![]() ![]() The advent of direct-injected two-stroke Mercury Optimax and Evinrude Ficht outboards, which had powerful computer controls, made it possible to collect much more information. On-board diagnostics have been on outboards since the first Mercury EFI two-strokes, although the amount of data those motors collected was minimal. And if you are negotiating to buy the motor from a dealer, he should be glad to give you a diagnostic report for no charge. A dealer might charge you for 30 minutes of labor to run a diagnostic scan, a much-more affordable option. At least one manufacturer will sell its diagnostic software to anyone - it's listed as a part number by Suzuki with a price of $715. An authorized dealer for that brand of outboard will have the required computer software and the cable to plug the shop's laptop into the motor. An outboard's computer memory is accessed through the diagnostic port. If you are in the market for a pre-owned motor, you should take a good look at that information. "The operating hours is just scratching the surface." What I learned, after talking with service experts of each of the major outboard manufacturers, is that late-model outboards are holding a virtual log book of every minute they've been on the water. "You would be surprised what you can learn about an outboard by looking into its memory," said Von Plato. I told Claude that I was surprised that the outboard's ECU would organize the hours of use report so neatly. ![]() Of course, I immediately called a real outboard expert, Claude Von Plato, manager of the Yamaha Marine Service Division. Which is why Todd called me, the Outboard Expert. The most curious thing about the usage pattern was that this motor had never been operated over 5000 rpm. Not only did this reveal that the motor had seen about 100 hours of use, but it broke down that history in 1000-rpm increments. ![]() The dealer offered to show him the usual documentation on the boat, including the hours of use seen by the Yamaha F150 outboard on the transom. A few months ago my brother-in-law, Todd, was shopping for a used boat when a sweet little Grady White Adventure 208 caught his eye. The run time record of this almost-new Mercury Optimax outboard shows 2.7 hours of total time, and then breaks the time down in 1000-rpm increments. ![]()
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January 2023
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