How many hours on 400's?
 

There is no argument that these outboards are changing things. With Mercury being the only one involved, I imagine failures and lifespan remain pretty quiet. Let's face it, more newly built boats are not discussed on forums than are. Are these really the future? Does a 3x or 4x outboard boat really outlive a 525EFI or 700SCI boat? What is going to keep someone else from offering 400's in an exchange or reman offering when these start getting past the warranty years?

Some observations from poker runs is that these are being run as hard or harder than inboards. Are the center consoles running 90% to keep up with the pack or is the pack slowing down?

In for an interesting discussion.

I have 500 plus hours on my 300's with nothing but routine maintenance. Also have 3-4 years of warranty left on them:party-smiley-048:

You do know that the CC's are cruising in the 60/70 mph range and not "maxed" or stressed out. That is a fine speed in that group as most runs will class/group the boats by speed.

I do. I understand that most of them will only run 70-75 so I just assumed that they were running pretty hard most of the time. They are so quiet, I imagine you don't feel so bad about it compared to an inboard that would turn 5600 but were just going to "cruise" at 5k all day.

I know a quad 300 boat that has been running poker runs since new, avg 70 mph on the runs, they also wring it flat out at 75-76 for awhile also. Not a single issue with any parts in the lowers or the engines. A couple of sensors have gone bad but very easy to diagnose and change. I believe they're close to 400hrs now. The performance is amazing and at idle they are as smooth as a sewing machine. It's a different type of boating for sure compared to the I/Os that we love and loathe come repair time. What's interesting are the new performance boats that are being equipped with 300, 350s, and 400s. 100 MPH with the maintenance/convenience of an outboard.

I don't have enough time on my 300's to know what the long term picture will be like. I do love reading through the tech section on OSO, thinking.....I won't be having that problem anymore.

should be some out there by now running the 350's for sure and may be some 400r's with decent ours. mine aren't broke in yet...or broke either :coolcowboy:

IDK Time will tell, Its mechanical, things will break.
Is it really more economical to run 4 400's for how many hrs? (I'm not sure what recommended rebuild/Replace time is on them 500 hrs?)
or if a pair of 860's with a couple year warranty and I think a 500 ish hr rebuild schedule.
Myself... 860 I/O all day long but that depends on water types.
I can see the saltwater vs freshwater discussion coming into play here,

If I was in saltwater I'd say Outboards for sure but being in fresh water most the time. I am not sold on 4 motors is easier and cheaper to maintain than 2.

Funny you should ask.

I was just in the BVI sailing and ran into a guy with a couple of Verado 350's on his CC. He is a commercial operator that seemed to drive pretty spiritedly. I asked him about his engines and they had 1800 hours on them. I specifically asked and these are the original powerheads. 100% salt water of course.

That's pretty impressive.

Dan

I'm willing to be that the 400s go over 1000hrs pretty easily. The lowers on the other hand will need attention more often, especially in environments where they leave and reenter the water often. I know of a few 300 and 350s that are over 2000 hrs.

Since when did offshore boaters care about economy? I understand the benefit of having huge maintenance intervals and good gas mileage, but I'd take a pair of blue motors any day, even if I have to pay more for them. They sound better, they look better, and they're what give offshore boats the 'wow' factor.

......just my two cents.....

We all have differnt two cents is all

Moved to salt water, sold my go fast, shopping CC's. Now I don't expect a CC to have nearly the performance of my old ride, but for the salt environment, I'm all about the ease of maintenance/care that go along with an outboard. Was sick of being overly paranoid about roaching out my intercoolers in salt water.

another thing to consider is 3x or 4x outboards boats if you do happen to have a problem with a engine just trim it up and get back on plane and continue on.i also 2nd ive seen 1800-2500 300 verdos for sale a bunch so unless. i would guess 1000hr would be no issue.

Another consideration is the cockpit space. Eggbeaters on the back open up a lot of seating and storage space.

yep...look at the outerlimits 41! going 105 and all that room. not sure about what's in the cabin to get to 105 either. the new 418 OB skater will be one to look at as well whenever one's built.

