4-Stroke OR 2-Stroke, What's Better?

Christopher Williams, what's your opinion on reliability, two-stroke versus four-stroke

with the exception being the crappy E-Tech G-2s? I always argue that the two-stroke is more reliable, much less moving parts, no valves or

timing components that can fail. Plain simplicity, my 1999 Mercury 40, which I never winterized, ran ethanol fuel due to

availability, premixed with a surplus of Mag 1 brand oil I had

the guy I sold it to in 2015 is still running it hard to this day with that same surplus of 20-year-old two-stroke oil

I just don't see a four-stroke taking the same abuse while still running strong

Christopher Williams is amazing. He sent me all kinds of stuff. He gave me, like, cutting oil and all kinds of like Evanry grease and stuff

So Chris, thank you again for all the stuff. Now, as far as reliability on the two-struck versus four-stroke, it kind of, you know, in the lower horsepower

I'm going to say you could even kind of break it down like that

Yeah, there are certain, I mean, certain years, certain engines, HPDIs, certain horsepower, certain years, certain Opti maxes

You know 97 to 01 you talking the Opti pops It might even have been more like 97 to 99 but real early first model fix very unreliable engines

Forces, very unreliable engines. But, you know, 40 horsepower Yamaha 2 stroke, a 40 horsepower mercury, 99, you know, some of these smaller horsepower

once you get into the 200s, 250s, it's kind of a different world

so it's a different thing. So more horsepower comes more problems. Like, you know, you're more torque, more power, more, you know, more abuse basically is what it's going to be

So as far as reliability goes, it all depends on the engine because certain models are going to be more reliable than other models

But four strokes have come so far that they kind of are more reliable when it comes to a two-stroke versus a four-stroke

So if you're like comparing a 250 horsepower Yamaha 3.3 liter HPDI compared to a 250 horsepower

Yamaha F250 4 liter like that 4 is going to make 2 more hours than that HPDI is And it just that platform is so well designed Not talking about cost and maintenance and all the other stuff

And yeah, you know, on a small, you know, two strokes, more simplicity

a lot easier, a lot less than go wrong. But at the same time, you know, if we're talking about a 40 horse and a 40 horse

an F40 Yamaha in, you know, a 40 horsepower. two stroke 99 running on a pre-mix

like they're both going to be super reliable. They're going to last probably the same amount of time

Will the four-stroke end up costing you more money in the long run? Yes, it will

As far as maintenance goes. Now, as far as fuel consumption, though

over the long run of the two-stroke and the four-stroke, the two-stroke, based on how much time you put on it

you know, how much you're costing in fuel burn compared to the fourth stroke

Does it even out? Possibly. Reliability-wise, smaller engines? I don't think there's, I don't think that I would say that one is more reliable than the other

because you got to throw in the exceptions of the different models that had specific problems compared to other models like you know you 40 Mercury Like you not going to you ain going to have no problems with that thing You know it a small engine doing a small job that not you know

taking a lot of abuse. It's getting plenty of oil and drinking fuel. So, yeah, I would say hard to compare

You really can't compare a two stroke versus a four stroke because you have to compare a model to a model

There is no way of like, it's a platform. that has a ton of different variables

You know, it's like getting in the discussion of an Android phone versus an iPhone

They're two different platforms with a bunch of different models. Same thing

A four stroke is a platform. A two stroke is a platform. There's bad two strokes

There's bad four strokes. If we compare, you know, the unreliable and bad models of each, then, you know

that could be something better than just the platform versus the platform

in some instances, the simplicity of the four-stroke is, or the two-stroke is going to be more reliable than the four-stroke

but at the same time, in certain instances, the reliability and the fuel consumption and the runability of the four-stroke is going to be better than the two-stroke

Long-winded answer there. Now, if you enjoyed this clip, you can watch the full episode over here, or you can watch another one over here