Outboard Motors

Discussion in 'Powerboats' started by WickedGood, Sep 25, 2010.

  1. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
    Posts: 5,857
    Likes: 400, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 2489
    Location: Control Group

    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Where there is too much government, there is too little freedom.
     
  2. dskira

    dskira Previous Member

    Wait, it is just the beginning.
    The things to come will make regulations broader.
    Sad state of affair.
    Daniel
     
  3. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
    Posts: 5,857
    Likes: 400, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 2489
    Location: Control Group

    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    It rolls over us like fresh asphalt on an insect.
     
  4. Willallison
    Joined: Oct 2001
    Posts: 3,590
    Likes: 130, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 2369
    Location: Australia

    Willallison Senior Member

    I'm always somewhat bemused by the romantic yearning for a return to all mechanical things past. Yes, they were relatively simple, and (if you happen to have the correct spare parts) you could often repair them yourself.
    Just as well too - coz the bloody things had a habit of stopping just when it was least convenient. They were (in the main) unreliable, heavy, inefficient, noisy, polluting... so the list goes on. Indeed they were everything that the modern engine is not.
    I say good riddance to the lot of 'em!:eek:
     
  5. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
    Posts: 19,126
    Likes: 498, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 3967
    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I've had this debate a thousand times Will. "The good old days" actually sucked, but we don't remember that nearly as much as what we want or miss.

    Lets use the car analogy. A modern car's engine can't been seen with the hood open. This is true and intentional, as they really don't want your fooling around in there Skippy. There's all sorts of mini computers and electrical devices, it's all unnecessary. What about the "good old days" when you had 5 or 6 wires on the engine not counting high tension leads. You could pull out an air filter with the spinning of a wing nut and you could see the valve covers. Yes, yes, yes, all true, but you could see the valve covers because they were the oil stained thing above the spark plugs, that you had to change out every 10,000 miles. Lets not forget that big 'ol honking carburetor that sucked air through all sorts of orifices, leaked, back fired and singed your eye brows as you primed it from a gas can, when you ran it out of fuel.

    Yep, the good old days, where metal dashboards insured you have an especially short life span if you kissed it at 40 MPH. Yea, the days of no anti lock brakes so you could slide helplessly into the back of a school bus full of handicapped kids in a panic stop. And who'd miss those pesky air bags or crumple zones or On Star to call your mama and tell you screwed up in her Chevy.

    How about the more important stuff, like no tune ups for 100,000 miles. No flat tires for the full tread life of 50,000 miles, a reliable to a fault drive train that still has it's original exhaust system when they crush the thing 20 years later.

    Yea, I sure miss the good old days, when there wasn't Miranda rights and the cops just beat a confession out of you. The good old days when a corporation could dump it's toxic waste into what every body of water, abandoned land or container they liked. The better times when there wasn't a Clean Air Act, or a Civil Rights Act, or a Freedom of Information Act, yea the good old days when there wasn't the burden of this omnipresent modern era and it's radical ideas of fairness and self righteousness.
     
    1 person likes this.
  6. srimes
    Joined: Sep 2008
    Posts: 283
    Likes: 30, Points: 28, Legacy Rep: 214
    Location: Oregon

    srimes Senior Member

    Well put. But I do miss the metal dash! Should be safe enough with airbags...
     
  7. Easy Rider
    Joined: Oct 2009
    Posts: 920
    Likes: 46, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 732
    Location: NW Washington State USA

    Easy Rider Senior Member

    Many things I hate about my modern OBs. Weight. A 1960 Johnson
    40 weighs almost half of what my 40 E-tech weighs and my 60 Suzuki weighs over 350 lbs. They run wonderfully well still (after several years) but what am I going to do when they don't run well. Ther'e VERY complicated. AND ther'e very expensive. For a small boat (under 50 hp) I'd rather have an 60s or 70s engine if I could get one new. My old 55 hp 3 cyl Johnson was the best engine I ever had.
     
