I don't know, still doing research. It really needs 300hp to get to the 70's, but worried about balance. Would love to have a 300 with the weight of a 200. I like mercs, evinrude, and yamaha, but really no experience with any of them. It will be a family boat and I'll travel a lot with it so needs to handle water sports and be very reliable. Was on a boat with 250 E-tecs and I liked those.

250 Efi. great engine just love to eat fuel. They really are a reliable engine though. JMO

Budget?

You'll need torque and cubic inches to push that weight. I'd say your right on the 300 mark.
The 300 E-Tec's and Optimax's are moth monsters but will run you into the $18K range if you shop.
Massive power, economy of/better than a 4 stroke, as quiet, less weight and near zero maintenance compared to the 4 stroke.
I see/hear all those horror stories down here.
Was at one major dealer that I buy blown up motors from when he was on the phone w/the Honda tech center which is local.
Seems that they had an irate customer after being billed almost a a grand for a pair of 200's

If it were me, and I had the budget....., I'd do twin 250 HO E-Tec's. Would look bad ass and probably be a 90 mph weapon.

Agreed, And Shaun Torrente, or Simon can take them beyond 300HP. Super reliable, cheap intial purchase, and if a tired 250 25" fishin' motor can make my 24 run 60(hopefully more this weekend with the new prop), I am sure a healthy STR motor would put that boat into the low 70's no problem.

Cant find the thread but sp123 had less than stellar results with a etec 250 on his new banana 24. Then tried a h.o. Etec and it still disapointed top speed wise although I recall him saying it got good economy.

Do a merc, theres plenty of em used, parts ez to get and proven results.
$.02
MD

I have a buddy w/a 25' center console w/twin 225 HO E-tecs that is running 78 GPS.

Some JohnRudes run half way decent. Heres an '87 V-6 on carburetors @ 101 @ 7500.



This one ran 80 GPS w/stock '99 250 carb motors.

Budget for th motor is around $5-6K so will obviously be a used motor. Am I dreaming? Been able to find a few on craigslist in that range, but never looked at them. I don't mind having to replace a powerhead, but hope to get at least one or two seasons out of it. I could maybe pull $10K, but that will only get me a used motor as well so don't see the point unless it comes with a warranty remaining. I briefly thought about twins, just not in the budget. If it was I wouldn't be gettting rid of the Apache. Not sure what I will have to do set up wise on a newer motor. They seem like they are plug and play.

Thanks, sounds like the 250 would be enough. Althought, I read the 300's weigh about the same as the 250's.......

300's wight the same because it is the same motor(kinda) Both are based off of the same block(actually most 225's are the same also), and share most parts(except EFI, ECU, heads, and a few other things). You can buy a used 250, have it rebuilt and modified by Shaun to exceeed 300 HP, and be reliable, for much less than $10,000 If you shop around, running 250's can be had for around $3000, and the rebuild/modifications should be around 3-$4000

Yeah I've seen a few twin packages for $6-7K, wouldn't mind having a spare. How come you don't see people running yamaha's on fast boats? Are they harder to modify?