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How LONG Will An Outboard LAST???
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Aug 16, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
This right here is an Evanrude 9.5 sport win from 1968
0:06
And you might be wondering how an engine like this has lasted this long as well as how long an
0:12
outboard should really last. I have heard stories of outboards that have 16,000 and into the 20,000 hours on them
0:27
Mind you, the two instances of this are the outboards. outboards that are on the Coast Guard boats where these engines are running 20 hours a day for different shifts and even sometimes longer than that depending on the days as well as the engines that are used on some of the boats at places like Disney World and parks where the engines are running again upwards of 16 hours a day every single day
0:49
clearly these are the most extreme cases and as a recreational boater you will never see this kind of time and use out of an outboard but it does make you wonder how some outboards can last
0:59
thousands and thousands of hours and others don't even see a couple thousand hours
1:04
Or why some engines will last 40 years and others don't make it past five
1:09
Don't worry, we aren't just going to tell you that you need to service your engine and it will last forever
1:14
which is the typical answer that you'll find when looking around for ways to make your outboard last longer
1:20
No, we have a playlist that goes through everything that you need to know when it comes to the service
1:25
and money-saving tips on the maintenance side of things, because service clearly
1:29
plays a huge part in the lifespan of any boat engine, but that's not our main focus today
1:35
Instead, let's go over what exactly makes an outboard or a boat engine fail, and let's break
1:40
this down into two separate classifications. One is the actual amount of time the engine is running, and two, the physical age of the engine
1:50
Most of you that have had some experience with a boat have heard that the worst thing for a boat
1:55
is for it to just sit, which is such a true statement that it's not even funny
1:59
but why that is might not be so obvious. An engine, and pretty much everything else that is on the boat
2:06
are forced to live in much harsher conditions than say things that you have inside your house
2:13
The wet environment, the sun damage, and the toll of the heat
2:16
will wear down all kinds of materials way quicker than normal than when something is, say, sitting in the air conditioning out of the sun
2:24
This is kind of a contradiction, though. It isn't just the weather and the outside elements that are in issue
2:29
And a great example of how sometimes the weather isn as harmful in certain conditions as it is in others is going to be to take this boat here for an example which this is probably a mid Chris Craft Scorpion 230 that probably hasn seen the water in maybe 10 15 or maybe even 20 years
2:49
Plus, it's been sitting outside in the middle of the woods for who knows how long
2:53
But when you look at the inside of this thing, look at all the cushions and the rest of the interior, it really doesn't look as bad as you would expect it to
3:01
compared to something like this that has been sitting out in direct sunlight for only about 10 years
3:07
which is in a way worse condition. And this comparison just shows how the location plays a much larger part in the damage done by the weather than just the weather itself
3:17
This is why you can find boats from northern locations that are used primarily in freshwater
3:23
and an outboard in these regions will last for up to if not over double the amount of time as one that spends its life
3:30
closer to the equator and in warm salt water. In saying that though, that is when we're talking about the amount of physical time the thing will last
3:38
Not necessarily the number of hours you will get out of it. But you've got to remember that in a northern colder region
3:45
you might only be looking at a boating season of four to six months out of the year
3:49
where half the year the boat is put into winter storage and you don't have the ability to use it and put time on it
3:56
Also, boating on, say, a lake or a river is completely different
4:00
from using the boat in a massive lake or the ocean, where you are running the engine for hours on in
4:05
compared to leaving the boat ramp and just heading over to a spot
4:09
that's only a couple of miles away, then turning the engine off. So when it comes to the amount of time
4:15
that gets put on the engine, it's way less taxing in these types of regions
4:19
When you only get four to six months out of the year to use the boat and you only go a few miles a trip
4:24
Your average recreational boater in this type of use is really only going to put, say, 50 to maybe
4:30
200 hours on the boat for the entire year. In comparison to someone that gets to use the boat at any
4:36
point in time that they want to throughout the year. Plus, they're making way farther trips than just a
4:42
couple of miles. This type of use is going to be putting the amount of time on the engine closer to
4:46
six or maybe say eight hours a trip on it sometimes. And when you do this, say, two days out of the
4:52
week, you'll end up putting closer to say 500 to 800 to 800 hours on the boat for the entire year
4:57
which is way more taxing than only 100 or 60s. couple hundred hours for the year, which might be on the upper end of the spectrum because
5:04
most of us don't have the time or the gas to rack up that many hours in a year
5:10
Your average year boater is probably closer to say 300 to 500 hours a year But let go back to this weather topic again real quick Knowing the difference in the amount of water time the boat and engine sees it also because of this that when the boat is
