I'd go with the V8 300s. The 300 Verados require 92 octane for the full 300 HP.

How beefy is the gear case on the V-8 300 vs the 350 (and optional case on I6 300)? Given the size of boat here I’d want the sturdiest gear case I could get.

These are what you want

USED PAIR MERCURY VERADO 300HP V8 BLACK OUTBOARD MOTOR | eBay

White 300 V8 😎

Ive never had power steering but it sure would be nice aside from the complexity.

Regardless of the power choice that Cafe Open is just a killer boat. Doing a full acrobatic pull-up over the side of my tiger this weekend while it was on the trailer 40 freaking times made me realize a day will come when that's not possible. Hopefully it's still 20+ years away, but it makes you realize how cool this boat is!

Good luck on the power choice....

New 300s all the way unless you have the $ to buy the extended warranty for the 350s. If a supercharger breaks it’s a $5500 part. I had twin 2014 300 Verados (inline six) and had to replace a supercharger, thankfully under warranty. Verados are the way to go all the way regardless of your decision. I’m in the process of buying a new boat and will only go with the new 300 even though 350s are an option. I’ll sacrifice a few ticks on the Speedo for piece of mind with reliability. Good luck.

Man there’s a lot of mis-information in this thread.

That said, I love my 400r and the 350 is mechanically nearly the same. However, in this case if it were mine I would go with the 300 v8. Make sure you get the 296 hp version not the 276 hp version.... The 350 has a small torque advantage but the 300 will achieve max performance on 87 octane, weighs less, and will operate under lower cylinder pressure/stress at almost all times. The 300 would sacrifice 15% power and 2% torque but coming from 250 2-strokes I don’t think you’ll miss it.

I thought I read there are some new Diesel Outboards that are pretty interesting.
Not Mercury though.

Oldschool, I just wandered on here...great to see your boat again...its been a long long time!