fact, it had more torque earlier and it was smoother. The 200HP had a torque peak around 4000rpm (spinning the 19p meant I was at 45kmh), if the conditions didn't allow me to do that, and I reduced RPM to say 3000rpm 30kmh, I found the torque dropped off, prop slowed down and I lost speed, the stern started to drag, so I'd have to throttle up and ease off and throttle up ease off. I was always using trim/throttle to keep the stern up at the lower cruising speeds. Also in hole shot with the 200HP I had to trim the motor in to create more lift (it just didn't have the torque at the low RPM) and then level out as we started to plane - you can see that in the 200HP video. That difference in RPM when the torque kicked in was the first thing I noticed with the 150hp - once I had trimmed the boat to optimum plane I just had to control RPM for speed - I actually made the comment "I haven't played with trim" in the WOT video. Cheers Z