How many outboard hours are too many? Are you looking at buying a 2nd hand outboard and it has high hours, how many engine hours are too many?
This is a very hard question to answer as there are a lot of factors to consider when buying a 2nd hand outboard. Sometimes having a lot of hours is not necessarily a bad thing. If an outboard engine is only used once in a blue moon for short periods of time, it means it spends of time sitting around.
The more an outboard engine sits around the more it will corrode. It is a toss up between having an outboard engine that has high hours and is at risk of being worn, or an outboard motor that has low hours but is at risk of having bad corrosion.
When buying a 2nd hand outboard motor, or second hand boat and motor combination you should try your best to establish the type of life the outboard has had. Usually if the motor is an ex commercial outboard, they will have high hours, but normally they are very good at maintaining and servicing the outboards as per the manufacturer's schedule.
4 stroke outboards seem to be able to last for more hours than 2 stroke outboards. I put this down to the two stroke motors firing every revolution as apposed to every 2nd. If you look at this way, a two stroke motor with 1000 hours is the equivalent of a four stroke with 2000 hours.
If looking at purchasing an outboard engine with high hours some questions to ask or area's to consider are -
Has the servicing been carried out by an authorised dealer
Has the servicing been carried out at the correct intervals
Is there a service receipt or invoice available for every 100 hours of engine operation, if not is hasn't been serviced regularly enough
How old is the outboard? A newer outboard with higher hours in my opinion is better than an older one with slightly lower hours
What has the outboard or boat been used for?
Has the same person been driving the boat or have lots of people been using it. If lots of people have been using it, if it is premix fuel, which has been in charge of mixing the petrol and oil at the correct ratio?
If it is an ex commercial outboard motor, was it an owner operator or hired contractors or employees driving the boat. Usually contractors and employees are a lot rougher on gear and would possibly treat the outboard very poorly.
Has the outboard motor been flushed regularly after each use in salt water, and/or how often does the motor get used.
If an ex commercial outboard, you should find out what type of commercial use the outboard was used for. If the commercial use is fishing, for example eel fishing - you need to make sure that the operator had the outboard propped correctly. If the outboard reaches the correct RPM with an empty load, and then the operator fills the boat with a few tonnes of fish, the motor might be hugely stressed and strained when the load is full. If this is the case the motor could quite possibly be severely worn.
When purchasing any 2nd hand boat or 2nd hand outboard motor I can't stress enough the importance of having an experienced and qualified outboard technician carrying out a pre purchase inspection. They will thoroughly inspect every area of the outboard motor. If done properly the technician should inspect the outboard motors cylinder bores with a bore scope as well as carrying out a compression test. If the outboard motor is fuel injected or EFI the diagnostic equipment should be connected to the motor to look for any fault codes that have been logged. The technician should also look for any signs of overheats or miss use etc. Outboard motors computers will log the engine operating hours, this is very useful to determine how the outboard has been used or driven.
For more advice about outboard engines and outboard boat motors visit http://www.outboard-boat.com/
