1987 Eluder - engine shaft length and ProXS vs VMax SHO recommendation

[NC-pogue]

I'm in Florida, but helping a friend in North Carolina restore an 18 ft, 1987 Eluder.

Question 1 - I'm in Florida and don't have immediate access to the hull. Does the Eluder use a 20" shaft/engine ?

Question 2 - Does the high performance community have a preference between the new Mercury 200 Pro XS and Yamaha 200 VMAX SHO ?
Pros or cons to each ?

Many thanks,
Keith

 

[karzrus]

20" shaft

 

[jjjrick]

Hey there, thought I’d chip in what little I can say. I deal mostly with the big Mercury’s (V8s, TONS of in-line supercharged, 450s & 500s)

I’m a die hard merc guy, but here I might say go with the Yamaha. The Merc V6/V8 is a very solid and reliable motor, but it has never impressed me in terms of snap & power. Except for the 300R, which is a great motor in applications I’ve seen. But the others just don’t seem to have as much punch as you’d like. Certainly nothing like an old 225 promax would.

Yamaha will have 2 less spark plugs to service, and you could buy the 175 SHO and put the Australian’s tune on it for 230hp I think? Both engines are about the same exact weight. As far as I know neither offers any significant lower unit options, so I will be tough to get the engine height up there on the jackplate. Mercury has dual water pickups, so you can plug the sides and raise the bullet darn close to the surface. I think Yamaha is just side pickup and you need more than a 5/16” screw & tap to plug the top. But who knows how much speed the engine height is worth… I’d say not much because we’re probably not talking about a 70+ mph rig here. Yamaha requires 89 octane stock, and 91 with the tune I think. Whereas merc 225 will run on 87. If you fill up on land, that’s a lot of savings in the life of the engine. Merc is an 115amp alternator too vs Yamaha stator. This means the merc can power a lot more electronics, which todays boats hav so much of!

From a reliablilty perspective both engines are fairly bulletproof. I’ve seen 300 v8 Mercs with 4,000hrs in salt water, no biggie. And we all know the 4cyl Yamaha can’t be killed either.

Merc really needs to make a 225R, with a true low water pickup sport master gearcase & high rpm tuned intake & cam like the 300R. It could slot nicely below the V8, with the cheaper, old style clamp bracket and traditional sea star or uflex steering. Heck maybe even a 15” model so it’s approaching competitive with the old 15” 2 stroke engines!

All in all; if it were me and I wanted a quick bare bones setup with good out of box performance, I’d go Yamaha. I think the Yammy is cheaper too. If you want to get very technical with the engine heights, stereo & electronics, house battery banks, and engine gauges, go mercury and you can tweak those categories a bit further!!