AS SEEN IN THE SPRING 2003 ISSUE

With the technology of today’s outboards it’s very rare to have a major engine component such as a power head or lower unit fail without some kind of warning. That warning may come weeks, hours, or just minutes before a failure. Learning to recognize some of the symptoms can be the difference in repair costs of a couple hundred dollars or a few thousand. As boat owners we all hate to admit when our engine or engines might not be performing at their best.

There are often situations where slight adjustments or a very minor repair could do the trick and get you back up to speed (no pun intended). When the hopefully rare occasion does arise and we realize that there is some type of problem we should immediately get it checked out. Minor problems left untreated will not go away no matter how much you wish that they would. There is a particular fault that obviously is causing a particular problem and the problem will only get worse or affect other major engine components if the issue is not resolved. On too many occasions boaters will notice a minor problem and choose to ignore it in the hopes of saving some money in repair costs.

Remember that the only thing worse than not having the boat of your dreams, is having the boat of your dreams sitting on a trailer or at the dock broken down! Lets say for example your 1995 200hp Yamaha has pushed out 5500 rpm since new, but lately you notice its only turning 5200. This is an indication of a potential problem. It’s important that you do not write this off as ageing of the motor. Once you have made sure that the bottom of your boat is not fouled and that your prop is in good shape, your loss of rpm could be caused by a variety of different issues.

Simple items such as dirty carburetors, fouled plugs, or corroded electrical terminals can be the cause and will eventually cause major engine failure if gone untreated. With dirty carbs you could be leaning out one or more of the cylinders. Without the proper amounts of fuel and oil in each cylinder it doesn’t take long before excess heat will cause scoring of the cylinder walls which will eventually lead to piston failure. Piston failure is an extremely expensive repair job.

Fouled spark plugs do not burn off fuel and oil and therefore make the motor very dirty and prone to carbon build up. Again gone untreated this will eventually cause major engine failure. With loose or corroded electrical terminals, detonation can occur causing the spark plug to spark out of sequence at the wrong time, inevitably causing power head failure.

Maybe you have a 97’ 225hp Evinrude and when you put in into forward gear it makes a different noise than usual. Or at a low RPM the motor skips out of gear. These are signs of clutch wear. This type of repair if caught in the early stages can be done for a few hundred dollars but if left untreated it could easily turn into a few thousand dollar job.

Regardless of how minor a problem may initially appear to be, you should always have it checked out. Do not continue to run the motor in the hopes of the problem dissipating or simply going away — It’s not going to happen. Keeping in mind that 9 out of every 10 major engine rebuilds could have been avoided by some minor repair in the first stages of the problem. When you do notice a small problem take the warning as a blessing and be thankful that you still have an opportunity to have the problem resolved affordably.

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