Motor Boat & Yachting — August 2017

NAVIGATION

Mel Bartlett

PRODUCTS

Nick Burnham

The latest marine engines and innovations

NEWTECH

The engine builder launches 350hp outboard with dual propellers

Suzuki joins the big league

Suzuki has unveiled its most powerful

outboard ever – a 350hp V6 4-stroke

with some very unique features.

Only two other mainstream engine

manufacturers, Mercury and Yamaha,

can match this power output and

neither of them can offer the Suzuki’s

dual-prop setup.

In fact, everything about this new

engine has been designed to offer a

different boating experience to its key

rivals. That starts with the way it has

gone about creating the extra grunt;

rather than relying on a supercharger

(Mercury) or a larger-capacity engine

block (Yamaha), it has taken the

altogether trickier route of squeezing

more power out of its existing 4.4-litre

naturally aspirated V6. The payoff

is a light, compact engine with plenty

of power, rapid throttle response and

low fuel consumption.

The most significant enhancement

is an unusually high compression

ratio of 12.0:1 – the highest ever for

a production outboard engine. This

enables it to develop more power

from the same size block without

the need for forced

induction from either a mechanically

driven supercharger or an exhaust

driven turbocharger, both of which

add weight, sap power and increase

fuel consumption. The difficulty with

high compression ratios is ensuring

the engine still runs smoothly and

reliably without the engine knock

that often afflicts this type of highly

tuned motor. Suzuki claims to have

resolved this through a combination

of cool air intake, twin fuel injectors

per cylinder and a special hardening

and finishing process for the pistons

and conrods.

MY TAKE I’m intrigued to see how well

this engine works. I like the fact that

it doesn’t rely on forced induction to

generate more power, but will it match the

low-rev torque of the Yamaha and Mercury? Hugo

The slender design of the cowling is well

suited for multiple engine applications