The susukis are slower but you never have to worry about them leaving you out there either

I had a lower unit go out in my 300 Zuke last year but I had heard the 250 and below are very solid motors. I was near my camp and used my trolling motor to get home, I was lucky THAT time.

They will all leave you eventually !

we got Nick's 24ft with a 250Opt up to 67mph last week

250 Opti is a strong motor, I'm not a 2 stroke guy so it wasn't something I considered. My last 2 stroke was 4 boats ago. I ran my Verado today for a test run on Lake Houston. I now have the larger gear case, the power was much better. 67 was the best I had done with the old smaller lower unit and 1.75 gear ratio, based upon what I saw today i should exceed that.

According to both manufacturers the weight on both engines is 505 lbs.

That is dry weight. The SHO should take around 6 quarts of oil. The Zuks are having way to many corrosion problems for me to consider. There is no way the SHO will perform as well as a properly setup XS. That being said it's close enough that not having to buy oil would be worth it. I had a Merc racing XS on my 22' Triton lts that would do 62mph. In my Haynie LS I can hit 70 with the same motor. I promise a SHO would not touch those numbers on the same boats. What it boils down to is this. Mercury = cost less, faster but uses oil. SHO = cost more, slower than a mec, uses more gas(i have hear this from more than one person) but change oil once a year. Do your research and make you choice.

Compare the two at WOT and the sho does burn more. Compare at mid range the sho burns 2-3 less GPH.

I agree on the weight but were are you facts on fuel burn? I do not have a Mercmointor but when I'm doing 45mph at 3500rpm that has to be pretty good.

Get a 350 yam v8...seen one at cal point on a shearwater and saw it again in a slip at heberts.

fixed it!!!

All I can tell you is yamaha tested alot comparing the sho to a opti before they released it. I have no literature on a EXACT same boat setup comparing a opti to a sho. To each his own,yamaha stands behind there product 100%.
I much rather have a jap made engine than a mexico and china made engine. For example,Mercury has been having ignition coil and lower unit problems for years on the opti. They have too many of the older non updated product and are getting dealers to install them instead of fixing the problem with a updated product.

You hit the nail on the head! :work:

they are not called "pop"-ti-maxes for nothing.lol

http://www.mercurymarine.com/engines...-party/?ID=88&
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/assets/p...-01-04_bay.pdf

Not a exact comparison,but you are limited to performance tests on mercs site.

Don't get me wrong, if buying to fish for fun I would get a SHO or even a Yama 150 on a 21' Frontier. Fishing for money I want the fastest motor I can put on my boat Merc 300XS. And the Merc 250XS is only a few mph behind the 300.

sho is superior in quality. mercs die young. only thing merc has going for them is speed. and they dont have that much over the competition. 250 opti is 4 mph faster than sho?? really what is 4mph? we are talking about bay boats here people. if speed really mattered that much buy a boat thats made for speed. people buy optipops because they are cheap and fast but soon realize the motor is not made to last like our own lil buddy w had his boat less than three years and already looking at the sho. how many offshore boats you see with optipops lined up on the back?

One, my boat has more than 4 mph on a Haynie LS with a SHO. Two, even 4 mph is a big difference when your making 2 hour runs one way for a Tourny. Three, if a bass boat could do what my Haynie can do and go were my Haynie can go I would have a 90mph bass boat. Four, I never keep a truck, boat or outboard over 3 years due to resale value and warranty, no matter the make, model or brand.

Cool. What does that have to do with the original topic?

I appreciate all the info..I am looking more for performance and fuel economy rather than speed. Looks like the SHO is getting more head nods so far.