Hi,
Looking for an engine to power my new Avon Adventure 6.20, I have found an excellent deal on a couple of OptiMax engines, a 135 and a 150. Wat really worries me though is the fuel consupmtion, I have read a number of aritcles and threads on the forums about the OptiMax but am still a little unsure.
On my old 5m Zodiac with a 60hp Mercury 2 Stroke (1999) we used to use around 32 litres (about £25) of petrol a day with about 3 people in.
Going by that as a guidline, how much fuel do you think a 135/150 OptiMax would use for the day, if we were using around 32 litres on the 60 ?
Have a look at the thread "Mercury Optimax" a few threads down.
They talked about fuse useage there, but i would think 30L to 50L a hour would be the sort of figure you would get .
Also how much you use will depend on what "your day" is.
A days pottering round with long stops is a lot diferent to a day going to Ireland for example.
I can use over 32L in my typical day and thats with a 50HP 4 stroke !!.
Cheers for the reply Gary,
30 - 50L and hour All of my boating is done in Poole in Dorset, its a family boat and we rarely ever go on long trips out of the Poole kind of area. The boat would be used for about 4-5 hours a day on and off, so it would never really be making high speed journeys for long durations of time.
Think I might have to look towards 4-strokes.
Cheers for your help Gary, any other comments are greatly appreciated.
Our 150 Opti basically gives us a litre per mile fuel consumption at cruising (e.g upto 3/4 throttle) over that it all goes to pot. In comparison with the old Johnson 150 VRO carb engine we did £60-80 petrol a trip even whilst just banging around the solent for a day. The Opti has damn near halved that. If you can get the smart guages with the engine then you'll get the full sp on fuel consumption, range, atmospheric pressure (No I'm not joking!), the price of fish in osaka japan etc etc.
I believe that the 135 and 150 Merc/Mariner's are essentially the same engine (or at least the same block etc). If there is not a tremendous weight or cost penalty between them then I would go for the 150hp. You'll be able to cruise lower down the rev range which should give better consumption plus of course you get more top end for those "need for speed moments!".
Interestingly enough (to me at least) I am getting roughly the same fuel consumption from the 200 Yam HPDI on my new boat although with no smart guages and a currently u/s flowscan I'm not 100% certain!
All of my boating is done in Poole in Dorset, its a family boat and we rarely ever go on long trips out of the Poole kind of area. The boat would be used for about 4-5 hours a day on and off, so it would never really be making high speed journeys for long durations of time.
