Hours on a Motor

Hi-

My brother and I are looking at some new rigs and are wondering what your thoughts are on hours on the motor?

We are looking at boats with a 200+hp motor that is 2006 and newer.

I believe there is inherent value in a motor that is used and not sitting but is there a point that too many hours can be a bad thing?

When you are judging the quality of a motor, what do you determine as the quality? (assuming it doesn’t have a new lower unit, powerhead repplaced, been rebuilt)

Thanks for all the insight.

Dan

Tiller or wheel boats?

buying a new to you boat with a larger outboard is something that you should take some time and do as much checking or gathering of the history of the engine…

One thing is something 2006 rang wont have any warranty.. fixing these beasts can be a spendy proposition…

talk with and feel out the seller. Y is he selling? take it to a good shop and have a compression test done and a complete check on the engine.. run the serial numbers and you can check on any warranty work that has been done on it in the past..

after all of this if everything looks good it sure is nice to be able to run it for a day of fishing or whatnot. this will give you a chance to get her warmed up and see how it starts and idles down..

good luck with your venture..

Thanks for the responses. This would be a wheel boat.

Average use would be about 50 hours a year on a wheel boat. So you should be looking a 300 hours or less on a 2006.

-J.

Engines that have reached the 700+ range generally are nearing the end of there cycle. Not that they can’t be run far beyond 700hrs but it is very likely that compression will start to decline in at least one of the cylinders below the normal range you would like to see. Low compression in any cylinder is pricey to repair.
Boring out cylinders and rebuilding big motors can easily exceed $5,000.
Take into consideration how many hours a year you intend to use the boat and at what point the motor your looking at will get into that 700hr+ range where rebuilding it may become necessary.

This is a quote from Don Weed considered by many one of the top Mercury mechanics in the nation when asked the same question.

“Actual engine hours are honestly “relative”. MUCH more important is HOW the engine was run (and cared for) DURING those hours.

I’ve seen a couple “not so careful” owners trash an engine in under 30 hours…. and I have customers running Opti’s with over 3500 hours (having done nothing but normal maintenance…. and still running strong).”

I know 2 guys who have over 2000 hours on thier Mercs. Same thing. General maintenence. Still running good.

-J.

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Not that they can’t be run far beyond 700hrs…..

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I knew it wouldn’t take long for some examples of boat motors that went well beyond 700hrs.
Just the same, for my money, I’m going to be extremely careful when buying any motor that has to many hours on it.

Cars, trucks, tractors……you name it, we can all come up with examples of them far exceeding the normal.
For all of us, it comes down to what do you want to put your money down for and what do you expect to get from your purchase.

Thank you to all the erplies, this helps my in determining what I should considered low to acceptable hours.

Thanks!
Dan

Ever heard of the “little old lady who only drove her car to church on Sunday?”

Same applies to outboards IMO. On a newer motor you will be able to get a computor printout telling you what RPM the motor has been ran at for how long. When I sold my Optimax it showed over 700 hours of run time, but only 100 of those were at any kind of speed. I’m a troller, so lots of low RPM hours, but very, very few balls to the walls hours. Where-as the Bass guys will have low hours, but most will be at high speed / RPM’s.

Looking for a boat with a 200 hp motor would tell me (IMO) that the guy either had a large boat and maxxed the HP when he bought it or was fishing tournements.

I would not buy a used large HP motor without a print-out, PERIOD!!

Well put Dutch!

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Ever heard of the “little old lady who only drove her car to church on Sunday?”

Same applies to outboards IMO. On a newer motor you will be able to get a computor printout telling you what RPM the motor has been ran at for how long. When I sold my Optimax it showed over 700 hours of run time, but only 100 of those were at any kind of speed. I’m a troller, so lots of low RPM hours, but very, very few balls to the walls hours. Where-as the Bass guys will have low hours, but most will be at high speed / RPM’s.

Looking for a boat with a 200 hp motor would tell me (IMO) that the guy either had a large boat and maxxed the HP when he bought it or was fishing tournements.

I would not buy a used large HP motor without a print-out, PERIOD!!

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I would rather buy an Opti with hours in the upper RPM range, where its designed to run, than with those hours at a low RPM where the motor wasn’t designed to run. Especially since its a 2 stroke motor. I would be interested in the computer fault codes during the ownership period however as this will tell me more. Ask any reputable Mercury shop and they will say they see way more problems with Opti’s run at low RPM’s than in the higher RPM ranges. Good luck with your decision….

Although I agree with what your saying, why “zero” in on Opti’s? (or even Mercury’s for that matter)
I didn’t see where the original post was looking specifically for any one brand. Just older motors of at least 200hp.

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Although I agree with what your saying, why “zero” in on Opti’s? (or even Mercury’s for that matter)
I didn’t see where the original post was looking specifically for any one brand. Just older motors of at least 200hp.

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Because I currently and in the past have owned Mercury Optimax motors, so that is where my experience has been so I can provide facts rather than speculation. Not trying to start a Ford/Chevy debate.

The motors we are looking at is the Optimax 200hp and yamaha vmax 225hp.

Never owned either one of those motors.

Is checking the hours and RPMS that the motor has been used something that I can do or is this soemthing that needs to be done at a Marine dealer only? any places around the Red Wing/Winona Area that you would recommend?

Thanks

If the motor is an Optimax with Smartcraft guages, you can see the total hours. (No RPM history.) I believe Yamaha has these same types of guages too.

I believe all RPM history would need to be downloaded from the motors computer.

-J.