I'm Restoring a 1974 Potter 23SF all composit and raised the transom to 30" and installing a 2012 yamaha F300 with a new 120 gallon fuel tank. I was looking at a Mercury 300 Verado but this was too great of a deal to pass up.

new F 300 would be ideal,reliability, and plenty of dealers around to buy, and service them..The etec's are coming on stronger lately, the new G-2..just need to prove the reliability of them...to me at least.... I like the older 2 stroke ox 66 yami's.plenty of pep, and proven engines.I searched hard to find a good ,used 30" 250 ox66,for my 23,Yes, more gas and oil... the new f300 was way outa my price range, 3.3 - F250's are good motors , but not massive pep for my likes.older F225 are dogs, and have their own problems.make sure it has variable cam shaft timing.NO poptimax!If you gotta go black ,go 300 verado.

Regardless of what brand you go with, 250 ponies is all you would ever want for a 23 cc unless you are hauling bricks to the Bahamas. Anything bigger is just spending cash you won't use except in the channel.

I too am a little wary of Yamaha and their Nazi like maintanence mandates to keep their warranties in force. If it was my money and I wanted to go 4 stroke it would be the new gen Suzuki or take the 2 stroke route with the Etec 250. You would be trilled with either choice.