Which outboard is cleaner?

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Hi Guys – some of you know I do a little committee work for the good of fishing.

I need your help with this one for a presentation I am doing to a government conference. Can you help me out?

The question is

All outboards put out some emissions or pollution.

In your opinion, which of these outboards is the cleanest?

There are no right or wrong answers – its your opinion that counts.

Thanks!

Gary

[Blackened]

G'day
The suzi's run pretty clean. As does an opti. I'll have to say a mercury, as they make the riptide
Dave

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actually the riptide is a minn kota model - but i like the joke

[thesimmos]

Tohatsu 4 Stroke!!

They make the mercury and probably make those riptide motors aswell... Mercury being a yank company it wouldnt suprise me if they rebadge everything and just do the heavy marketing.

[Nugget]

I suppose it depends on how you define 'clean'.

Emission standards are one thing, but what about the disposal of old filters and oil?
Should that be taken into consideration?

Dave ><>

[Blackened]

G'day
Aah well.... it was fun whilst it lasted. Shoulda taken 3 minutes and found the great white of the motorguide. Good idea on the whole oils/filter thing nugget. Something else to pull into consideration.
Dave

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146 reads and 35 votes?

its just your gut feel I am after - dont be reluctant!

[Nugget]

Honda 1st, E-tech a close second and everthing else trailing a fair way behind - at a guess!

Dave ><>

[gawby]

I had a 90 merc saltwater series on GAWBY and it went really well but the two stroke smoke and smell and oilslick on the water was something else.
I now have a 115 4/s yammy on the GAWBY II and it is so much quieter and no pollution and makes the day so much better.
Thats my two bobs worth.
Graeme

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Dave

I thought that too - until I checked the numbers.

I mean it sounds right that 6 litres of used oil is a lot to account for. But used engine oil is recycled not dumped in the water.

I checked some sums today on new model 150’s. Both of these are very very low polluting motors. Both winners in my book.

Over 100hrs a Honda will put out 158 kg of Hydrocarbons and Nitrous Oxide ( HC+ NOx) So even if we got crazy and dumped the used oil in the ocean that adds another 6kg (6.7 litres) to make the total 164kg. So the used oil does not add a lot to the total.

Over the same 100 hours of running an E-TEC 150 hp puts out 170 kg of emissions , so the Honda still beats the E-TEC (just!)

If these numbers look bad or unreal to you hold in to your hat. One of the cleaner 40hp carby 2-strokes puts out 450kg of emission over 100 hours. Thats right - an engine one third the size puts out more than twice the pollution! And that’s from one of the cleanest carby 2 strokes. This is all based on certified US EPA data on an ISO engine test cycle.

Yes the 4-stroke has an oil change at 20 hrs. And the E-TEC computer injects extra oil in the first hours of a new engine. So they probably come close to balancing out.


But the Bottom Line is that even though an oil change sounds like a lot of pollution - when you do the numbers it does not make as big a difference as I first thought.

Gary

[charleville]

Gary - I applaud the intent of the question but the methodology of asking the question of a bunch of boofheads like us, many of whom will have only owned one brand of motor and therefore prone to give a most biassed answer would suffer a lot of questions regarding research method validity.

Surely the response that you get will be related to the market shares of the brands???

I have a 4 stroke merc and I never get a whiff of fumes nor am I the one who changes and discards the old oil so it all seems pretty good to me but I could not offer any insight as to whether this is any better than, say, the equivalent Yammy which uses the same powerhead.

Likewise, I get my merc serviced every 12 months but one of my mates gets his yammy serviced every nine months. #He is discarding more oil than I am but may well be running a better tuned motor on average.

Anyway, just my $.02 worth. #I am sure that the intent of the question is a good one.

[Spaniard_King]

Gary,

care to share the website with this info??

Garry

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Garry

The info takes a bit to decypher. I spent 3 months on it developing a data base and had access to all the OEDA Senior Managers

So - happy to help you out with interpretations.

The raw data is at

EPA Marine Database –

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/certdata.htm#marinesi

CARB database –

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/offroad/cert/cert.php

[Spaniard_King]

Thanks Gary,

Looks Like a few rainy days needed to go through that stuff


cheers

Garry

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Garry

The main number you need is the HC+NOx g/kw/hr

That gives you Hydrocarbons ( unburnt fuel and oil)

and Nitrous Oxide ( a poision that causes acid rain etc etc) added together

The number is in grams per Kilowatt (metric hp) per hour.

so say the number is 13.2 multiply 111 kw (150hp) by 100hrs divice by 1000 ( grams to kg)



Also - when you look at the data they only certify one engine in a family. So if the 40hp and the 50hp are the same motor ( same cc, just the output limited) they only need to certify one engine in that family.

And the outboards are not all re certified evey year - so you need to look at teh 2005 2006 and 2007 to find your motor.

OR - you could just ask me. ( by email not PM)

Garry - will you call me please? 0412 111 573

Gary