Motor hours - how high is high?

[will101]

Hi all - 1st post!

We are looking at a second hand boat with a pair of 100 Yamaha 4 strokes fitted. The motors come with a full service history but they have already clocked 1200 hours each. This seems a bit high at first glance.

The boat has been used for whale watching, so I assume it has done a lot of low rpm "idling". (regulations state that a 300m radius around any whale is a no-wake zone)

What is the general feeling about the lifespan of 4 strokes and the effect on prolonged low engine speeds? I guess *****ing has the same implication so I cannot think that low rpm use could be bad for an outboard.

Cheers!!

[robert graham]

whale watching equals salt water..that is a minus. I believe that whale watchers are more "tree huggers" than "hell-raisers", so the motors may have been treated pretty darn well. it would also depend on the year of the motors, how well maintained they were/are, how much are you paying for them? might want to have the compression checked on both motors before purchase. depends also on what you're going to do with them. If the price is really low/great deal, then you could afford/justify spending some $$$ doing some in-depth maintenance on them, like new water pumps, new belts, new plugs, checking all pumps, etc., then you probably are going to have a real nice pair of motors at a fraction of their new cost. Good luck!

[will101]

Thanks Robert. It's very tempting - they come fitted to a great boat and the total package is 80% of the price of 2 new motors! I heard from a commercial fisherman that he puts 1000hrs on his outboards in less than one year. He says he will take a newish model with 2000 hours anytime over an older model with 500 hours.