Marine Gas Engines, Life Expectancy

Discussion in 'Gas Engines' started by brian eiland, Dec 22, 2013.

  1. jonr
    Joined: Sep 2008
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    jonr Senior Member

    I don't know how representative this is, but for this engine, wear is not well correlated to output or rpm and full load (at any rpm) and/or operation at 3700 rpm should be avoided.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. missinginaction
    Joined: Aug 2007
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    Location: New York

    missinginaction Senior Member

    I'd agree that maintenance is key. Age not so much. For 24 years I owned a 18' Glastron. This 78 model was equipped with a 3.8 Mercruiser Model 470. This was a huge 4 cylinder that was widely panned in the boating press but I loved it. She pulled like a tractor. I was 21 when I bought the boat lightly used. We ran the hell out of that boat skiing for many years and logged over 1200 hours before the Hobbs meter gave up. I used top quality conventional oils and switched over to synthetics when they came out. That boat ran like a top when I gave it away back in 2007. The steering had a lot of slop in it, tiller worn and the wood was showing it's age but that little engine was fine.

    The old Silverton I'm finishing up (if it ever gets above freezing up here:rolleyes:) is 40 years old. There were two owners before me, the original owner was a stickler for maintenence, kept logs, the whole 9 yards. The second owner had the boat for a couple of years and while he was mechanically clueless he did know enough to follow the advise of more knowledgeable owners. Anyway we pulled the valve covers to see how bad the heads were and found them squeaky clean. I was amazed that after all the years the oil return passages on that old 302 Ford (typically an easy to see warning of poor maintenance) were immaculate. Longevity greatly depends on who's taking care of the engine.

    I'd expect quite a few more good years out of that engine.
     

  3. powerabout
    Joined: Nov 2007
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    Location: Melbourne/Singapore/Italy

    powerabout Senior Member

    when you take a valve cover off an old marine engine they always look clean as they have not had a diet of dust from the road
     
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