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“What a bargain, Parsun F2.6BM 4 stroke, A1 quality deal”

written by on 23/09/2011

I have just bought this lovely little engine,having been let down several times by my old 2 stroke Mercury decided that I was apprehensive every time we wanted to use our boat for fear of not being able to reach or return in the fast flowing River Exe estuary was a bigger damper on wanting to go sailing than the 2011 summer season. I am an engineer by trade and will always research technical details rather than be swayed by an outboard motor's name as having any bearing on the country which made it. The wonders of the WWW make it easy to read reviews and make your own decision, taking no notice of absurd almost racist comments that have no factual evidence. My choice was should I go for a Honda 2.3 as everyone at the club seems to have one or buy one that I could more easily afford/justify as good value?. On a PBO comparison which included both the Honda & Parsun it is clear that the Honda at over £200 more expensive is overpriced especially considering the Honda has no proper clutch or water cooling, it is noisier and the least powerful of all the motors tested. I agree that the simplicity of not having to flush the engine and low weight were plusses for the Honda but for both reasons make the price tag even harder to justify as it must be cheaper to build an air cooled motor? All the other engines in the test seemed to be closely related to the Yamaha 2.5 especially the Parsun which an Australian dealer of both makes confirmed that apart from the cover the Parsuns and Yamaha were identical to the point where he never buys Yamaha parts as the Parsun ones are identical at a fraction of the price.I almost decided on the Hidea 2.5 but the best dealer upped their prices by £30 on the very day I was going to buy it. An ebay style ad for a Parsuns 2.6 at £399 was way cheaper than any I could find better still the advertiser was based in Plymouth and he advised that I pick up the engine as they could PDI it and not have to drain the oil as they would if needing to be mailed, Marine Bazaar in Plymouth is a huge superstore the guy was very friendly showed me all the bits of the engine and advised on best way to transport etc, the guarantee is two years but I liked the way that as I bought it from them they do not charge labour for servicing the first service will cost around £15 again compare that to any marine engineer I was quoted around £80 plus parts & vat to service my old 2 stroke from a nearby well known dealer, there isn't a lot to service on 2 stroke why so expensive?. So in every respect the new Parsun and it's long term costs from marine Bazaar look like during the two year warranty period the motor will pay for itself compared to the old Mercury. Fact is most things we buy nowadays are made in China outboard motors included, anyone can check the build quality of Parsun and in every respect no manufacturer matches or surpasses the materials/corrosion protection/engineering/bench testing of every Parsun outboard motor built, the PBO ouboard comparison said the only drawback of the Parsun was it used more fuel that the rest, but that was at full throttle I can't imagine that I will ever go beyond 3/4 throttle more like around half throttle most times,the 1.2 litre fuel tank is the largest in it's class in practice likely to give hours of running,I don't think i will believe not having to fill the tank every time to make the half hour trip to/from my mooring. I started the engine in the yacht club's flushing tank and it runs like a dream quiet, easily started and appears very powerful, everyone moans at the weight of 4 stroke outboards but the Parsun is lighter than my old Mercury,so in summary I just know that the Parsun is at least £200 cheaper than rivals but the quality is actually better than anything on the market so I think I have bought the ultimate bargain in outboard motors