Avg, Hours on Used Boats

My family is in the market for a used boat and I was wondering about what time does a boat (or engine) begin to have problems? I know there are many exceptions, but when in the life (hours) do you start see a lot of red flags.

It totally depends on who had the boat and how they treated the engine... I have a ford 302 and it has about 1500 hours on it.... the only thing i have to do is change the oil about evey 50 to 100 hours, and at one point i had to have the carb worked on. Besides that, i would put her up against any newer boat any time. One other thing that i have found... if i use the boat often, she will not break down.... if i try to use her once in a blue moon, prepare your self for trouble!!!

4000 to 5000 hours

Average hrs,I have been told, somewhere around 50 hrs per year is normal. I average about 150 to 175 per year. I have had over 3000 hrs on engines without major trouble. The patrol boats at the lake I use run over 2500 hrs on a regular basis (but much of that is at idle). If you are looking at an IO though the out-drives don't last as long, at least in my experience. On a used boat I prefer something with under 1000 hrs and if possible under 500, but it depends on the boat and how well it was taken care of. If the owner has all the service records that would certainly make a big difference.

I'd put my money on a well kept 1500 hr boat rather than a tatty 500 hr one.
With regualr oil changes 1500 hours is a walk in the park for most engines.

I average 150 hours a year and thats an awful lot considering the season in the UK is only 5 months long!

How the hours are put on is much more important than how many hours.

If you took an engine, started it up and ran it at around 80% load and only shut it off to change the oil that engine could last a hundred thousand hours.

At the other extream, take an engine, start it up once every two months during the summer and then beat the hell out of it for a few hours and that engine could be toast after 100 hours.

There are a few parts of an engine that experience wear, and will enventually fail or start to cause problems. Exhaust manifolds seem to last about 500 hours. Of course, V belts, water pumps, starters, alternators, fuel pumps, etc. all have limited life and you just have to anticipate changing them.

There are parts of the engine that degrade over time, especially oil seals and other rubber parts. These are going to last years. If anything, frequent use will help them out, but for the most part a ten year old engine is going to leak some oil no matter how many hours of use it has.

There is some amount of degredation due to sitting, and the longer it sits in one stretch the worse it can be. The cylinder walls can form a layer of rust when the engine is just sitting. This rust can cause pitting of the cylinder walls, which will eventually lead to early ring failure and can cause excessive amount of "blow by" and oil consumption. An engine that is run every day will not have this problem. An engine that sits all winter will.

A boat that has 75 to 150 hours a year on it and has been treated well could easily be in better shape than a boat that has only 20 hours of use per year on it.

I would recommend avoiding the extreams. In fact, I wish that I had followed my own advice. I just bought a houseboat with twin outboards. The motors were only two years old and had only 16 hours on them. Well, after 9 more hours I have the boat in the repair yard and am waiting on having the carburetors on both motors replaced. Seems that the gas sitting in the carbs for so long managed to destroy them.

Rod McInnis

I would agree with everything Rod says execpt that if the boat is winterized every year then it shold be fine. The oil that you use lubs everything up for the winter. They should also spray some in the cylinders when they winterize. If they don't winterize I would stay far away from the boat. If it sits for 30 days or more it should be winterized even if it's in the summer.

When in doubt always spend the money to have a mechanic check it out before buying. A simple compression test can tell you a lot about the condition of the internals.