I’ll check for the dropped cylinder. Who knows? Could be.

As for the gas issue, nhamm; I’ve wondered about this from day one. I didn’t get his gas can when I bought the motor because it was one of the old metal types that had seen better days.

I bought a new gas can (plastic type), hoses, and fittings. I did have the fitting that hooks into the motor because he cut it off and gave it to me.

I’m wondering if there’s a way to test for this. I was thinking that I could maybe put an inline filter (clear) and see if it stays full while opening up. I’m not sure this would work or not though. Any ideas to test to see if it’s getting enough gas?

One more thing. This does not have power tilt/trim and I’ve played with the trim adjustments A LOT. No change whatsoever.

When you rev the engine in neutral, you can feel the difference in power between it and the 25 I used to have. Feels like a beast in comparison.

When you put it in gear, idle speed or a little faster, you can feel a VERY noticeable difference between it and the 25. Moves the boat MUCH easier and quicker.

It’s when you shower down on it to take off that you get the big let-down. Takes a while to get up on plane and, even once you’re up, the sound of the engine doesn’t change. It’s literally like you’re holding the throttle in the half-way position.

The guy I bought the motor from had it on an aluminum V-hull boat that matched my boats dimensions and weight almost exactly and this thing flew on his boat. Unfortunately, I didn’t look to see where the anti cavatation plate was in relation to the bottom of his transom. I’d assume it was in the correct position, meaning he may have had a deeper transom than I do. If memory serves, I think his transom was “lifted” where the motor mounted on, but I could be wrong.

Wow. Thanks for the fast responses.

To answer some of your questions:
This motor has a 23″ shaft length and I have a 20″ transom. I looked up how to get this measurement and measured it. I was actually surprised because I didn’t know there was anything in tiller steer except 15 and 20″.

This is a 2 stroke motor…Nissan NS40C. The guys at the boat shop did a thorough check on everything and said that compression is excellent (135) and, mechanically, everything is as it should be. They were the ones that asked if I had the right prop, which led to me buying the one I did.

The prop I bought is actually the one recommended for this motor under a “heavy load”. I got the specs off the Nissan/Tahotsu website. BTW, a heavy load is considered anything over 1500 lbs. Since I usually have at least 2 guys in it and I’ve customed out the inside (adding a lot of weight), I figure I’m probably pushing 2000 lbs.

So….since this is a 2 cylinder, I’d assume that if one cylinder was “dropping out”, it would be noticeable. Engine runs smooth, even on plane. The issue is, it runs like you’re at half throttle.

I’ve read some posts that say running the motor too deep has a significant affect, whereas others say that it’s hardly noticeable where RPMs are concerned. I don’t know, I just want it to run right.

Am I wrong in assuming that a 40 hp 2 stroke should outperform a 25 hp 2 stroke?