How long will a Yamaha go for?

[MY REHAB]

Gidday Everyone, I am looking at trading my boat in on another one, but the 115 4 sttroke Yamaha that is on it has 2000Hrs on it. Seems like to many hours for me, but does anyone know about how long these motors will go for, and when do they start having troubles. The motor is on the back of a 525 Ally Craft Plate. Thanks, Sean.

[Any_Weather]

Gday addict, sounds like alot of hours hey. Is it on a pro boat or how old is it? Sounds like a fair few hours for a rec fisherman doesn't it??? Is it private or in a yard??? Is it much different to your existing boat or you just chasen the extra horses to push it along?

[ashh]

ignition may have been left on or similar causing hours to clock up but not actual engine runtime hours maybe?

[ozscott]

Mate if its a net boat for example then that 2000 hours might well have been racked up in a year! A net boat run every day (virtually) and provided they are not underpowered and propped right (and most are because thats there living and they usually have it done right) is putting on hot miles in effect. Bit like a cab. A falcadore cab will do close to a mil k's but your mum and dad one will only get to say 250,000 - 300,000 before the engine is clapped out.

A netboat motor with 2000 hours in the one year should, pending the above propping etc, should be good for another 2000 hours on a basic 2 stroke, and I cannot see why a 4 (especially such a good one) wouldnt have so many more hours on it that it wouldnt see the average bloke through for the next 20 years at 50-100 hours a year boating. Having said that you should go off and talk to some yammy techs about it (and post it up in iboats.com in the US and ask Rodbolt the question). Also consider that if you put another 500-1000 hours on it and try to then sell it, it might be problematic for most buyers and therefore for you.

Cheer mate

[finding_time]

Pretty much what ozscott said!! It's years not hrs! I would rather buy a 2 year old motor with 2000 hrs on it rather that a 15 year old motor with 200 hrs on it! Saying that though i would still get it checked out independantly!

[Noelm]

this comes up all the time, you will almost never wear out an outboard (2 stroke or 4 stroke) something else will kill it before it wears out, lack of maintenance, a dud water pump, water in the fuel, or the dreaded rust/corrosion, but it will never wear out (well lets exclude water taxis and the like) at high hours things start to get "sloppy" steering, trim pivots and all that sort of thing, plus the motor starts to get "tired"

[Jarrah Jack]

Have a read of a recent thread on the same subject. http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=166081&highlight=3000+hours It should be an indication...I'd certainly be knocking the price down with those hours, in any case.

[oldboot]

like anything....too many people buy only on hours or Km........you must look at the condition as the primary indicator.

If you are buying from someone who looks after their gear, you would buy there rather than some thaughtless yob who couldn't give a toss but had a much lower hours unit.


examine th unit, interogate the owner......then bargin on the hours.

cheers

[FNQCairns]

Can remember reading years ago about the Yamaha 4st around this hp range, they drop bearings sooner or later, can remember it was considered quite reliable for them to do this and the fix was to replace the bearings at the time branded ford with others, crank or big end forget which.

You don't mention the age but I do hope the boats price represents the age of the engine and/or the god awful cost of fixing even minor powerhead catastrophys in 4 stroke outboards.

[wrxhoon]

Its like a car that's done 200-300,000 kms , if the engine is young , serviced as she should be and not overloaded ( proped right) she should keep going .
I go to N.Z fishing almost every year, last April I went to Tairua with Epic ::
http://www.epicadventures.co.nz/ .

Carl has a Stabi with 150 Yammie she has 4000 hours on the clock, besides routine service he had problems with the dog clutch but I can understand why, he is forever shifting from neutral to reverve to keep you on the fish . he never turns the motor off all day so he will do about 2- 3 hours per day on 4-4600 rpm and 5- 6 hours bellow 2000 . Carls boat is 4 years old now and he is looking at a replacement right now .

Depending on the use of the boat you are looking at you should be checking the boat for cracks or past repairs as well as the engine .

[MY REHAB]

Thanks very much everyone for all the help, top advice and i will take it all on board.