Suzuki 60 hp

I run a 1660 Pro-v lund with a Yamaha 50 hp four stroke. When I have a couple people in the boat and a full livewell my motor works pretty hard. The boat is rated for a 60. I’m leaning towards a Suzuki because of the cubic inches and the fuel injection. Looking for some thoughts. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

Red, I have a 1660 Pro-V tiller with the Suzuki 60 4-stroke. Everything you hear about them is true. One turn of the key and it starts right up, even after long layovers. Without a carb there’s no oil or gas deposit on the engine. After 3 years of use the motor still looks like it came right off the show room floor, its so clean. And remember, the 60 is 4 cyclinders instead of 3 like the lower hp motors.

Two minus’ for me. The motor is heavy and I’m heavy. I had to add wave whackers. When backtrolling, water would roll in over the transome into the splaswell. Also the same would happen with the wakes of passing boats while I was anchored or drift fishing. It got scarey at times but the wave whackers eliminated the problem. The second minus is speed. I had a 60 2-stroke previously and lost about 5-7 mph at WOT after installing the 4-stroke. But I dont run & gun so no big deal.

I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one. Maintanance and winterizing is a snap. A complete tool set is included and the manual spells everything out. If you have other questions, post them or send me a PM.

Red,
I have a 70 hp 4-stroke Johnson (really a Suzuki) on a 1675 Lund Explorer tiller (all 2003). The 60 hp and 70 hp have the same displacement and weight – so they must be very similar. I bought it because I wanted a 4-stroke with fuel injection (I did not want carburetors for the type of fishing I do). At first I was concerned about the weight but this Explorer has a 90-inch beam, which easily handles the motor weight, plus I also put both my batteries in the front part of the boat for better balance.

I do not back troll so I will not be putting on splashguards, nor will I need a kicker. I find that if I put a couple 2 gallon feed buckets off the sides, I can slow troll forward at the right speed (almost at a stop — depends on the strength of the current) when pulling floaters upstream. For typical long line, or lead line trolling no buckets are needed.

I retired this year and have already put many hours on the motor since August. It starts instantly no matter how hot or cold it is and always runs like a watch. In fact, I have purposely tried to make it kill, stumble, or surge – so far, no matter what I do to it; I cannot even make it burp. The most common thing my partners ask me when we are trolling is “Is it running?” — it is very quiet, smooth and smoke free.

For top speed I have gotten to the low 40s by myself with the live wells empty and little gas in the tank. When adding another person and more gas, then I get into the mid 30’s. When I put up my homemade portable 5’ wide by 4’ high windshield and two people, I only get 30 mph.

This particular motor has been in production about 5 years now as is also used in Suzuki automobiles – so I am hoping it will be reliable. There are a lot of moving parts in the motor compared to the simple 2-stroke on my last boat, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will last me a long time.

From my limited experience I think it will be a good motor. It has proven to be substantially better than my previous motor but technology has improved so much that probably any new motor would be a vast improvement.

Down side – I think they charge way too much money for the motor. Of course all the new motors are outrageously priced.

Dave Gulczinski

I had the 70 hp Suzuki hidden by Evinrude colors on a 16 foot Mr Pike about 3 years ago. The motor was
whisper quiet at idle, suel injection gave it all the attributes you’d want or expect including effortless starting,
hot or cold. I loved mine for all those reasons but found it hard to get propped right. The salesman at this dealership
finally had an idea which was to put a small hub prop on it and that made an incredible difference in performance.
It did all sorts of wierd things before, made a lot of noise but was a slug out of the hole. THe small hub prop, with right
pitch, made that boat run mid 30’s WOT light load.

Just in case you’re not totally set on Suzuki, my buddy just recently put a new Merc 60 EFI 4 stroke onto his
1650 Lund. I fished out of it 2 weeks ago out of Evertts, was surprised at the small size of the power head for a 4 stroke.
It started with ease, idled like a Timex (only say that because I don’t know how a Rolex runs) and had very good power for
his boat. He replaced an OMC 2 stroke 60 which was a very poor engine because of center cylinder overheating. The power
seemed very comparable to the 2 stroke, both at low end and top end. He was hitting 6000 RPM WOT with the new Merc and
running about 33mph. I believe his prop pitch was a 12.5 or 13 SS which he bought from Cabelas.