Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

[enginesilo]

I'm back in the game shopping for a new boat and will probably have a mercruiser so I had some questions.

Just looking for some input on hours on a mercruiser engine that is maintained.

If a boat is maintained well, how many hours are reasonable for a 5 to 10 year old boat? Considering 300 hours/5 to 10 years = 60 to 30 hours per season.

In my mind, 300 hours sounds like a lot, but I know a lot of people have had theirs running over 1000 without issues IF maintained.

Salt water vs Fresh Water. Some boats i'm looking at are salt, some are fresh. How many hours is a lot on an engine that is used in salt? Some have the risers/manifolds already changed, others have not. Curious how many hours a salt water engine usually needs these changed by? I know ALL about I/O's and leaving them in salt all season is bad, etc, etc. I've done it before, and I am going to do it again so i'm not looking for anyone to motivate me to an outboard and don't want to turn this into a "STAY AWAY FROM SALT" thread . Is 500 hours on a salt engine block a lot, or can it ideally go past that if the risers/manifold is changed? Thinking if I was to get a boat with 200-300 hours on it already, about how much longer should I expect that to keep cranking if it gets regular maintenance?

I realize there are a lot of variables that an go into the hours, salt use, fresh use, flushed, freshwater cooling, maintenance, etc. So feel free to post your experience too.

All feedback welcome.

 

[thumpar]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

I am around 550 hours on my 1983 2.5l and still going strong. everything here is freshwater.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

300 would be fairly low hours depending on age of the boat. 800 hours would be fairly high and would be OK as long as there was good maintenance .

figure 50 hours per year of age is what you are looking for as a rule of thumb. So, a 6 year old boat should be expected to have about 300 hours, which is just broken in . ..

 

[Bulbash]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

over 1000 hrs on 1989 2.3 Ford engine everything perfect

 

[Bulbash]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

I heard before that 500hrs marine = 100,000km automotive

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

I heard before that 500hrs marine = 100,000km automotive

That's less than 63,000 miles. Not really that much. Hours aren't as important how the motor was treated and maintained.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

As with anything else, its all about maintenance. When I got my 08 a couple years ago it only had just over 100 hours on it. Now I have 265 or so, but I have done all maintenance on it. It is still like new. If your are looking at a 10 year old boat, I wouldnt be surprised if it had 1000 hours on it. I guess it all depends on how much people use it and where they live. We boat year round here.

 

[aerobat]

Re: Too many hours? Mercruiser 3.0L or 4.3L

to low hours may even have an adverse effect- e.g a saltwater boat only sitting at the pier may rust to pieces where a regularly used one will not that quickly.