turbotodd » 20 Nov 2013, 18:45[/url]"]I personally like the Yamaha motors. Even if they are still carbureted.
I love EFI.
If there was one downside to EFI, it is repair costs. Fuel does still go sour in an EFI motor, just the same as it does in a carb'd motor. Difference being, when it goes south in a carburetor, you're out $80 if the dealer cleans the carb, or possibly up to $1000 to replace a fuel pump and injectors on an EFI engine. And it does happen. I'm currently looking at a Yamaha F115 that's been sitting for about 5 months. VST pump is done and so are the injectors, caused by fuel sitting. The owner is looking at nearly $900 in repair costs. Out of warranty. Even if it were in warranty, they would not cover it (it's not a defect).
The F20 Yamaha is pretty simple to clean a carb anyway. Usually under an hour, start to finish. The F15 and F20 are the exact same motor. The F20's carb is a little different, allowing the extra 5 HP. The dealer I work for has sold a few hundred of them. Only one has been back, and it wasn't the motor's fault (stale fuel). They are much lighter than the F25 is, and in these parts, they seem to be the sweetheart of the smaller motors. Good bit quieter in all aspects than the Nissan, Tohatsu, Mercury (all made by Tohatsu) 20 HP motors. The Tohatsu seems to be a decent motor, just a little noisier than I liked. Cheaper than Yamaha though.
I advise all outboard owners that if they know the boat isn't going to be used for the next couple weeks, run the carb dry, drain the bowl (there is usually a little bit left in it), then dump the fuel out of the fuel tank, into the lawn mower or truck or whatever. Exactly why I went to a 3 gallon tank. A 6 gal tank would get "old" long before I ever used it (3 gal does too in my case). In my case it's a lot easier to dump 2 gal of fuel into the mower than it is to dump 5 gal out of the 6 gal tank. And the 3 gal tank takes up a lot less space in the boat. And cheaper to fill when I am ready to go fishin'.