Recommendation for 50 HP 4 cycle Out Board Motor

[bscott]

4..fuel economy

5 ability to service by removing engine and bring to shop of choice without trailering boat

Fuel injection has reached Down into the 20-25 HP line in some mfg too.

E-tec 25

Bob

[aya16]

But captain Kemo wanted a fifty.

Now what would be the best 20-25 hp for the mac? ahhh twin etec 25hp's. sorry But the 2 stroke has come back and its a great engine, seen the size of the 25 merc's?
No one is going to just heft that engine off by themselves, not even Arnold....
heres more..




Mike

[Catigale]

E-tec 25

[Captain Kimo]

But captain Kemo wanted a fifty.

Now what would be the best 20-25 hp for the mac? ahhh twin etec 25hp's. sorry But the 2 stroke has come back and its a great engine, seen the size of the 25 merc's?
No one is going to just heft that engine off by themselves, not even Arnold....
heres more..




Mike

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT MIKE.

You left coaster (Pacific Coast) sailors need to come to Lake Mead and find out what sailing on an inland lake is like in 20-25 MPH winds gusting to 50 MPH. In water depth that varies from 500 to 10 feet, high canyon walls for waves to bounce back at you (talk confused sea), canyons leading down to basins to funnel winds, weather forecast can be wrong by a 24 hours delay due to mountain range in the West (nickname of the Lake Mead weather forecaster "The Liar"). I was glad to have my 50 HP 2 cycle running for a safe cove during the worst ones.

[aya16]

you forgot to add that those winds in the summer time are sometimes over 120 deg. Flying through those canyons at 25 mph against that wind, you feel like your getting convection cooked from the outside in.....Most Of my family lives in Vegas, taken my whaler to Mead and Mohave in those conditions.

What engine did you decide on?
Mike

[Captain Kimo]

you forgot to add that those winds in the summer time are sometimes over 120 deg. Flying through those canyons at 25 mph against that wind, you feel like your getting convection cooked from the outside in.....Most Of my family lives in Vegas, taken my whaler to Mead and Mohave in those conditions.

What engine did you decide on?
Mike

Just got back from week with LVBMA Fall Flotilla. Temperature 80 +, water temperature 70 (swam every evening when we beached the boats). Bad news, light winds from North and sometimes none existing.

Going to wait till forced to decide. Leaning towards ETEC-60 from comments here. Frequently have to motor back to marina before dark and want speed to do that. Don't have constant West wind as Left Coast sailors have. Never needed motor on 16 foot Super Satillite when sailing out of MDR or Channel Island Marina .

[aya16]

well if ya have a need for speed sometimes, that etec 90 might just be the right choice, if you like your boat now you will love the 90

[Andre Emmenegger]

I have a 50HP Honda which is bullet proof. The motor is a 2000 and I bought it new. I don't know what the fuel burn/ speed gain numbers are for a bigger motor. Bottom line is that this motor is adequate power wise. I won't win any races, but can probably go farther. As to towing, I pull a kneeboard with it. I don't think that this motor would pull a water skier.

[Tomfoolery]

I have a 50HP Honda which is bullet proof. The motor is a 2000 and I bought it new. I don't know what the fuel burn/ speed gain numbers are for a bigger motor. Bottom line is that this motor is adequate power wise. I won't win any races, but can probably go farther. As to towing, I pull a kneeboard with it. I don't think that this motor would pull a water skier.

My 18 YO son learned to wakeboard behind my with its BF50 Honda, so wakeboarding is certainly possible. Water skiing is usually done at much higher speeds, but my boat goes fast enough for a beginning wakeboarder at least. I'm sure he'd like it if I put a 90 hp on there, though. FWIW.

[milest]

I have 2006 honda 50 carb. If I would change it I would go for these: ( pls remember 1.3 Lt. suzuki DF70 (comparable power with E-tec 60) is not available any longer)

1. E-Tec 60
2. Honda BF60 power thrust (if 4 stroke needed)
3.Suzuki DF60 (less charging and low-end torque)
4.Yamaha/Mercury big foot 60 (+ no lean burn and loud)

[DaveB]

I got a quote from Bass Pro Shop here in Ft. Myers Florida. They will sell me a motor but will not install over 50hp on the Mac.X. Price was for a Big Foot Merc. 50 hp $5150, add FL. tax and controls and linkage. cost came out to approx. $6200 installed.
I have not found a dealer that will install a motor above rated hp for boat. You can buy one but no warrenties and best maybe a 3 year warrenty with a Certified Merc. dealer.
Insurance would be a problem if the HP is over the Manifacture Recomandation and a accident was to happen.
Those that has put on a 90 hp or greater should have a Structual Enginer to certify the boat to handle it.
Macgregor won't. Be safe. Liability is out there.
Dave

I have 2006 honda 50 carb. If I would change it I would go for these: ( pls remember 1.3 Lt. suzuki DF70 (comparable power with E-tec 60) is not available any longer)

1. E-Tec 60
2. Honda BF60 power thrust (if 4 stroke needed)
3.Suzuki DF60 (less charging and low-end torque)
4.Yamaha/Mercury big foot 60 (+ no lean burn and loud)

[vkmaynard]

A four stroke I would recommend from my experience is the Suzuki. They run quite and I have not heard of many problems. Stay away from anything carbureted.

I would personally recommend at least a 60 hp motor; 50 hp is really anemic. If you step up to a Suzuki 70 you now share the same block and weight as the 90. Our 90 cost around $8,100 for the motor, cables, harnes, control, prop and tax. $2K less than than all other dealers. We sold our 50 for $3K for a net cost of $5100.

