Why do I/O's have short engine life?

[HighLineCBR]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

I also disagree. My boat and motor is 22 years old. Engine is original with 620 hours on it.

Many people end up having to rebuild or replace their inboard motors due to improper WINTERIZATIN - especially true in the northern states. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about cracked engine blocks in the spring. Many people cheap out on paying a professional but don?t know how to do it right themselves. Proper maintenance along with proper winterization is extremely important on an inboard engine. Do it right and it will last for years.

 

[tuffshot]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Mostly we read or hear and even see abused equipment. As for the average garage or cover boat most motors are doing well after 20 plus years.

Different environments such as lake docked boats or trailered boats have their advantages and disadvantages.

Unless they are garaged or kept under a cover most cars 20 years old do not run the same either. Gotta figure a boat is almost like a classic car, taken out on weekends except the boat gets ran hard and put away wet.

 

[tommays]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

My 1995 I/O motor is still perfect

My 1970 Sailboat FWC A4 inboard is still pretty dam close to perfect

 

[H20Rat]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

How many engines have you heard about that just 'wear out'. The practical life of the engine is far above most people's usage.

maintenance and all the issues related to it will kill an engine long before old age will.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

My 1974 165 L6 is still doing great and most of the trouble I've had has been with trying to make upgrades. I have been considering doing the head because of the fuel changes.

 

[Philster]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

I also disagree. My boat and motor is 22 years old. Engine is original with 620 hours on it.

Many people end up having to rebuild or replace their inboard motors due to improper WINTERIZATIN - especially true in the northern states. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about cracked engine blocks in the spring. Many people cheap out on paying a professional but don?t know how to do it right themselves. Proper maintenance along with proper winterization is extremely important on an inboard engine. Do it right and it will last for years.

Bah!!! It's all those Southerners who think a light bulb in the engine room plus 28 degree air temps = safe block!

"I didn't think 28 for a few hours could freeze water!"

or

"But I had a 60w bulb in the engine compartment. My brother-in-law told me that's all I needed if it were below freezing overnight."

or

"The forecast was for a low of 33. I'd figured, since water freezes at 32, I would be fine"

or

"Isn't that what 'freeze plugs' are for?!"

 

[Lyle29464]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

The largest manufacture of stern drives ( merc) says the engine can be run at WOT for hours. I have seen people on this site say they can be run all day at WOT.

now a few interesting facts.

Mercuirser Mechanics do not have skinny kids.
They do have skinny blonde wives with big boobs.
They do have big houses, big boats and nice cars.
Most have heard of walmart but never been there.


I was talking to our merc guy about his new plane while he was siping his 16 year old scotch. He will wink when he agrees with the WOT statments.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

I think my success came from religiously changing oil and filters every 25 hours.

That's nutz. I'd be changing my oil every 3 days at that rate.

 

[pzurek]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Lack of use is as hard if not harder on an engine as regular use. As an engine sits oil settles back into the pan. When you turn the key some of the moving parts are un lubricated.

Use a car engine like that and you have problems too."

I trailer my boat and I'm a first time boat owner. Sometimes my schedule permits me to use it a lot, and then sometimes a period goes by when I can't use it at all. What is considered regular use? If I haven't taken it out in 3-4 weeks, should I put muffs on it and run it in the drive way for a bit just to give it a workout?

 

[WPWillis]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

I agree with the maintenance and winterize properly. Use a good oil, preferably synthetic. Change it often, use a hour meter to track it and change it again when you winterize. Don't forget the filter. Also let the boat warm up to normal temp before leaving the dock. Just my 2 cents.

Patrick

 

[ChrisCraftJohnny]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Ah,

No, I just never drove 4 banger buzz bombs that reach 3900 RPM's at 60 MPH.

Always had a V8. In fact this 4.3L V6 in my boat is my first V6.

My 5.7L Hemi does 1900 RPM's at 65 MPH. 5th gear helps in a V8.

I wish there was a marinized modern Hemi. Love that engine!

Johnny

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Maintanance is critical. Keeping your engine in top shape is essential to it lasting a long time. Mine wasnt maintained at all for the first 6 years, I bought it as a repo, and it was trashed. I have had it 3 years and started the maintanance when I bought it. Then we lost the head gasket this year. We found it to be pinched though, so even with a pinched headgasket it still lasted 9 years, with 6 of which having absolutely NO maintanance.

I have owned many I/Os. The one I had before was a well maintained 91, and it ran absolutely perfect. Before that I had several 12-20 year old I/Os and until this one I have now, I never had to open up an engine.

