"So basically to make a four stroke run like a two stroke you make it unreliable ,peaky and make it smoke.Sounds good so far." hahahaha. Now thats funny.
As for you guys who think 4 strokes are the wave of the future, its true. 4 strokes will eventually most likely be all we have except for free lance pricey engine builders. BUT, you are incorrect as for why we are now seeing 4 strokes. Its not that 5 years ago some designer said, ya know what, I'm going to start building a 4 stroke race engine. IT is however, that the EPA said, your going to have to.:sad6:
As far as outboards go. All the major brands these days are putting out awesome products. Although, in my opinion the best is the mercury optimax. I can count all the problems ive seen with them in the last 5 years on 1 hand. However, the 4 strokes (which are incredibly heavy and bulky) have had 10x the troubles. In yamaha's and mercury's 4 stroke outboards, when the cam belt breaks or skips, and it will, Its a new engine for you. A lot of people will complain that 2 strokes smoke and will fowl plugs...This is because they haven't ran a new EFI 2 stroke. You can idle all day with no issues.
Anybody who sais that 2 strokes have not advanced in the last 10 years has not done their research. I'd have to say that the 2 stroke has almost advanced more than the 4 stroke over the last 10 years.
After all, Do you want to pull your engine every 50 hours to re-shim the buckets? Not I. Have fun when you sink or injest water at WOT.