Outboard Motor Life Expectancy???

[gottaflylee]

Once you break a 1000 hours, start a new motor fund, with a little luck, you should have about 1/2 the cost of a new one. I have had then go with 7 to 8 hours on them and as many as a couple of thousand. I only use the Manufacture's recommend oil. With your motors, as Mary said, keep a close check on the O2 sensors, best way to lose you motor. If you winterize yours, make sure you have a stabilizer in you fuel and it has made it to your carbs. With the fuel we have now, I would replace every fuel line to and in the motor this winter before they break down and hit you injectors. One more thing, get a 4 stroke...

[LuckyLady]

what are people seeing with their Yamaha four strokes hour wise? I'm at 680 in three seasons and have only had a fuel pump go on one of them while offshore; came in on the other one; dealer said it was a fluke and warranty covered it.

Now I am just out of the warranty period; what kind of issues are people seeing with these motors getting close to 1000 hours?

They say 4-strokes could run up to 2000-3000 hours with proper care.

A customer of mine had 1850 hours on his 05/06's 1-2 years ago and to date all he has had a problem with is a lower unit and a piece of fishing line behind the prop. So he had to pay for a gear case thus far.

I would have to bet he is up over 2500 by now and they are still running strong as I haven't got a call that he broke em yet.

So with that said my best theory on 4-stroke technology is that a 4-stroke motor is like the engine in your car, with the proper care/maintenance it could and should last you a life time. Kind of like any import car honda/toyota etc where you see them with 200k in miles on them and still running strong.

Flushing the engine's is a HUGE key to preventing internal corrosion and problems. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND flushing the motors after any amount of use!

[LuckyLady]

My 250 Verado just blew a fist sized hole in the bottom of the block at 320 hours. Regular maintenance done at distributor, very good care taken of it. Just out of the blue, POP. Of course only had the 3 year warranty, somebody forgot to sign up for the 5 year at purchase so lucky me. Now my 60 tiller 2 stroke has close to 800 hrs and still runs like a scalded dog. Go figure.

What year is your Verado?