torquing
talk
WITH ANDREW NORTONLife’s Super!
FIVE RELIABLE OUTBOARDS IN 15 YEARS AIN’T BAD
A
s my twilight
years approach
time goes
faster. Hard to
believe I first
tested a Super 15 in 2000.
Since then the Japanese-
made Super 15 has been
a mainstay of Mercury’s
portable outboard range.
The reasons why it’s been
so popular are simple – it’s
very well priced, has a long
warranty and tons of grunt,
is reasonably economical
and provides good flab
reduction when trolling. It’s
the great all-rounder for
tinnies to 3.8 metres. And
there are plenty of prop sizes
to choose from.THE NITTY GRITTY
The Super 15 has the largest
piston displacement of any
two-stroke 15. In markets
outside Oz it’s also sold as
an 18, so developing 15hp
it’s safely under-stressed.
The side-mounted gearshift
is archaic compared to the
upfront shifts of its closest
Japanese competitor but
there are features here not
found in that engine.
For example there’s an
auxiliary watercooling
intake directly beneath the
anti-ventilation plate, soshould the main intakes just
above the gearcase torpedo
become blocked some water
will always reach the cooling
system. Just remember to
tape up this auxiliary intake
before attaching flushing
ears or muff s to the main
intakes or the water pump
impeller will suck air instead.
Another feature is
the provision of six trim
positions compared to four
so the engine tilt angle can
be matched to most transom
rakes. The zinc anode
beneath the anti-ventilation
plate doubles as a trim tab
so steering torque can be
virtually eliminated.
The twistgrip throttle
control uses an all-rod
linkage to the carbie for
reliability and like all
traditional multi-cylinder
carbie two-strokes the
ignition timing advance is
mechanical. There’s even a
traditional choke that most
of us old farts know how to
use. None of that fancy cold-
start fuel primer stuff.
Maintaining the Super
15 is easy. The bowl-type
fuel filter, sparkplugs and
ignition advance linkages
are easily reached. Mercury
recommends servicing
the engine every 100running hours or annually
after the first 20 hours.
The recommended oil is
Quicksilver Premium Plus
which is mixed at 50:1 with
either standard or premium
unleaded (after running the
first 10 hours on 25:1).
Providing it’s serviced
by an authorised Mercury
dealer the warranty is up to
five years – the competition
can’t match that!ON THE WATER
Over the years, subtle
changes have been made
to the running quality
of the Super 15. The first
engine I tested was rough
as guts below 2000rpm,
which gave my arm flab a
real massage. But the most
recent model smoothed out
above 1000rpm, though I
still wouldn’t recommend
extended trolling unless you
really want to get the blood
flowing in your tiller arm
and dump that pesky flab.
Despite the engines
running on 25:1, smoke
appeared only below
2000rpm. They started
easily with a firm two-hand
pull when cold and with their
eff ective thermostats quickly
reached normal operating
temperature. When hot, onlyone hand was needed to fire
them up.
Providing the anti-
ventilation plates were
kept immersed when using
shallow water drive power
astern was good – handy
for backing off shoals. At
all times the pilot water
discharges were clearly
visible. The engines had good
acceleration and through
tight turns at 4000rpm there
was no prop ventilation.
The first hull was a
Bermuda 375 Dolphin
tinny, unusually built with
a long-shaft transom. Not
a bad idea considering the
engine weight, though
when it comes to trading
in the engine the resale
value may be less than a
short-shaft model as most
tinnies under 3.8 metres
have short transoms. On
this hull and pushing a total
of 320kg, including two
adults and fishing tackle,
the demo Super 15 had the
best performance of all the
engines tested and frankly
was a perfect match.
The most recent hull was a
Kiwi-built SmartWave 3500
polyethylene dinghy, which
though rated to 25hp still
went well with only 15hp.
Performance wasn’t quite148 tradeaboat.com.au