Re: Yamaha 90?
I like the lines of your boat there, Marlinman. I'm on my first 4 stroke outboard -- a 2004 Yamaha 90. After one season I must say I love it. It's quiet -- even at full boil, seems well-built and pushes my 17 foot Scout along at a pretty good clip. I've yet to do any detailed fuel consumption calculations so can't really comment. My last medium-sized outboard was a mid-eighties vintage 2 stroke Merc 70. Although this engine is still carbed (one of the last I undertand) -- it seems light years more refined.
As for cons -- I am most certainly not a fan of Yamaha's digital gauge cluster. I want to see old fashioned needles sweep across dials with fixed numbers on them. I guess a digital speedo is ok but the tach bugs me as there's no instantaneous read of your revs versus the redline. This your brain grasps instantly with an analog gauge. Also, the bar graph LCD fuel gauge is hopelessly crude as there's something like just eight notches from empty to full. This means it takes forever to drop a notch and you've got no sense of fuel burn in between. Also, there's no constant reading of temperature or oil pressure -- just alarms with a blipping pixelblock over the appropriate symbol. I think I'm going to install a fuel flow meter and would really like just to swap out the entire thing for an analog gauge package.
So, in summation -- great motor, not so great instruments.
