most common problems faced with outboards 3-50 hp?

[restornator]

negligence, ignorance......

people that know nothing about motors abusing them.

[Stumble]

The most common problem I have seen is not realizing the engine is out of gass... I watched my neighbor spend an hour changing plugs, cleaning the carb, trying all sorts of crap to get his engine running when he asked for some advise, I just opened up the fuel cap, filled it up, and it started the first pull.

Sadly this is much more common than people think.

[Easy Rider]

Typhoon,
I agree w everything except loosing the oil film by running the engine out of fuel. I think the oil film is much more durable than that. The fuel evaporates extremely rapidly but pour some oil on a piece of metal and see how fast it dosn't evaporate. I always run carborated engines dry. I like my E-tech. Go through a simple starting drill and it foggs itself automatically. On my Suzuki 4cyl I go through a lot of trouble doing the fogging stunt. The worst thing about outboards is flushing. If one uses their boat often flushing gets old.
Easy Rider

[spare parts]

nearly yearly replacement of water pumps

[CDK]

There is one other common problem with outboards that hasn't been mentioned yet:

If they are well maintained and good looking, they tend to suddenly disappear and never come back. Especially if they are 4 stroke under 20 hp.

As Typhoon said - USE IT! The absolute worst enemy of any size 2 stroke is non use. And it's also the most common problem seen. Varnish from old fuel and stuck rings, the varnish keeps it from starting and the stuck rings tear up cylinder walls before it gets to operating temps. If you can't get out on the water, just start in on the hose once a month and it'll run forever.

[Submarine Tom]

The initial cost, the noise, the pollution and the theft factor.

But ozzmat2, why do you ask?

-Tom

[Easy Rider]

As CDK says ...run'em dry. This evades most fuel related problems. There are other fuel problems like fuel fittings, primer "bulbs" and pulse fuel pumps but I have run into an outboard problem that renders the OB quite useless for boats kept in the water (sea water). Here in Alaska most people run OBs from a community float like most people run inboard boats or cars. I wanted to keep a skiff ready to go on the bay at any time ...like a car in the driveway. For some time I've been focused with getting antifouling paint on the bottom of my skiff so I can leave it in the water ready to go. Well ... the skiff is now w AF paint and ready to sit in the water ready to go but I like to flush my OBs after use and didn't think much about sea water in the powerhead till the skiff had been in the water for a week. I can't stand it for more than a week ...to leave the OB with sea water in it. I've talked w many here about it and it seems that the OB used on a boat that remains in the water lasts about 4 years. That's about $20. a day salt depreciation. Too high a price I think to pay. I have a 40hp E-Tec and a 60hp Suzuki 4 stroke that both have flushing ports on the housing below the powerhead where one can connect a hose, turn it on and flush the powerhead. I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work in the water just like otherwise but it would require a hose and fresh water source. Most of the skiff floats don't have the water source. Could one tap into the top of the powerhead water jacket with a pipe nipple or similar to use a funnel and a gallon jug of water to pour fresh water down through the powerhead and flush out most of the salt? Comments? Or preferably a better idea?

Easy Rider

[srimes]

I dunno, but it doesn't seem like a gallon just poured in the top would be enough of a flushing. I'd want to run it while flushing.

Is there a place you can get easily get fresh water to the boat? You could fill a tank with fresh water and use a pump and hose to flush the motor at the dock. I don't know how much water it would take but it may not be too bad. At $20 a day the system would pay for itself pretty quickly.

Too bad they don't have outboards with closed loop cooling.

[Landlubber]

jonr,

Why do you only ride ya bike one day a year.......

The more we use our engines, bike of boat, the better they are, look after it and it will look after you.

Engines will not fail you if you do not fail them.

[Easy Rider]

Iv'ed decided to get a hose and screw it into the receptacle high on the lower unit/tower housing. Flush the powerhead w the engine tilt in the down position.
Then maybe I'll get a syphon pump and pump the bilge too. I'd prolly get yelled at for wasting water.

Easy