[Jon G]

I was a two stroke guy now I'm leaning towards the four stroke. Getting one next week. I don't know about the Yamaha but I checked with the Suzuki dealer about maint and its limited to oil and filter changes with the biggie being valve adjustments(couple hunders bucks). I had a 115 two stroke that burned an average of 5gals gas per engine hour on the meter. This two stroke used one gallon of oil ($17) for the good stuff to the fifty gallon tank. So in 9.4 engine hrs or one full tank my two stroke uses $17 worth of two stroke oil. I can't wait to do a $20 oil change every 100 hrs. while getting better economy. looks to me like if you add up valve adjustments and oil changes versus all the two stroke oil you would burn over the same length of time there pretty close to cost per hour although the four will also use less gas over that time period. Where I am the four strokes are slowly taking over in the mid range engines. Do they have the same torque out of the hole as a two stroke? Not likley, but I would not knock them. I didn't think about one until I found my self shopping for an engine last week I looked at the other options out there and the other prices. When you see four strokes on commercial boats that people rely on for their livley hood that says something. When I asked on local commercial guy if he liked his 115 Suzuki he said it was one of the first ones out, lots of hrs on it and he said he will "NEVER" go back to a two stroke. When I talk to commercial fisherman and tour operaters and they tell me the same about an e-tec I'll give them a look. These guys use engines on a dialy basis and use them harder and longer than any of us. As for a big engine I'd go with a two stroke because the big fours simple weigh much more. I was hestitant to go four stroke until I talked to people that owned them and after hearing what was said by the owners I had to look closer. I tried to find a Suzuki owner (or other local four stroke owner) that I could talk to that hated(or had any thing bad to say) about their engine and I could find none.The only person that I talked to that had a problem with his Suzuki ruined his starter over time because he kept trying to start the engine while it was already running it was so quiet [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] so much for hearing aids, That made my decison for me. I'll find out next week first hand for sure. From what I hear I will not be disapointed, plus the fishes will never even hear me coming!