Older motors that keep on going, do you have one?

[Muzza]

G'day,

Firstly , I am not sure what makes a motor "old" but I guess 15 years is a good run.
I have a 2000 15hp merc that runs great and is very reliable to this day.
Anyone else with motors on the back of their boats that keep on going and are over the 15 year old mark or more?
I'm guessing the smaller models are the ones people tend to hang on to, interested if there are many larger hp ones out there in great nic.

Cheers
Muz

[ranmar850]

Plenty of early 90's motors (and older)still out there going strong. I traded a pair of late nineties 60hp mercs that came on my current boat, they tested perfectly and gave a very good changeover price on a s/h F115. Cost me bugger-all to do. If they have had a reasonable amount of care taken with them, not neglected, and your luck is in, no reason why it won't go reliably for years to come. Previous boat had a 2002 yam 90 , owned it for five years, worked hard, had to replace the CDI unit, when it started losing spark just off idle--ran perfectly at idle and all other revs. And the flywheel, when teeth missing in three places ( 3 cylinder motor) caused the CDI to misread RPM and apply the limiter at 3700rpm.
But it still had excellent compression and always got me home. Tach was showing only 525 hrs, but I suspect it had a lot more than that. And I also own a 15hp mariner that would be from around 1990, still runs great.

[Crunchy]

I don't have it now but many moons ago I inherited my Grandfathers Seagull, was a bugger to start but it still went after 40 odd years, not sure what happened to it.

[Fed]

I bought a 1988 90HP Evinrude in 2007, so that makes it 28 years old and it seems very reliable.

When I got it I checked the pee stream to make sure the water pump worked, OK.
Tested the VRO & Temp alarms, OK.
Checked the T&T and gear case oil levels, OK.
Replaced the trim ram oil seals due to a very slight leak.
Replaced the water deflectors due to temp alarm at high speeds.
Replaced the air silencer gasket due to slight weeping.

If I knew a good mechanic I'd put it in for a full service but it looks like Garry (SK) isn't moving to Sydney any time soon.

[alleycat]

I have a 2006 Yamaha 30hp cv, its been serviced just twice with plugs changed once, it goes just like it did when new and still looks like new under cowling , this motor would have done 500 hours easy ..real work horse..

[bluefin59]

My 2003 model 2 stroke mariner has done 923 hrs and still as reiable and has great even compression in all 3 cylinders ,I expect I will get another 900 out of it to be honest as I run quicksilver 2 stroke oil only in it and have it serviced every 18 months now ... Matt

[FisHard]

My 2015 Suzi 140 is still going great with nearly 100 hours on it! Incredible.

[BigE]

1984 2 pot merc runs like a hairy dog but never stalls and always starts 2nd pull every time. Don't know how many hours but it wore out a set of throttle cables last year.
BigE

[tunaticer]

1995 evinrude 25hp.......the powerpack died three weeks ago......apart from that it has had two sets of spark plugs and kept them clean with many thousands of hours of running.....can't complain about that run to it's first issue.

[Darren Mc]

My father in law has a 1983 blue band 18hp merc that's still goes. It is in need of a service though.

[joffo81]

My father has a 60Hp 2 smoke mariner which he bought new in about 1980. Every time we take the river boat out we can't believe how well it runs! We talk about replacing it but while ever it is running sweetly we can't bring ourselves to let it go!