Why are outboards so unreliable?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

Have a buddy who is a boat mechanic and he says the gas these days is crap. Starts to varnish in 30 days. Most of the motor problems he deals with are fuel related.

I have had a couple of mechanics tell me the same.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Cliffhanger

If cars were this unreliable, nobody would drive them.

They dont seem to be saving you time overall compared to just using oars.


Cars kill thousands of people each year, many of these are innocent pedestrians, just to facilitate an idiotic society based on over consumption, excess, waste and inevitable destruction. No one should be driving them.

The same is true of not only outboards but also inboards: no one should be using them. The world and everyone is worse off if you use one.

[GordMay]

Refineries produce a more expensive fuel blend during the summer to cut down on smog during hot months. Stations nationwide will start selling a less-expensive winter fuel usually by mid September, which on average means that winter gasoline is less expensive than summer gasoline.

Gasoline is composed of many different hydrocarbons. Crude oil enters a refinery, and is processed through various units before being blended into gasoline. A refinery may have a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), an alkylate unit, and a reformer, each of which produces gasoline blending components.
Alkylate gasoline, for example, is valuable because it has a very high octane, and can be used to produce high-octane (and higher value) blends.
Light straight run gasoline is the least processed stream. It is cheap to produce, but it has a low octane.
The person specifying the gasoline blends has to mix all of the components together to meet the product specifications.

More ➥ https://eprinc.org/2009/06/a-primer-....rGbysDIz.dpbs

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Regarding ethanol in gasoline; that is an idiotic, expensive political ploy for the farm vote.

Why do people never mention that putting only 10% ethanol in the fuel cuts harmful emissions by 50%?? This is the real reason for ethanol in the fuel and it makes logical sense to anyone. Has improved thousands of lives in smog ridden cities. With 100% ethanol the emissions cut by 90%. For me, a $20-30 a gallon 100% ethanol fuel should be the only option available to people who want to waste the fuel on something they dont really need to be doing anyway.

The non-ethanol people are a real selfish or ignorant bunch who care nothing about what they cause other people to breath from the dozens of carcinogens emitted.

It has nothing to do with the farm, oil dependence or that they produce slightly more ethanol than fuel consumed to farm it as the land would be much better off growing trees than corn, and this is a huge cost and waste to produce ethanol rather than having more intact forests.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

I always run my 8hp 2 stroke dry after using because i don't use it regularly. My 115 hp outboard on my power boat, i add fuel additive when I put fuel in at the end of the season. Make sure i run it through the engine. Have a buddy who is a boat mechanic and he says the gas these days is crap. Starts to varnish in 30 days. Most of the motor problems he deals with are fuel related.

That's because they have to deal with the engines from folks not using 10% ethanol fuel properly.

Plus lots of mechanics learned from old school guys that resist change.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by seandepagnier

They dont seem to be saving you time overall compared to just using oars.


Cars kill thousands of people each year, many of these are innocent pedestrians, just to facilitate an idiotic society based on over consumption, excess, waste and inevitable destruction. No one should be driving them.

The same is true of not only outboards but also inboards: no one should be using them. The world and everyone is worse off if you use one.

Woah, Sean. Getting just a bit judgmental?

If it wasn't for all those people in this idiotic society driving cars to offices and factories you wouldn't have a boat, bottom paint, computer, autopilot, GPS, solar panels, sails (unless they were cotton or linen).

I do agree that the consumer side of society is way out of hand but living in a modern world with modern conveniences comes at a cost.

Even if you were willing to live on a wooden boat with no bottom paint (look out for teredos), cotton sails and no synthetic or artificial products at all in your live the current population of the planet could not subsist on the trees, agriculture and other natural resources available.

[MicHughV]

the whole purpose of outboards going from 2 stroke to 4 stroke was environmentally driven...
who can't remember clouds of blue smoke emanating from the 2 stroke engines...

the EV is hoping to achieve the same thing...no more car exhausts.....

but big ships...in my humble opinion, will continue to burn tons of diesel fuel..around 30-50 gallons per hour..

and aircraft will continue to burn tons of jet fuel...four engines on a 747 will burn 10 tons of the stuff in an hour...they carry 63,000 gallons of the stuff for a single flight...about the same what 120 cars will burn in a year.....

fuel is here to stay for the foreseeable future..

[garyfdl]

Had a 80's vintage 10 hp Honda for years, did all the routine maintenance and never had a problem with it until I loaned it to a neighbor. The water pump went out while he was using it but he never shut it down - it quit on it's own and was trashed.

