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Expected engine life???

1K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  TDub 
#1 ·
Expected motor life?

I am trying to get a handle on motor hours, and expected motor life. TDub suggested in another post that you could need a rebuild at 350-500 hrs. Just curious if 500hrs is consider max motor life.
If we were talking cars, I would expect any modern car to get 200,000 miles (back in the day the benchmark use to be 100,000). after 200,000, you are living on borrowed time. So just where is that benchmark for an outboard?
Thanks for all the posts so far. Very interesting. ;)
 
#6 ·
Don't loose any sleep over the 350-500hr mark, I am still bitter after my Optimax rebuild :p

But I don't think it's outside the realm of possibilities to figure that 500 hour mark is kinda like the 100K mile mark for a car/gas truck. True it may go 200K miles with no issues, but it's not unexpeted to need work done on the vehicle.

Again, only talking about big block HPDI, ETEC and Opti's, running a tournament level life, if you will.
 
#7 ·
Not to sound like Debbie Downer however....

IMO determining motor life is subjective.

Most issues realte with PMs, how the motor is ran, the correct additives, etc...

Best thing for a motor is Warranty and for the older motors (if applicable) disconnect oil inject and manually mix.

It's not a matter of "if" rather a matter of "when" the engine pops - when dealing with 2 cycles.

I have fished with some people who babied their engines to no end and they still popped. Fished with some that ran the dog pi$$ out of them when new and popped.

Some flat out keep popping the same cylinder even after rebuilds :p.

Some use Amsoil vs Quicksilver vs Yamalube and yet, the engines will still pop.

Hours are relative.....

kp
 
#8 ·
Just throwing this out there. I have a 1979 85hp Evinrude, no telling how many hours but I'm sure it went well over 1000. I know the previous owner and he had no major issues before I got it. When the motor hit 30 years old it scored a cylinder and I had to rebuild it. There was negligable wear on internals so parts were around $500 and a couple of days of fun and we're back for another 30 I hope.

Just saying there is no way to tell how long you will get out of one but like mentioned above, be ready for a rebuild and if possible keep a motor till the warranty is up and start looking. And I agree that the darn things are just overpriced weedeaters...
 
#9 ·
I ran a Merc 1989 XR4 150HP from 1989 until 2007.  Yep, almost 20 years.  Those motors were bulletproof.

But, it drank gas like it was free and leaked oil all over the bottom/inside of the cowling to the point where it would work it's way out of the motor onto the control cables.  It was a royal pain in the ass to start and when it did it liked to dump what looked like a cup of oil/gas into the lake and throw a blue smoke haze that would blind you.  Not to mention the amount of pollution the motor put back into our waterways.

And this was fully tuned up and running perfect, regular maintenance.

Point is, manufacturers have had to keep up with increasing regulation from the government in making cleaner and cleaner motors.  Second, increasing pressure from the marketplace in that we want faster, lighter, better fuel economy, etc.

All of this leads, imo, to some of the best motors out there.  But more moving parts equals less reliability.  Hard to have a catastrophic failure in a carb motor, esp if you are premixing.  Not too hard for the computer to glitch and run the high pressure system too lean or have an injector miss a beat, only for a second, to run a cylinder dry.

But, they start up when you bump the key, quite as hell, get slightly better fuel consumption and are almost spotless from an environmental impact, even the 2 strokes.  Plus run circles around those old outboards from a performance perspective.  
 
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