It is all about maintanance.

 

[natemoore]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

You must be pretty young. It was not so long ago that the normal cruse RPM in a auto was 3000 to 3200.
And those motors lasted as long or longer than they do now.


To the OP, my boat is 26 years old and running strong as ever, and per the hype I have the worst one in history. A 470.
It sonds as if you need to keep looking, as the ones your looking at right now are on poor side of maintance.

My 470 was 22 years old when I pulled it for a rebuild. It still ran fine, I just noticed it was ingesting antifreeze...big billows of steam upon hot engine restart.

Semper Gumby!

 

[ChrisCraftJohnny]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Nate,

"We have assumed control"

 

[natemoore]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Nate,

"We have assumed control"

"Tough talking hood boys in pro team logo knockoffs,
conform to uniforms of some corporate entity."

"Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise,
beating down the multitude and scoffing at the wise."

"In the high school halls, in the shopping malls, conform or be cast out.
In the basement bars, in the backs of cars, be cool or be cast out"

Ya shouldn't have got me started.

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

The basic gist is, Maintance or lack of.

A O/B takes alot less than an I/O and that is fact. There in lies the truth of it all.
People are, for lack of a better term, Lazy.

My neighbor has a 86 26' sea ray that has never seen a cover or much else for that matter. It still runs (on 7 cylinders) and has a floor as soft as my bed. He intends to not do anything (or as little as possible) to it, ever. When it just wont go anymore he will scrap it and get a new one. Thats just how he is.

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Ah,

No, I just never drove 4 banger buzz bombs that reach 3900 RPM's at 60 MPH.

Always had a V8. In fact this 4.3L V6 in my boat is my first V6.

My 5.7L Hemi does 1900 RPM's at 65 MPH. 5th gear helps in a V8.

I wish there was a marinized modern Hemi. Love that engine!

Johnny

My '79 F150 4X4 351W with all stock running gear, 3100 RPM at 62 MPH. Has been doing that for all its life.

 

[bobdec]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

With stock gearing my 5.7 Liter Chevy V8 Camaro would run at 96+ MPH in high gear at 3K RPM and 128 MPH at 4K. To me running 5.7 L in a boat at 3K-4K is the equivalent of pulling a loaded trailer behind your car at 100++ MPH. That plus all the harsh environmental conditions takes a toll.

 

[hibbert6]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

Thanks, guys, for all of the interesting - and insightful - responses.

Where I live, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, we have a long boating season (May 1-October 1 for watersports, and the lakes never freeze, so we can fish year-round), so I'm not sure lack of winterization is the cause for all those rebuilds, but it just might be.

Lack of regular maintenance, on the other hand, is more likely. Most Californians are not laid-back people. We work hard, we play hard. But we don't play enough. Therefore, if you've only taken your new boat out 3 or 4 times a year after your first season, I think it's easy to forego maintenance. "Heck, my boat couldn't possibly need an impeller." "That engine has been run a total of 20 hours over the last 3 years. Whaddya mean I need to change the oil?"

Interesting thread. I really appreciate all the responses!

Dave

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Why do I/O's have short engine life?

I'm a federally licensed airplane mechanic. I've seen what kills engines and while lack of maintenance is easy to say, it's less easy to prove. What is easy to see is lack of USE. This is much more devastating than not changing the oil regularly. I saw a plane that sat, unused, for about 7 years. We took it into our schools hangar, bore scoped it, and saw that it was actually rusty inside. The engine was toast. It had only a few hundred hours on it, but the lack of running it for many years and moisture of south Louisiana did it in. That engine, brand new, is about $25000 to $28000. If someone won't care for an engine costing THAT kind of mullah, why would they care for a little boat engine?

Another thing people don't think about is the water temp running through the engine. Car engines have a thermostat that keeps them the same temp all the time. I don't think I/0's have one, and if they do, they're not as efficient as a car's thermostat in maintaining temp. Cars run hot water through their system to keep them at the best operating temp, boats sometimes have icy cold water going through them at all times. The engine never gets up to operating temp, the fuel isn't even burned all the way, it's just a mess. To compare a car and boat makes no sense at all. They are different engines operating in different environments.

People think lack of maintenance causes more issues than lack of using something but they are both detrimental to the life of an engine. If people would use their boats every day like they use their cars, their boats would literally be as reliable as a vehicle. Running it for a few hours every 6 months is setting it up for disaster.