5:25
farther away from the equator and sees less water time, that it's usually put away for the
5:31
time that it isn't being used. And most people will cover the boat, whether they have a cover or they
5:36
shrink wrap it, or even keep it in a barn or some other type of storage for the winter season
5:41
This helps preserve the boat from the harshness that the boats closer to the equator don't get
5:47
They basically spend every single day, all day, regardless if they are getting used or not
5:54
out in these conditions where the sun is just beating down on the paint, the hoses, the canvas, the upholstery
6:01
and everything else that is in the boat. We have a video that talks about this, but one of the reasons that you leave the engine trimmed down when it is stored
6:08
is to protect the rubber trim seals from the sun. The rubber components from the heat are just drying out and cracking
6:15
Basically, the sun will cut the lifespan of a rubber component by like 75% of its expected life
6:22
This is another issue that you have to deal with here, where components in say the boat and engine's fuel system are getting dry-rodded and failing
6:31
This happens from the boat just sitting. Where in a cooler, less harsh environment, you won't see this as quick, so sitting isn't as catastrophic as it is in the all-year-round hot
6:41
sunlight. When you let the boat sit, it happens even quicker. Which brings us back to why letting a
6:47
boat sit is so detrimental, because when you run the boat, say three or even two times a week
6:53
this gets all the fluids moving around. The engine oil, the fuel and all the fuel system, the
6:59
gear loop in the gear case, and pretty much just all the moving parts that make up an engine
7:04
this keeps these items lubed, wet, and moving. It helps to prevent rust and dry bearings and
7:09
stuff like that, which in turn extends the lifespan of the component. That's why things always
7:15
fall apart the first couple of times you use a boat after it has been sitting. These items all
7:20
start to free up and get moving again, which allows them all to mess up if they are going to
7:25
So even if you just run your engine for say one hour three times a week, you'll be adding three
7:30
hours a week, but the moving components are usually actually going to last a lot longer
7:35
It's also a pretty great testament to why you want to winterize or summarize you
7:39
your engine if you plan on letting it sit. You can learn all about that in this video here though
7:45
Now when we consider the shorter season, the lower hours, and the more gentle climate of the
7:49
cooler freshwater boating that an engine can endure you can usually expect to see almost double the age of the engine compared to an engine primarily used in a hot saltwater environment If we want to actually put a number on the date though it been my experience that you can
8:06
genuinely expect to see around 20 to 25 years out of an outboard used in these harsher conditions
8:13
Before all of these wearing out components start to really cause you all kinds of continuous
8:17
problems that seem to be never-ending, kind of like what you used to see when the outboard was
8:22
becoming popular and was considered way less reliable than your normal I.O. was. And so we'll
8:28
see anywhere from 30 to 40 years into less harsh conditions. But that's just a general age and we
8:35
haven't talked about use and abuse yet either. So when it comes to the topic of use, this is where
8:40
we'll get into talking about how many hours we can expect from an outboard. Remember, when we're
8:45
talking about how keeping the engine running will make it last longer, because you're keeping
8:49
all of the moving components moving, this is why you will see the highest number of hours
8:54
in a commercial engine compared to the recreational world. A couple of examples of this are many of the commercial trappers that run around for
9:03
hours on end all day, every day during the season. These guys are truly usually putting anywhere from 600 up to 1,000 hours a year on their
9:12
engines, during only a few months season out of the year. These hours are lighter hours, though, mainly a lot of low idle time, idling our
9:19
around pulling traps and putting them back out again. They will usually get an engine to last anywhere from about eight to up around 15 years
9:28
and will usually cash them in at around 6,500, 7,500, or even 8,000 hours on the engine
9:35
Then you've got extreme use kinds of commercial guys, which are more of your sport fishing
9:39
and offshore guys that run the engines a lot harder, traveling a lot more distance at wide
9:44
open than the trappers, and these engines will usually see around 4,000 to 6,000 hours on
9:49
the engines before you start to have all kinds of issues or the engines just tap out completely
9:55
Now they're able to rack up those hours like that because they are running them five
10:00
six or seven days a week for eight to 12 hours a day at some times of the year
10:04
And that's a ton of hours really quickly. But for you and I as a recreational boater, what we generally see out of a normal use engine
10:12
is somewhere in the three to four thousand hour mark before the engine starts to have all kinds
10:18
of issues. Yes, you can get more out of them like the commercial guys, but you'll be doing a lot more maintenance and changing out quite a few parts along the way
10:26
Things like alternators, starters, relays, tensioners, props, and sometimes gear cases. And those kinds of components that will begin to fail because they have just put out all of the use that they have
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