Cap and Roter Replacement Interval?

walleye

My boat is an '08 320 with 5.0s/Bravo 3s. This year will be my second season with the boat and not being sure what kind of maintenance the P.O. did I'm going to go ahead and replace plugs and caps and roters this spring.  I'm curious - how often do you all replace cap and roter?  Regular maintenance item? Same interval as plugs or do you let plugs go longer as long as they look OK? 

raybo3

My boat gets a complete tune up every other Spring. 

frenchship

Hi,
here what I found on eBay for 5.0 mpi cap and rotor all pins contact made of brass.they claim made for marine use. Price is half of mercruiser.

FITS ALL MERCRUISER V8 FLAT VORTEC CAP DISTRIBUTORS 
AND HIGH PERFORMANCE MARINE APPLICATIONS!

HIGH QUALITY MARINE CAP HAS BRASS SCREW HOLE RETAINERS THAT 
WONT BREAK WHEN TIGHTED!  

THESE ARE HIGHEST QUALITY BRASS CAP + ROTOR KITS AVAILABLE!

Also includes new cap + rotor mounting screws

Some of our feedback on these kits - Buy with confidence!
"Parts were exact fit and best price we found!"

"Exact fit and better than the old cap with aluminum terminals. Fast shipping""Received the item as described and fast delivery""As described good seller"

THESE ARE SPECIAL MADE FOR MARINE APPLICATIONS  
ALL BRASS MARINE CONTACTS - BRASS SCREW STUDS SLEEVES TOO!

LATE MODEL V8 ALPHA /BRAVO 350 - MAG 5.0L & MX 6.2L

FOR 2001 AND NEWER - HIGH PERFORMANCE 

Replaces all Mercruiser Cap and Rotor Kits 8M0061335 8M0060495 898253T29

 Distributor Cap & 8M6001106 / 898253T22 Rotor 884790 / 898253013

F1100

pull the cap and look at it, if the contacts are warn, replace, if not leave them

Michael T

I replaced the rotor every year and the cap every second year at about 200 hours use per year. 

rasbury

Is that really a scheduled replacement item? I really have a lot of work to do. Yikes!

Michael T

Imo the time intreval's more of a personal choice based on usage and the subsequent condition at inspection. 

212rowboat

They are a wear item... If you run hotter spark you'll go through them quicker... Otherwise healthy, they wear so slowly you'll hardly notice the loss of performance.  I guess you could get crazy and mearsure the points and the rotor buttons tip, and measure for wear, but your eyes will tell enough... Look for black marks where the juice looked for ground around the tips, and look that the wear of the points is even around the cap... If one is more worn than others look at that plug wire closely to see of its grounding.  

I'm with the gent above me- inspect the parts visually and swap when needed. 

walleye

Thanks all. Good feedback. And I've noted my spelling error: rotor not roter!

Black_Diamond

Corossion is the biggest thing to watch for. Those caps with the brass inserts are nice: if you over tighten you can break the plastic threaded part on the distributor. I posted about this. Break is and you have to replace the whole distributor. That's an $800 part.