How many hours on your outboard?

[Home Cookin']

This question was posed on a popular fishing forum in the lower Chesapeake Bay; these are serious boaters--all salt water. You can read all the posts here:

http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/showthread.php/315020-How-Many-Hours-On-Your-O-B

I liked this post: "Not exactly sure how many is on mine but my brother in law is a commercial crabber and 2 years ago he had his 06 Yamaha F150 in the shop getting a fuel pump put on it and the plugged up to get the hours and he had right at 9000 hours on it. That isn't a typo by the way."

and one guy, when many of the answers were in, consolidated them:

I took the info from everyone's comments and made an excel spread sheet and came up with the following.
Mfg Year Size Hours
Mercury 1989 135 2200 *
Mercury 2009 225 580
Mercury 2004 700
Mercury 225 860
Mercury 2007 250 1150
Mercury 2006 135 175
Suzuki 1500
Suzuki 2006 150 1520
Yamaha 2001 200 260
Yamaha 2006 150 800
Yamaha 2009 150 600
Yamaha 2002 225 900
Yamaha 2004 150 1900
Yamaha 2006 150 9000
Yamaha 2006 250 2000
Yamaha 2004 225 800

I haven't done the averages or mean but it looks like 100-200/year as typical.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Latest stats 2-22-12, When someone said they had two or more engines I added additional rows for each engine. Also not everyone listed a year that is why some do not have a year.

Mfg Year Size Hours
Honda 2000 50 4826
Mercury 225 860
Mercury 1989 135 2200
Mercury 2001 150 3000
Mercury 2004 700
Mercury 2004 225 700
Mercury 2007 250 1150
Mercury 2006 135 175
Mercury 2009 225 580
Suzuki 250 4500
Suzuki 250 4500
Suzuki 1500
Suzuki 175 3000
Suzuki 175 3000
Suzuki 2003 115 3100
Suzuki 2003 115 3100
Suzuki 2006 150 1520
Suzuki 2006 225 600
Yamaha 250 1500
Yamaha 250 1500
Yamaha 2001 200 260
Yamaha 2002 225 900
Yamaha 2002 225 1200
Yamaha 2004 150 1900
Yamaha 2004 225 800
Yamaha 2006 150 800
Yamaha 2009 150 600
Yamaha 2006 150 9000
Yamaha 2006 250 2000
Yamaha 2009 150 765

 

[dingbat]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

The one thing that you also notice is that none of these motors are the antiques a lot guys on this site run. You see one pair of late 80's motor and those where on there last legs with 2200 hours when they where sold 3 years ago.

Lots and lots of F series motors reporting a lot of hours.

 

[robert graham]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

I calculate about 900 hours on my 1999 Yamaha 90C...can't really see where the hours have affected the performance/running of it. Good preventive maintenance probably a lot more important than the hours. I guess an outboard would eventually wear out, but never heard of one doing it. Maybe the rings would wear and compression get a bit lower, but motor would still run fine.

 

[dingbat]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

IGood preventive maintenance probably a lot more important than the hours. I guess an outboard would eventually wear out, but never heard of one doing it. Maybe the rings would wear and compression get a bit lower, but motor would still run fine.

I had a 200 Hp Evinrude that was 2 years older than your 90C that had 2,260 documented hours on it. The compression was getting low. Starting to blowing a lot of fuel past the rings. The water passage where so worn you could not keep head gaskets on it for more than a season. Didn't know what was going to let go first, the heads or the rings. You know what? It didn't run fine.

It sStarted stalling out on the troll every couple of trips. New head gaskets, carbs rebuilt, still not acting quite right. Finally diagnosed with a lean pop last Spring. It was recommned to rebuild the entire intake system on a motor with this many hours. Decided I wasn?t going to spend good money after bad and replaced the power head instead. I now have a 173 hours on a 11 month old motor.

 

[robert graham]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Well, I guess you have to consider corrosion just another type of wear...I was mostly thinking of warn out pistons, rings, cranks, rods, bearings, etc. The life of a freshwater motor would have to be at least double that of a saltwater motor? Good luck with your new power head!

 

[dingbat]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Beleive me, this motor was just about worn out. You could measure the end play in the rods with a tape measure and you ddin't need a mic to tell that the ring gaps where way our of specification.

A motor wears out from running it. Your not going to wear a motor out running it 69 hours a year. You will not own the motor that long. At your present rate of usage, it will be another 19 years, your motor will be 32 years old, before you match the number of hours I had on 14 YRO Evinrude.

The other thing you need to remember is that very few if any FW outboards get run like they do in SW. When was the last time you ran your 90 at 4400 rpm for 1-2 hours straight, then trolled for 6-8 hours followed by another 1-2 hours 4400rpm?

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

I doubt the life of a fresh-water motor is double a saltie. Maybe 20% longer life (40 years v. 48 years) if everything else is equal--which it never is.

Internally, as IIRC Dingbat often cites, it's the sand, etc. in the water wearing on the insides rather than the salt. One affects it running; the other affects it sitting.

IMO a salt-water inside will show pitting, etc. but in the life of the motor, it doesn't corrode all the way through. flushing motors is a relatively new practice

There have been models where certain gaskets didn't take well to salt and caused problems. The problems I've seen directly related to salt was that bolts freeze, preventing some repairs--but not affecting a running motor.

Indirectly, there are some maintenance issues--for example, b/c high salt eats rubber impellers, a high salt motor needs its impeller changed more often than fresh. Stands to reason that one with an impeller in bad shape won't function as well, thus leading to other problems, shorter life, etc.

Fresh or salt, there is a balance--the commercial guys can wear them out, but not running them enough can be worse. The solution? keep your day job but spend more time boating!

 

[cyclops2]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Retired for 10 years. run almost everyday 4 hour..trolling & WOT. May 15 to September 15.

10 years working 8 months a year, full weekends. Yes, I should get a life.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Retired for 10 years. run almost everyday 4 hour..trolling & WOT. May 15 to September 15.

10 years working 8 months a year, full weekends. Yes, I should get a life.

that would be 500 hours a year--how's the motor? same one?

My older and small motors don't have meters and it's impossible to estimate unless you have a lifestyle like you do--I'm jealous, and working for it!

 

[cyclops2]

Re: How many hours on your outboard?

Same 9.9 evinrude.