Timing Belt

[Eagle180]

I have a 2007 F115 and the engine has 190 hours and will have been in service 5 years March 2013. According to the maintenance schedule, the timing belt should be replaced every 1000 hrs. or 5 years whichever comes first. I understand these are interference motors and I do not want to compromise on the maintenance of my outboard. However, if you look at the timing belt, there are no cracks, hairs, splits, etc., etc. I think if you took it off and placed it next to a brand new timing belt, I think it would be very difficult to tell the difference between the two!

I've found similar posts regarding same type of question and some people say if the timing belt looks good and has no signs of wear, you could take the engine to 500 hours and then change it out.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[CatCam]

I inspect mine every 100 hours - I have almost 500 hours on my 2004 F90 and the belt still looks perfect without any cracks or any signs of wear.

I'm around a bunch of other Four Stroke owners and have never heard of a timing belt failure.....even the commercial crabber that has the old 1999 100Hp four stroke has the original timing belt on his and I'm sure he's got well over a thousand hours on that old thing.......

[rodbolt17]

not gonna say yea or nay.
however I have several commercial engines with over 4000 hours on the belt.