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2 stroke or 4 stroke, which do you prefer?
- Thread starter bikerider
- Start date
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Scott F
Well-known member
BlueBlooded said:
A friend of mine didn't read the owners manual and laid his 4 stroke down on the wrong side. Oil didn't leak out, it leaked into the cylinders and locked up the motor. An expensive mistake, not covered by the warranty.
when that happens you take the spark plugs out, blow the oil out, and reinstall them & start the engine after checking and/or refilling the crankcase.
Easy.
I've only done it maybe twice in the 24 years I've had to deal with 4 stroke outboards. One was a 9.9, the other a 20. The 20 was new, my boss laid it down after overfilling it with oil and left it that way for a few weeks. He wasn't thinking, he knew better though.
Only time it's gonna be expensive is if the owner decides to keep trying to crank it over and bends a rod or two. Even then they'll usually still run, but weak. It takes a good bit of trying to bend a rod. Actually a LOT of trying! I've seen it on two stroke stuff too, once on a mercury, exhaust cover gasket leaking, let water back up into the cylinder with the exhaust port ever so slightly open, guy hits the starter, won't crank. So he HELD the start button and grabbed the rope and pulled it too and got it running. The other few times it was fuel related; carb overflows into the crankcase, or fuel pump dies and the crankcase gets filled, which then fills a cylinder sometimes.
Still say 4 stroke. Two stroke stuff is going away. They ran their course and they served their purpose. 10 years ago when I bought my first 25 yamaha 4 stroke, I didn't want it, was gonna sell it. Used it, fell in love with how it started, ran, and kept it. Several folks on the water complained that it was too quiet and they couldn't hear me sneak up on them at or close to idle speed. Nowadays, they're everywhere. Local dock has a bunch of rental boats, all 1436 and 1448, all powered by yamaha F9.9 outboards. Guy says he sees far fewer issues out of them than they did the 9.8 Tohatsu/Mercury 4 stroke stuff, and those were less problematic than the 9.8 2 stroke mercs that they ran for a while. Remember they're rentals. nobody cares about a rental.
The only "good" about a 2 stroke is that the little ones were slightly lighter than the 4 stroke stuff, but honestly there isn't a lot of weight difference now. THe old 9.9 johnnyrude was around 75 lbs. New F9.9 yamaha is around 90. But with the 4 stroke, you only need to carry 3 gal of fuel instead of 6, so you lose weight just in carrying less fuel, so it mostly evens out the weight difference. 3 gal of fuel goes a long way on a F9.9. I run a 3 gal tank on my 25 and it lasts me for a LONG time.
Easy.
I've only done it maybe twice in the 24 years I've had to deal with 4 stroke outboards. One was a 9.9, the other a 20. The 20 was new, my boss laid it down after overfilling it with oil and left it that way for a few weeks. He wasn't thinking, he knew better though.
Only time it's gonna be expensive is if the owner decides to keep trying to crank it over and bends a rod or two. Even then they'll usually still run, but weak. It takes a good bit of trying to bend a rod. Actually a LOT of trying! I've seen it on two stroke stuff too, once on a mercury, exhaust cover gasket leaking, let water back up into the cylinder with the exhaust port ever so slightly open, guy hits the starter, won't crank. So he HELD the start button and grabbed the rope and pulled it too and got it running. The other few times it was fuel related; carb overflows into the crankcase, or fuel pump dies and the crankcase gets filled, which then fills a cylinder sometimes.
Still say 4 stroke. Two stroke stuff is going away. They ran their course and they served their purpose. 10 years ago when I bought my first 25 yamaha 4 stroke, I didn't want it, was gonna sell it. Used it, fell in love with how it started, ran, and kept it. Several folks on the water complained that it was too quiet and they couldn't hear me sneak up on them at or close to idle speed. Nowadays, they're everywhere. Local dock has a bunch of rental boats, all 1436 and 1448, all powered by yamaha F9.9 outboards. Guy says he sees far fewer issues out of them than they did the 9.8 Tohatsu/Mercury 4 stroke stuff, and those were less problematic than the 9.8 2 stroke mercs that they ran for a while. Remember they're rentals. nobody cares about a rental.
The only "good" about a 2 stroke is that the little ones were slightly lighter than the 4 stroke stuff, but honestly there isn't a lot of weight difference now. THe old 9.9 johnnyrude was around 75 lbs. New F9.9 yamaha is around 90. But with the 4 stroke, you only need to carry 3 gal of fuel instead of 6, so you lose weight just in carrying less fuel, so it mostly evens out the weight difference. 3 gal of fuel goes a long way on a F9.9. I run a 3 gal tank on my 25 and it lasts me for a LONG time.
