Outboard Engines

Weight decides a tender motor, rotation a twin rig:

a portable motor clamps onto an inflatable or a sailboat’s stern bracket, and somebody has to carry it to the water, so a few kilos matter more than a few horsepower. Mid-size outboards push pangas, dive boats and family runabouts, on a tiller or with remote controls. At the top are high-horsepower four-strokes, rigged in pairs on offshore center consoles so a second motor can bring the boat home. One of the pair turns the other way to keep the boat running straight, and Yamaha marks that counter-rotating model with an L at the front of the code.

Digital controls and the rigging behind a big outboard:

the newer large motors from Yamaha, Mercury and Suzuki shift and throttle electronically, through a control box, harness and gauges that only talk to their own brand, and not always across its generations. A motor sold without them is cheap to buy and dear to fit; older and smaller motors run on mechanical cables that are far easier to match. Props, controls and cables are listed under boat engine parts, and the gauges and displays a digital rig feeds under marine electronics.

Yamaha, Suzuki and an orphaned Evinrude:

the first two are sold new in Panama with workshop service behind them, so parts and diagnostic tools for those two brands are close at hand. Evinrude has stopped building outboards. Parts are still supplied, but an E-TEC needs a mechanic who knows its direct injection and its own oil, so a sound one fetches less than a Yamaha or Suzuki of the same age, and its buyer should know who will service it first.

What a big four-stroke is worth once it has hours on it:

a new outboard at the top of the range, around 300 horsepower, costs upwards of $25,000 in Panama, so an offshore pair passes $50,000 before it is rigged. Used ones with a few hundred documented hours change hands around $10,000 to $15,000 each, and for less once the count runs into four figures. Hours set the price more than the year, because a motor that ran a charter boat out and back every day can be younger and far more worn than one that fished at weekends.

The engine computer, the trim unit and the midsection:

on any fuel-injected four-stroke or direct-injection two-stroke, a dealer’s diagnostic software reads out total hours, the hours spent in each rev range, and how many times the motor overheated or hit the rev limiter. Ask to have it read. Most of a life at idle means trolling or sitting; heavy time near full throttle means hard offshore work. Carburetted motors keep no memory, so the receipts are all there is. Then tilt the motor fully up and leave it. It should hold without creeping down, with smooth chrome on the trim rams and no fluid weeping at the seals. Where the midsection meets the bracket, and around stainless bolts, paint that bubbles or flakes means aluminium corroding underneath. A nearly new big four-stroke offered for a fraction of its price, with photos but no way to see it run, is the usual fake, and the motor rarely exists.

Listing a pair that came off a repower:

if they were rigged together, sell them together, with controls, harnesses, gauges and a propeller for each, and say whether the rigging is digital or mechanical. Give the model code, not just the horsepower, since it tells a buyer the shaft length and the rotation. Attach the diagnostic printout or a photo of the hours screen, and say why they came off and whether they ran in salt or fresh water. A buyer driving up from Remedios with a pickup will want to know whether the motors are still on the transom and whether your yard has a hoist or engine stands, because two people do not lift a big four-stroke off by hand.