Re: SURVEY: 2 STROKES VS 4 STROKES DURABILITY
There are carbed 2-stroke Johnson/Evinrude engines in my area that I have either worked on, or O/H'd that have, in some cases, over 4000 hrs., about 50% of those have been rebuilt.<br /> The durability is greatly increased when the engine is run every day so all parts are never subjected to rust, or corrosion, bad, or stale fuel....such as your engines...<br />The ave. person doesn't use an engine like you do, and because of that, the wear rate is greater do to deposites of rust, corrosion, sediment in the fuel/oil, storage time, etc.<br />I have nothing against 4-strokes except maybe weight, cost, and being cold-blooded.<br />Durability doesn't come to mind when I think of 4-strokes at this time. When 25 years have gone by, and the 4-strokes of that vintage have shown the test of time in years, not hours persay, then I'll reconsider my opinion.<br /> You may not know this, but I have posted many times of my employment with Kansas dept. of wildlife and parks, and we USE Merc 4-strokes, and have for 6 years.....I'm not impressed. They were in the shop as much, if not more than the 2-strokes....and quiet at IDLE, yes, at WOT,...can't say it's that noticable. During each 5-day netting session, we'd put about 12-15hrs a day on these rigs, and the western half of Kansas is controlled by 4 biologists, which all use the same 2 boats all year long...1 shocker boat, and 1 net boat.<br />Between net-sets we leave the engine running now because of an ave. of 5 starters per year. We are down to 3 on the net boat and 1 replacement on the shocker boat this last season.<br />I run my own boat (2-stroke) about 200-250 hrs a year, nothing like what we put on the 4-strokes, but I have had very little problem with any of the crossflow OMC's I've owned...oh, I did have a trim relay crap-out one time, and I think I got some fishing line wrapped around the prop-shaft once, and cut a seal. My old 1977, 115 rude has just under 3500 hours, and yea, it's been torn down to put 1 piston in cause I thought it wouldn't last long enough to be worth 4 pistons.....that was over 1000 hrs ago, but I'm as far from an Ocean enviornment as you can get, so that isn't a fair comparison, but I guess 27yrs doesn't count either, so as I said, when the 4-strokes roll over 25yrs., we'll see whats workin' and what ain't.