[zadolphnealr]

All of these guys do two things to extend the lives of their motors: They keep up with regular maintenance, and they wage a constant war against corrosion. Outboards, diesels and inboards are more likely to succumb to corrosion than to overuse—but corrosion is easy to defeat. Keep it at bay, and a modern outboard motor should keep cranking for thousands of hours of operation. And when it comes to boats, as Capt. Thiel contended some years ago, that’s pretty close to forever. here

[seeger418]

I made a few calls to test my hypothesis. One person I spoke with, a charter fishing captain from eastern Long Island, has almost 6,000 hours on his Yamaha 150 four-stroke. The boatyard owner who lives across the street from my mom powers his workboat with a 1996 150 Evinrude Ocean Pro; it has at least 2,000 hours, and he admits he “beats the hell out of it.” A longtime friend, a respected pro in the marine industry, is obsessed with catching tuna on his days off; he just replaced his 19-year-old loop-charged 250 Evinrudes with a pair of 200 Yamaha four-strokes. This is a guy who puts so many hours on his engines, he buys his two-stroke oil by the 55-gallon drum. Why didn’t he buy new ‘Rudes? The E-TEC G2s are all digital, but he wanted to keep his existing steering and controls; the mechanical Yamahas let him do that. more

[kaspar]

Evinrude E-TECs have a longer service interval than other outboards: five years or 500 hours for the latest G2 engines. Being two-stroke engines, they have no crankcase oil to change, and have fewer moving parts than four-strokes; that means fewer parts that need maintenance, and fewer parts to fail. Elaine Arsenault, senior media adviser at BRP (Evinrude’s parent company), said there are Evinrudes “all over the globe” with several thousand hours on the clock. In the past, common maintenance items such as spark plugs, water pumps, lower-unit lube and fuel filters were replaced on a yearly basis, even if they did not need it, she said. (Water pumps, for example, can last for hundreds of hours unless they suck in a lot of sand or other debris.) Ultimately, the proper care of the outboard—meaning service, replace when necessary, lubricate when recommended—extends the life of the motor. And, she added, outboards that are used more frequently are known to last longer.

[foxhunter]

Hauling your boat is necessary to meet service intervals on most outboards. How does one know? RTFM: Read The Friggin’ Manual.  [links]

[tadcroz81]

Let’s consider the basic principle of outboard longevity: keeping up with regular maintenance. And that means RTFM, or Read The Friggin’ Manual. Everything you need to know—everything you can do without being a trained outboard mechanic—is in there, and the most important pages deal with routine maintenance schedules, as specified by the manufacturer. Follow these schedules religiously. Typically, this means changing the lower-unit lube every 100 hours (or at lay-up), and on a four-stroke, the crankcase oil, too. You can suck out the crankcase oil through the dipstick tube but changing the lower-unit lube means hauling the boat. Some manufacturers, like Yamaha, suggest changing the water-pump impeller at the same interval, which means dropping the lower unit as well. It’s not as big a deal as it sounds, but you might want your mechanic to do it. Service the thermostat at the same time; overheating shortens the life of any engine. [links]

[prestonsco74]

Advantage: With other outboards, they require you to have a break in period, dealer scheduled maintenance, and oil changes. With an E-TEC G2, you have no break in period, 5 years or 500 hours dealer scheduled maintenance and no oil changes. here

[Anaxagoras]

How to Add Oil To Your Boat Engine more

[!0suspectedof]

Add your oil through the built-in funnel

[AstroBloom18x]

Benefit: That means you can run it like you want, right out of the box! It also keeps you out on the water longer and saves you money by avoiding all those stress filled trips to the dealership. Just another way we make your boating experience effortless.
[links]

[dorothymedney]

How to Add Oil to Your Boat Engine [links]