50 hp Tohatsu short shafts can be bought from any dealer in North America, as far as the reliability of the block I have nothing to compare it too but I beat the shit out of my original one for 4 years 3 stock settup and 1 with the ECU remapped to 6800 RP and and a majority of the use was running big waves loading and unloading the motor, now if you guys are strickly talking about 15-20 year old stuff then yes a old short shaft may be hard to find
Hounddog wrote:
More Tohatsu information:
Unlike the 40 and 50 hp Yamahas which are basically the same motor except of the jetting and tuner, the Tohatsu 40D and 50D models do not use the same block. From a performance view. The 50 hp is much better and you want a 50D. Also the older the 50D block the better. The castings get worse every year because of their large production.
50D Short shaft models are difficult to find. BUT, it looks like you can easily make a long into a short by just cutting off the lower part of the mid. Both the long and short share the same inner exhaust and it looks like you only need to shorten the water tube. The shift rod and drive shaft can be shorted. I have a long mid somewhere and I will check this out.
Up-date on the 2 cylinder Mariner
Had a real problem finding gaskets. The later 55 yamaha gaskets are different to the old 60 hp Mariner I have. Hoping the last ones I just ordered are OK.
New addition a 2 cylinder Suzuki...15 inch with factory trim.
Ron Hill told me about these motors years ago. Ron's wife set the record for an inflatable boat back in the 1980's.
I have had it for a while and it is difficult to find parts for it. I want to freshen first before racing it. Put OMC decals on it and it would past as one. It even has the old style power trim like the old OMCs.