It's different boating styles.
For salt water out boards are probably the way to go. Unless you want to go fast, over 100 mph consistently. Outboard 400's are not gonna do that and give the acceleration of a qc4 or blown i/o.
If your looking to haul 7-10 people around I don't care if it's a 41 o/l or whatever brand sport boat or a center console your not gonna run 95 mph with all those people on board. And if you do is it really safe?

Will the outboards break? For sure. Are they more reliable than a i/o? Take the technology in a qc4 motor turn it down to 500 hp and bet they run a long azz time in fresh water also.

Most people are not running 100mph at all.

Those are the top 5% folk. So that stands true for folks like your self and a select few but you certainly are not the norm or the mass of power boaters.

Everyone I meet at the poker runs is running 100+... smiling.

I can see the draw by many people like I said especially salt water.
Honestly the vast majority of performance boats now a days are running 70-85 mph with a stout single i/o or a mildly built Twin engine i/o. There are more and more 100 mph ish boats than you give credit.
To do 70-85 in a cc your going to need 3 or 4 of them and if you got 6+ people in the boat it's still not going to go that fast, especially not safely.
To do that in a sport boat like the o/l 41 with 400's will do those speeds with 6 people but not the same acceleration.
In my mind the jury is still out. I remember when triple mild i/o motors were the hot ticket to go fast not Twin big hp engines. As long as you had good motors and good maintenance it worked ok, but in the end Twin engine boats won out and triple engine boats became undesirable. I just wonder how this craze of 400 outboard triple and quad engine boats will play out.

I can only talk from what I have been on but triple 350 CC'S are poker run hanging with the twin 500 boat at cruise Speeds. Of course the blue motor boat can get up to a top speed above the CC but in the end they cruise the same with less effort by the CC even with the 6-8 people on board


Yes if you have a top dog boat like your self then really there is no match or comparison at all.

I know that I don't want trip or quad anything. Don't care if it is a OB or not.

Nate you have a good point but today's closed cooled 500hp I/O's are reliable to.

I am more interested in seeing some 30-35 V hull NON CC sport boats with twin 400's. Like the cats are doing. It would be interesting to see how those would run.

There's at least 20 flavors of those, if you count CCs :D

Mine would run 70 with 400s propped conservatively. A lighter 30 step hull would be good for 80 or more.

Ok fixed it.

Someone in the islands must have put 400s on a 33 powerplay already.

Not the same, but there is a 33 with a pair of 350sci's. It ran low 80's.

Bubba Thats like a sore dick...Ya cant beat it !!

And I am SURE several of those hours are because he Forgot they were running while Partying lol
Damn things are To quiet.

There probably are a few hours from that like the first time we docked in KW, but I also usually leave one idling while anchored(with the throttle only button engaged so the prop can't spin) as a generator to keep the house battery up. The 300's at idle are .4 gph each. You can't run a generator for that little fuel usage and warranty is unlimited hours(and I don't have a generator).

I do the same

the lower HP I/O's maybe just as reliable as the new 4 stroke outboards. earlier, high HP 2 stroke outboards, are not so reliable. it is not uncommon to have to rebuild Merc's 2.5 EFI 280 and 300 hp outboards after 80-100hrs. the newer merc 400's now come with an unlimited use 3 yr warranty. i imagine the offshore fishing boat rentals will find out. it is not uncommon for those high use applications to run 800-1000 hrs yearly. some replace their outboards at 2500-3000 hrs.

the highest horsepower inboards last only about 20% of their high horsepower outboard counterparts. the merc 1350 will have to be refreshed at around 200 hrs vs the 400 outboard going over 2000 hrs.

at least part of the outboards longevity is due to lower mass and reciprocating weight. big I/O's are 8+ litre vs 2.6 for the merc 400. other reasons include needle bearing cranks and rods and chrome "nickasil" bores.

there are no inherent reasons that i am aware of that would make a 4 stroke outboard more reliable than a 4 stroke I/O of equal outputs.