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Muskie Fishing -> Muskie Boats and Motors -> Hours on an engine

Scott

Posted 10/9/2011 11:56 AM (#519916)
Subject: Hours on an engine

Been spending some time looking at used boats and I was wondering how much stock I should be putting into the amount of hours of the engines I am looking at...Just as once a car gets to 100,000 miles, is there a similar number of hours an engine gets to where you can expect to make expensive repairs on it?

Just as an example.... looked at a 2003 boat which had 388 hours on it...trying to figure out exactly what that means ( lot, little, average?)

esoxfly

Posted 10/9/2011 1:49 PM (#519921 - in reply to #519916)
Subject: Re: Hours on an engine

Posts: 1663

Location: Kodiak, AK

This question gets asked alot and it's always, "it depends." It all depends on how the motor was maintained, operated and luck. You can have a motor blow with 100 hrs on it, or a motor go into the thousands. I have 250 on my 09 motor, so that's more than half of the motor you're looking at from six years earlier. Let's just meet in the middle and say we both had 300 hrs...which is the "older" or more used motor? There's saltwater guys that run four strokes into the thousands of hours and there's bass tx guys that blow two or three motors a year.

Check compression, leak down, shaft runout, mount bracket, update logs (if there are any) and run it from a cold start as well as a hot start and see what you get. If all of that checks out, I'd not have any issues buying it. And in all honesty, it could last you 20 years or it could blow up in a week....again, it "all depends." But 388 isn't tons of time for most average users.

VMS

Posted 10/9/2011 2:06 PM (#519923 - in reply to #519921)
Subject: Re: Hours on an engine

Posts: 3514

Location: Elk River, Minnesota

And...to piggy back off of Esoxfly's post,

Lets say the owner fishes 30 days a year. Given it was used in 2003 and in 2011, this would give you 9 years of use, or 270 days

388/270 = 1.437 hours per day. In my humble opinion, that is not very much time on a motor.

Esox is right, though, it all depends on the way the motor was taken care of and used. The tests he recommends are the best thing you could do to ensure the motor is in great working condition.

Steve

Almost-B-Good

Posted 10/10/2011 6:07 AM (#519974 - in reply to #519916)
Subject: RE: Hours on an engine

Posts: 433

Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin

For sure, the way it was used is important. If it just cruised at midrange for long periods of time, I doubt it would have the wear and tear that a fishing motor would have had doing stop and goes all day long with a heavy load. Also, if the boat was severely overpropped it could have been wearing its guts out trying to get on plane and be full of combustion byproducts.

Ifishskis

Posted 10/10/2011 7:52 AM (#519983 - in reply to #519916)
Subject: Re: Hours on an engine

Posts: 395

Location: NW WI

Take it to a local dealer that you trust and have them go thru the motor completely. Best $100'ish you'll spend on the boat. That being said....the dealer could find nothing wrong and then the 2nd time you have the boat out the motor pukes on you. It happens....but if you are serious, take it to a dealer.

jackson

Posted 10/10/2011 12:37 PM (#520029 - in reply to #519916)
Subject: Re: Hours on an engine

Posts: 582

i would say 388 hours isn't that much either. i know a few guys that have over a 1000 hours on their motors. As long as it was maintained.

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