re: 2 stroke outboard regular maintenance

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I had a Mercruiser 130 once (don't ask....took the boat in lieu of payment for work performed which was never going to be paid for in any other manner) and I managed to somehow allow that engine to overheat and crack the cylinder wall in two cylinders. The motor would idle like mad and would run WOT until it started heating up....I fixed that puppy with....wait for it....JB WELD! I worked the cracks down with some emery cloth, appied to the JB Weld with my finger, waited for it to dry and worked it down again with emery cloth....that motor ran for at least 10 years after that and never heated up again. For all I know it may still be running....I sold it to a neighbor a year after fixing it and he had it at least 9 years later when I lost contact with him.

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My dad had an old 40 hp Yamaha that he fixed that way. I believe it was a a late 80s and lasted until 2005 being run regularly in salt water. That motor was tank.

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My dad had an old 40 hp Yamaha that he fixed that way. I believe it was a a late 80s and lasted until 2005 being run regularly in salt water. That motor was tank.

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This is one of the reasons outboards cost so damn much...many people only need one in a lifetime. They are very simple right off the bat which means for nothing more than power they don't have to do much more than run...where a automobile engine has to drive all sorts of shite bolted to it and driven by belts and gears and drives and all of that stuff is constantly pulling at bearings. I have always thought, too, that many people who work in the boating industry were probably boaters themselves and understand not only the frustration with engine problems away from the hill but more importantly the danger....in the same way that airplane designers and engineers tend toward caution. Whatever it is outboards are amazingly durable considering how they are used...most sit idle for long periods of time and then are ran like a scalded dog when they are used and little or no maintenance done on them...even the few "bargain" brands, Chrysler for instance....would last forever unless they simply failed catastrophically.