Is a Verado to heavy for my 79' 23' savage?

[JohnB]

I had to repower a couple of months ago, and my short list was optimax or suzuki. IMHO, the hp to weight ratio on the verados took them out of the running. They are heavier than what merc prints, and the merc dealer told me I would need all new dts controls, to the tune of about 3k. I had existing merc controls.

I went with the suzuki with a 6 year warrantee. I looked at the 300 suzuki, but it required 2k worth of dts controls and cost over 3k more than what I found the 250 for. They are sweet, but not worth 5k. I cruise at 31 mph buring 11.2 gph, and wot at 41 at 17 gph. It is mounted on an Armstrong bracke, and I believe the bracket helps the perfomance. The only thing I did was move the batteries from the back to the cockpit, to help balance a little better.