See full version: Life Expectancy of a 4 Stroke Engine
In my experience, a 4 stroke engine will last several times as long as a 2 stroke engine, sometimes as much as 10 times longer. On the other hand, the top end on a 2 stroke, if you have the right one, can be quickly, easily, and cheaply rebuilt, while a 4 stroke is much harder, more time consuming, and anything but cheap. here
For a bicycle motor, considering the low cost, I am definitely going with a 4 stroke, as much for quietness as anything else.
How long have your engines lasted with these 4 strokes. here
To make a comparison, I have 2 scooters, both bought new. One is a Yamaha Vino 125 4 stroke. I have 14,000 miles on it, and have not had a single problem. Many people have put over 50,000 miles on these engines before having any problems. [links]
I just felt like putting this for some reason. [links]
My use would be mostly in salt water so I want to be well versed in flushing and cleaning techniques as I want this thing to last a long time. [links]
I have noticed that in many used jet ski ads, many of the ads say the ski has a "new engine". I am now curious why so many skis had to have a new engine. Do these engines have a normally short life span or is it one of those lack of proper care and maintenance things that cause premature failure?
As you might expect I am new to PWCs and am close to buying my first. Been looking at the new Yamaha FX Cruiser HO and shopping the price around.
2 stroke engine life, from what I'm seeing is 300-500 hours.
I was disappointed to see how little room there is in the engine compartment. I doubt I could get a can of WD-40 or silicon down under there and be able to spray the entire engine down with it. I also learned the engine has no drain and the oil has to be extracted via a suction pump. What a pain. [links]
I have a 1987 Yamaha 225 Excel outboard on my saltwater boat, have a 1986 Yamaha Moto-4 ATV, and have a 2004 Yamaha Big Bear ATV. All perform flawlessly so I am sold on the quality and durability of Yamaha products.
I am convinced that Yamaha products are as good as money can buy and if well cared for should, and hopefully will, last a long time. I was just wondering about so many used skis with "New" engines.
I just need to learn how to care for the ski before/after spring/summer salt water trips to the Keys and for an extended winter time set up.
I stopped by my local dealer this afternoon and grilled him good for over an hour about these things. He was very patient and answered all of my questions. I basically wanted a good education about care, regular and preventitive maintenance, risks of damage, etc. He covered much very well.[links]
You are on the right track, proper maintenance habits are the key to having at least the best chance of long-term reliability with pwc's. You will want to flush your 'ski, preferably with Salt-Away, after after salt-water use, the owner's manual and/or your dealer can give you the exact procedure. You'll also want to wash it down thoroughly including the engine compartment, spray everything down with a good lubricant/rust inhibitor, and remove all water from the bottom of the hull. I have a new FX HO Cruiser as well and plan to be more conservative with oil changes than the owner's manual seems to recommend, I'm thinking more like every 50 hours instead of every 100. Also if you haven't heard about it yet, there is currently a recall notice on our 'ski wherein you have to bring it into a dealer to have the throttle linkage replaced; the dealer should know all about it, I am having it done before I begin breaking my new 'ski in this weekend. Beyond this in theory, very little regular user maintenance should be required with the 4-strokes, spark plugs don't need to be replaced more than once a year and that may even be overkill. Make sure you, or your dealer, whoever will do the oil changes, is aware of the exact procedure and familiar with the problems some people have experienced with overfilling and damaging the air filter. Stay with this board to share your experiences and everyone else's with this 'ski and all the others for tips, alerts, impressions, suggestions, etc. With my previous 'ski I broke the common rule and bought the "first year" technology and had the series of quality control problems that might be expected to go along with it. however with the FX engine, the basic engine and hull configuration has been around for, this will be the fourth year, and it seems to have earned a very solid reputation for reliability, anecdotally a few but statistically it seems to me extremely few failures have been heard of.more
Everyone tried to tell me not to buy a boat. Now they want a ride in it!
And many other things affect life expectancy like:
* amount of time spent at WOT (Yammies probably spend more time at WOT than I/O's due to the fun factor, but that's not something to hold against them on the life front)
* the number of sub-systems that can go wrong (Jets certainly have fewer of them, an obvious advantage from a maintenance and reliability standpoint)
* how well their maintained (operator choice)
* how in tune an owner is to the sounds of their engines when a problem emerges (operator skill) [links]
Here on YJB you can find incidents of broken cylinder 3 spark plugs, a few blown engines, some water leaks, and a few broken drive shafts. In my estimation these account for a very small percentage of the number of boats represented on YJB. more