Outboard Hours

[SeaCrow]

 I don't understand why people are concerned about hours on an outboard motor. Some articles I've read say that 4 strokes are good for about 1500 before needing major work.. If that's true, than that doesn't say much for the life cycle of 4 strokes. There's 2 strokes out there that's older than me(I'm 45) that are running just fine without ever having more than just regular service and God only knows how many hours on them.  I've bought several old 2 stroke outboards without even thinking about hours of use. Also, why would a 4 stroke outboard be any less reliable than a 4 stroke car engine?  It just seems to me that some people use that 1500 hours as a countdown to disaster on new outboards. It just seems nobody cared about the hours on 2 strokes but seem concerned about the hours on new 4 stroke outboards. I hope someone will understand what I'm saying. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my thoughts across. I'm not playing favorites, the 4 strokes are great and the 2 strokes are as well.

[Team9nine]

I'm guessing most people probably don't even know how many hours they have on an outboard, in general. For most bass boaters, they run fast from here to there, then shut down and fish off the trolling motor. They probably don't generate many hours each year even if they do fish a lot. I say this because I just traded in an engine this past week. Had no idea how many hours I had on it, what was considered a lot, or even average.

 

I asked the tech doing the work, and he said about 30 hours or so per year was what they typically saw. I Googled it and it said closer to 50 hrs per year was average. When they pulled my data, they had a second guy come over with a different computer and check again because they didn't think the first tech did it right.

 

I had over 660 hrs in just under 4 years...but I fish a tiller boat, using the main engine like a trolling motor (backtroll) in addition to a main engine. I rarely turn it off during a trip. Over 400 hours was simply at idle (<1000 rpm), and another 200+ hrs was between 1000-2000 rpm (trolling speeds). I had nothing over 6000, and only a handful of hours over 5000 rpm. I go plenty fast enough at 3/4 throttle, so I never had a need to run wide open other than to do it every once in a while just for the engines sake. I also changed out lower unit lube, oil and filter every year, which from the sound of it, many guys don't. At least the tech was surprised when he checked mine and saw how clean it was.

 

Previous to this engine I had a 10hp that I ran for 8 years. I'd hate to see how many thousands of hours were likely on that little guy 

[Goldstar225]

My truck engine has a 5,500 - 6,000 RPM redline and spends the majority of it's time at less than 2,000 RPM.

My boat engine has a 6,300 RPM max and I generally run it +/- 4,000 with occasional runs of 5K-5.5K.  I expect that others spend most of their run time closer to their Max RPM.  

 

I don't think a car engine would last very long if it spent 80% of it's life in the top 20% of it's design range.

[SeaCrow]

4 hours ago, Goldstar225 said:

My truck engine has a 5,500 - 6,000 RPM redline and spends the majority of it's time at less than 2,000 RPM.

My boat engine has a 6,300 RPM max and I generally run it +/- 4,000 with occasional runs of 5K-5.5K.  I expect that others spend most of their run time closer to their Max RPM.  

 

I don't think a car engine would last very long if it spent 80% of it's life in the top 20% of it's design range.

You're right. I understand that car engines are not run as hard as outboards are.  That being said, 4 stroke outboards should be able to perform for their intended use which includes running at high rpms. The 2 strokes have been doing it for years reliably.

[WRB]

The modern high performance bass boat outboard engine producing nearly equal hp per pound then race engines and run the majority of time at high rpm's.

Run hours apply to the high performance engines run at high rpm's. As a old racer I learned decades ago that a race engine only has so many R's before it expires, so it essential to know.

If the OB has been run the majority of it's run time at 1/2 speed mid rpm range it will last longer then engines run at WOT. Most high performance bass boats run the majority of time at over 3/4 throttle to full throttle. 

High performance bass boats usually are equipped with hour meters and today's OB's computer records run time data. 

300 hours run time hours is a good time to have the high performance engine inspected  and compression checked. 

Tom

 

[SeaCrow]

I know what y'all are saying,  it just seems that people weren't really too worried about hours on the old 2 strokes like they are the 4 strokes. 

[J Francho]

16 minutes ago, SeaCrow said:

it just seems that people weren't really too worried about hours on the old 2 strokes like they are the 4 strokes. 

Back in the day, you could not get the hours.  Now it's stored in the onboard computer.  Ever since hours was available, people were interested.

[WRB]

Hour meters were popular back in the 80's before computers and all my higher performance bass boat engines have or had them, current engine has 52.2 hours run time.

I haven't owned a high performance 4 stroke OB, no experience with them.

Tom

[GreenPig]

I drive my 2005 Mercury 25 hp 2 stroke tiller like I stole it. Bought it new and completed the break in on it. It gets a service annually and I'll even wipe it down at that time. It has no hour meter but with conservative figures it's likely around 2,500 hours and runs great considering most of those hours were at WOT. Just purchased a NIB 9.9 Mercury 4 stroke short shaft for my new 1436 and figure it'll last my lifetime no matter the hours.

[SeaCrow]

I've only owned 2 4 stroke outboards (both Mercs) and both performed great.  I guess what I'm asking is do you think the 4 strokes are as reliable in the long run as the old 2 strokes..