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Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus (Post 4907432)

I bet the margins on the QCV4 engines, parts and service are very good. There should be plenty of room for lower priced engines if Mercury so desires. However, competing with off-brand engine builders is not where Mercury wants to go.

They do not desire for a lower priced engine.

I saw some people asking about longevity and what goes on with QC4V motors, and thought I’d shed some light. I am in no way a pro, but I too found lots of misinformation and lack of information before I bought an 1100 boat.

In the real world, if you take care of your equipment, people are regularly getting 400-450+ out of maintained 1100s. The ones that die an early death tend to be exclusively over heat and bad fuel related.

I’m told due to timing chain noise, Mercury built these motors with no knock sensor. A tank of bad fuel and you’ve got a problem.

Another issue that plagues these motors is cracking turbine housings. This is akin to a cracked CMI header on an N/A motor. There are some things you can do in ownership to extend the life of these, and obviously replacing these when they fail is key.

The factors that tend to lead these to rebuild are two main ones in my opinion. Oil consumption and valve lash. Rings can wear to a point that oil consumption is no longer reasonable. The second comes when valves have “tuliped” to a point where proper valve lash can no longer be achieved.

These motors were intimidating first… but once you’re around them they’re the closest thing to an outboard turned sideways you’ll ever find. I would never own another big power boat without QC4Vs

Not that I am even close to being in the market but I think the issue most have is Mercury is the only source for parts for the motors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jpzaluski (Post 4907464)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus (Post 4907431)

Don't know, but I am quite sure I saw 300 hours in a table somewhere.

It does generate recurring revenue for Mercury. From an investor perspective, that is a good thing.

Yeah but they might have sold more if they said they ran 500,600, 1k hours?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hogie roll (Post 4907481)

Yeah but they might have sold more if they said they ran 500,600, 1k hours?

Those hours from a 1100hp 1100++lb ft engine???

Quote:

Originally Posted by igetwet (Post 4907483)

those hours from a 1100hp 1100++lb ft engine???

860

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus (Post 4907516)

860

Oh ok….

Those hours from a 800hp 800lb ft engine?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildman_grafix (Post 4907447)

I doubt Mercury is doing any more development on I/O performance based motors. Lots of engineering and development cost for a VERY tiny market.

With the outboards they can be used on whatever and you want more power bolt another on. Just my opinion.

I've seen a few data points that indicates the catalytic convertor requirement on I/O engines and not outboards have also created an outboard craze.

These new large center consoles with 5+ outboards are ridiculous.

Likely a lot of the maintenance re-fresh times for Merc perf I/Os are based on valvetrain needs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IGetWet (Post 4907460)

They do not desire for a lower priced engine.

If they don't create a better option they'll price themselves out of a market, and reduce sales/buyers with a shrinking boating community.

Likely far less people with the desire/knowledge/facilities to work on their own boats these days.

So, the 450 and 500 OB's are No Catalytic converters? Did not know that. Wonder why they get away with it?