You can buy a Suzuki from a dealer like ours here with FULL warranty on a self install. In fact we have a 6 year factory warranty with our self install.

You don't need a structural engineer to certify your boat any more than you need a structural engineer to certify your car if you install a low psi supercharger on it. I don't think sawing your boat apart to determine the layup schedule, resin to glass ratio and joint integrity is really an option. While waiting for the dealer to load our crate motor, I inspected the transom of a 24’ center console boat with a 150 hp motor. It looked about the same build as the 26X.

Thank Billy the pioneer who has been running a Suzuki 140 since 2001 with no problems. Has anyone on this board broken their boat with 60+ hp motor (hitting hard objects excluded)? If so, did they at least have the inside reinforcing bar across the top bolts? Why is this subject so beat to death with no facts?

A local 26Xer friend (“Private Island”) test drove our Suzuki 90 26x WOT yesterday on our local lake. Ask him what his first time thoughts are on using a larger motor on a 3200+ lb "power sailor" boat.

That said, we would still probably have the Honda 50 if we did not have kids that wanted to wakeboard for real (not sink to their shins on a turn and struggle to stay up on the straights). It's a lot of fun now to fly on the water from time to time and power thru the swells with plenty of authority. Hard to go back to plowing thru the water

Victor

[aya16]

I don't get all the dealer stuff that's being said, first off, I had no problem having a dealer install my merc 115, I had no problem letting the auto club know I had that motor installed, they asked what the boat was rated for, but as soon as they saw the length, they don't care. The auto club insured the boat and motor.

As far as warranty, whats up with that? I have bought and installed a few motors myself and never had a problem with warranty..

Lets go through a few things. First off don't give information to a dealer that doesn't ask for it, Like say "the mac factory only authorizes a 50 hp", then ask will the dealer install a 90.....If I was a dealer I wouldn't install it either with questions like that.

second why tell the insurance people something like that, again I wouldn't insure someone that said that. Our boats are over 22 feet long, and there is no label on our boats that require a certain hp, or amount of people either. Our boats are not regulated like a smaller boat. Now if we don't want to break the rules that macgregor set on the boat then stay with the 50. But don't go and yell it to the dealers and insurance company's. All they need to know legally is the boat is 26 feet long. My boat is insured for 1000,000 dollars for liability, why? because of a misprint on the rules where my boat is stored, I upped my liability to the bogus rule and when the storage place changed it to 100,000 I never got around to change my insurance, its like a 100 bucks a year diff.

Now maybe a dealer wont warranty the installation, but they cant take your manufacture warranty for the engine away, if you install the brand new motor yourself.??? You can buy engines on the net that come with full warranty, In fact the engines come with installation and prep info, that info isn't for the dealer , its for the buyer.

Its like the gas millage debate to me, why, I wonder do people worry about what millage an engine gets? Just carry enough gas to get where you are going, we have sail boats, I use maybe 50-70 gallons of gas a year or so, That's with a couple trips to Catalina to. I use that much in my truck in a couple weeks.

You can get insurance for your mac with a bigger engine, I would be willing to bet, if you bought a brand new motor, put it on yourself, and it blew a bearing, that the manufacture would fix it under warranty, unless they can prove you caused the problem, like didn't fill the lower unit with oil or something.

My advice to anyone that losses sleep over putting a 90 or so on their mac, not to do it, same as losing sleep over getting it insured. Life is to short to worry about things that really don't matter, many many people put over 50hp on their macs, and had a dealer install them and insured them, we haven't had any busted out transom's, or flip overs, or whatever. My take on that is most people that do the bigger motor are pretty careful, and the boat if not abused can take the extra power.

The dealer that installed the motor on my boat, told me of a guy that bought a brand new 17 foot whaler from him, powered it like it should be,(90hp) took it in the ocean and broke the boat in half jumping waves. Anything can happen, so if you are the type that needs to hear it from a dealer how horrible it would be to put a 90 on a mac, then go ahead and tell the dealer you are worried about it, and you want his opinion, then ask him to do the work, he wont believe me....

We are in a grey area with our macs, mac's own video shows one of his boats going 22-24mph and rants a raves about the performance, as well as a great sail-er it is.
so mac is telling us the boats are safe at those speeds, But we need to take a leap of faith that Mac doesn't recommend 24mph over 15 foot swells, so if your boat will do 24mph don't do 24mph if the seas are nasty....If you own a 50hp motor you never have to worry about that.
Mike

[aya16]

Reason for me to buy a 115 over say a 90hp, with the merc's the 75-90-115hp engines are all the same, and after I bought, the 125 is now the same.
I wanted a 90, got a good deal on the 115 and the rest is history.. Didn't want the 115 to go 35mph, all though it probably could.

Other than the engine is a bit bulky, I'm happy with it. Still carry the same 24 gallons of gas and it's plenty to go anywhere I want to go. In fact its like a little over 12 gallons to Catalina, (36 miles away) I don't care as long as I have gas left over when I get there, they have a gas dock. Gas is like 5 bucks a gallon there, but a buffalo milk will cost you about 5 bucks for 12oz's, and 11 of those oz's are cream.
Mike

[Catigale]

but they cant take your manufacture warranty for the engine away, if you install the brand new motor yourself.???

If you buy an ETEC from a dealer and file a warranty claim without evidence of a certified install...good luck. Direct personal experience.
This isnt restricted to Evinrude, I believe all manufacturers will put you through the same hoops. This is a reasonable business practice. An outboard isnt a light bulb.