Engine lifetime hours

Rinkerfor4

I’m looking at a boat with a mercruiser 350 mpi and bravo out drive.  

Is 834hrs considered a lot of hours ? And how long are they usually good for   Apparently it had a compression test and it checked out ok 

PickleRick

Salt water? Fresh water?  Closed or open loop?  Coolant system ? Service history?

1500 is rule of thumb life expectancy but I'd rather buy a well serviced boat with records @900 hours than a 200 hour boat that has been neglected. 

Ian

It also depends on the hours at RPM ranges. If it’s been a speedboat all it’s life that will have an impact.

YYZRC

The motor is virtually indestructible - if the block isn’t cracked, it’s good to go for another 800 hours. It’s the drive that you will need to pray for.

Rinkerfor4

PickleRick said:

Salt water? Fresh water?  Closed or open loop?  Coolant system ? Service history?

1500 is rule of thumb life expectancy but I'd rather buy a well serviced boat with records @900 hours than a 200 hour boat that has been neglected. 

Fresh water. Open cooling with lake water.   

Oh yes I forgot with the mpi engines they should be able to print off the runtime history.  

Rich_

My 20 Grady has 2712 hours on a 225 Mercury Optimax. While that is a lot of hours, it came from a police boat in FL where the engine spent a large part of its life under 2000 RPM until I got my hands on it. That engine still runs fine and I would have no hesitation taking it on just about any trip.

Fresh water is a big bonus for longevity and staying on top of maintenance goes a lot further than hours.

PickleRick

 

Like @YYZRC said the outdrive is the $$$ part of the set up although SEI is now selling aftermarket B3 uppers and lowers.  

aero3113

It’s all about the maintenance. I remember Al saying he had a boat in the shop with over a couple thousand hours both engine and drive and it was still going hard.

Willhound

Our 2000 270 5.7L Merc had just under 1000 hours when we sold it and still ran like a champ. Good compression still. Regular maintenance is key. As mentioned the B3 while an excellent example of a counter rotating dual prop does require maintenance sooner, we rebuilt ours at 700 hours to fix a pesky leak and it was great after that.

echandler1971

For the record, the engine hours is the ECM’s counter only. If you’ve done an engine rebuild, those hours can be pretty meaningless. Therefore, keep your paperwork for the rebuild(s) to vouch for high hours in ECM but low hours from a rebuilt engine during resale.