  8. wardd
    Joined: Apr 2009
    Posts: 897
    Likes: 37, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 442
    Location: usa

    wardd Senior Member

    they don't make stuff like they used too

    of course the trash they used to make has long sense been thrown away and only the best remains
     
  9. tom28571
    Joined: Dec 2001
    Posts: 2,474
    Likes: 117, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 1728
    Location: Oriental, NC

    tom28571 Senior Member

    I don't have anything to add to what has already been said about the good old days other than agreement. After my Navy term I worked as a grease monkey in a typical garage in 1953. I should have said grease and dirt because that is what I brought home with me every day. Major overhaul on most car engines at 60K miles before they added filters and HD oil in that year. My vote for the dirtiest of the lot is the old Chevy six. Of course the thing would still run with valves that looked like 20 penny nails hit by an 8 pound sledge.

    Still, the survivability of some of the old engines was amazing if the owners used a little care.
     
  10. MatthewDS
    Joined: Mar 2010
    Posts: 104
    Likes: 3, Points: 18, Legacy Rep: 48
    Location: Juneau, Alaska

    MatthewDS Senior Member

    There is freedom, and then there is freedom!

    What is more valid, your right to pollute, or my right to breath clean air?

    The regulations we have today were created out of necessity after corporate interests failed to protect the public from harm.
     
  11. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
    Posts: 19,126
    Likes: 498, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 3967
    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    I miss the lighter weight 2 strokes too, but not the mess, maintenance, smell and noise. I have two sequentially numbered 1961 40 HP Larks. When they run, they run fine, but they are often temperamental, especially the starboard engine. They also can be difficult to start. None of my 4 strokes have displayed any of these issues.

    I used to live in LA, back in the 70's and there was a saying about not being able to see above the 13th floor. You understood this when coming out of the mountains and seeing the skyscrapers in down town, with their ring of pollution at, you guessed it, the 13th floor. This ring is gone now, no small part by the EPA and state held restrictions implemented 40 years ago. Look if we left it up the the "markets" to decide, as some would have us do, they'd be still pouring every imaginable poison into the air, ground water, our food, our products, etc.
     
  12. goodwilltoall
    Joined: Jul 2010
    Posts: 844
    Likes: 26, Points: 28, Legacy Rep: 31
    Location: nation of Ohio

    goodwilltoall Senior Member

    Matthew,

    Government comes in with regulations when some dont respect the right of others. So your right to clean air is more important than somebodys right to pollute. Thats true with everything, if people would be more respectful of others (love thy neighbor as thy self) there would be no need for regulations.
     
  13. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
    Posts: 19,126
    Likes: 498, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 3967
    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    Yea, this has been the conservative business model for generations . . .

    People and business do what they can get away with. I would be nice if they were more respectful, but historically and in actually, it's not true.
     
  14. Landlubber
    Joined: Jun 2007
    Posts: 2,640
    Likes: 125, Points: 0, Legacy Rep: 1802
    Location: Brisbane

    Landlubber Senior Member

    ...well actually fellas, the idea that your USA is now clean may be right, but it is because manufacturing has been removed to Asia, where the polution has followed (and increased as consumerism rules...don't repair it, throw it away and get a new one)....so in actual fact, you have only sent the problem somewhere else.....

    ...go work in China for a few years to see what the western world has created....
     

  15. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Yeah, but what's troubling about the regulations is how they apply to the OP.

    There should be a sort of grace period for someone who is developing a product to go ahead and sell some, so they can then afford the EPA certification.

    Without a grace period or access to large amounts of capital, WickedGood's idea is dead in the water... and the true result of the regulations?

    They keep the major manufacturers in business, while keeping an innovator out of business. This is one of the many things that is terribly wrong with our country. These "regulations" were drafted in a way that doesn't allow innovation or competition in the market.

    This is how the divide between the rich and poor is sustained systematically in the USA. If WickedGood was rich, he'd ask family and friends for some "EPA Certification Money" and just go for it. If he is not, he can't even open up shop. And we wonder why the rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. It's built into the damn laws.
     
    1 person likes this.
Loading...
Forum posts represent the experience, opinion, and view of individual users. Boat Design Net does not necessarily endorse nor share the view of each individual post.
When making potentially dangerous or financial decisions, always employ and consult appropriate professionals. Your circumstances or experience may be different.