Have had an early '76 Johnson 'Sea Horse' 3 hp since 1979. It's finicky, but once I learned it's quirks/settings for starting, it runs great.

[MicHughV]

you want a cantankerous engine....I give you the old British Seagull....

[ArmyDaveNY]

I never buy gasoline with ethanol in it. Having said that, it is fairly easy to remove the ethanol from gas that you may have. Here are a few videos on how to do this and immediately below is a link to an article on how to do it.

https://goldwingdocs.com/forum/viewt...p?f=15&t=14679

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...from+gasoline+

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by garyfdl

Had a 80's vintage 10 hp Honda for years, did all the routine maintenance and never had a problem with it until I loaned it to a neighbor. The water pump went out while he was using it but he never shut it down - it quit on it's own and was trashed.

Have had an early '76 Johnson 'Sea Horse' 3 hp since 1979. It's finicky, but once I learned it's quirks/settings for starting, it runs great.

First he probably didn't know the impeller failed.

Second this Mercury 5 HP 4 stroke I have now that I have mentioned in posts above had the same thing happen while I was running it.

I was coming in my creek and noticed the red oil light on then checked the tell tale water outlet and there was no water coming out. I was trying to get 3 years out of my impeller instead of the recommended 1 year.

Within a minute or so the engine seized up and quit. I rolled out my jib to get out of traffic and made it to a nearby dock and tied on.

The engine was so hot it was smoking and oil was coming out. I tried starting it after a bit but it wouldn't start.

I removed the cover and waited another 1/2 hour while having a beer. Then started it and docked the boat.

Over the next few days I replaced the impeller and the oil. No problems since and this was 6 years or so ago.

This also happened to my first outboard in around 1971. I was 16 and didn't know a lot about impellers yet. The 40 Johnson quit on me the first time out. I figured it might be the water pump/impeller so I would wait for it to cool then started it and would go a little ways until it quit again.

Repeated this until I made it back in.......

Outboards are very tough and can handle being over heated

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

I never buy gasoline with ethanol in it.

That's too bad, it works great!

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by seandepagnier

Why do people never mention that putting only 10% ethanol in the fuel cuts harmful emissions by 50%??

Good point. And most users (vehicles) run through a tank in less than 2 weeks, so long storage isn't an issue there.

But one of the 'promises' with ethanol was that it could be obtained from agricultural waste. Instead it's now a subsidized corn boondoggle.

The non-ethanol people are a real selfish or ignorant bunch who care nothing about what they cause other people to breath from the dozens of carcinogens emitted.

Wellllll... I swear by high-end ethanol-free gas for my few small engines (outboard, lawnmower, generator). It never gives problems and it lasts for months. I also often add a stabilizer and occasionally Seafoam to clean stuff. I haven't had a fuel-related problem or service issue for years.

Is it more polluting? Yes, but since I only use about 20 to 30 liters of ethanol-free gas a year, I believe it's a reasonable trade-off for reliability and longevity of the equipment.

If there was a big enough market, I'm sure there could be a gas specifically formulated for the demands of smaller and marine motors, that lasts longer yet is less-polluting.

[tbodine88]

Originally Posted by Cliffhanger

I have lost count of the outboards I have owed over the years but they all had one thing in common, they were all totally unreliable pieces of s#!t. This weekend for example I anchored near a nice beach so took the dinghy with my near-new Mercury 6hp 4 stroke outboard. Was running fine then suddenly died...anyway, long story short I ended up spending half the day unsuccessfully trying to get the damn thing working properly. It would run for a while and then splutter or just stop. I did all the usual things, drained the carby, drained the tank. Replaced the fuel with fresh. As I left the anchorage there was another guy drifting in his dinghy trying to start the damn thing, so at least it isn't just me.



If cars were this unreliable, nobody would drive them.

Practice carb cleaning.
I have three outboards that need carbs cleaned. Im lazy so theyve been that way for a while.

[garyfdl]

Originally Posted by thomm225

First he probably didn't know the impeller failed.

Outboards are very tough and can handle being over heated

First - when there is no water coming out (and the red light is on) you're supposed to stop.

Second, he never checked/wasn't paying attention. (I checked the sensor/light after-the-fact... it worked.)

The engine is seized, water pump housing (which is plastic) is melted.

Doesn't even make a good boat anchor (too big).

OABTW he never told me he trashed the engine. His wife mentioned to mine at one point that he had to rent an engine the last couple days of the trip, because mine wouldn't work. When I went to do the spring maintenance I found out how bad it was.

Of course he denied any knowledge...