Project X

[hixxy]

look at motorcycle engines, they get bought new by a person who usually has no mechanial sympathy an then sold, they arnt always wearmed up b4 bein thrashed .

i own a 10 yr old honda fireblade that produces 123bhp at the wheel or 133 at the crank an has spent most of its time flat out racing my mates .

you dont do 170 mph unless u know ur bike is 100%.
even dealers say they will take a blade with 80000+ miles.
in the factory they test them on a bench bangin them off thier limiter at 14000rpm till they blow an that usually takes months or years providing they are serviced.

any engines is almost capable of running forever if A) its serviced regularly B) wear happens when it starts up an is cold, when its warm it doesnt really wear.

engines usually fail for lack of servicin or a design fault or a bit of swarf from the machining/casting process blocks an oil way or something terrible.

also buy the best oil like fully synthetic if ur engine is okay with it on a 4 stroke as this stuff is amazing an doesnt allow wear in ur engine, otherwise on a 2 stroke i would use £10 a litre 2 stroke oil again fully synthetic.
i personally dont see it bein hard for a bike manufacturer or a car manufacturer like subaru makin an inboard an modyfing it to run salt water.

i dont think reliablity is a problem an people who have any honda willl rant an rave build quality an reliability.

[Matt]

1) Wear increases with the square of the revs. so an engine spinning 12K rpm is not gonna last as long as an engine at 6K.

2) Boats don't have gears. You can't get enough torque out of a bike engine (ie very short stroke) to get the boat on the plane. Look at the torque curve. You could have a shifting gearbox, but can the average punter afford $$$$$$? Merc built one a few years back and it looked a work of art. Plus you're gonna add a whole pile of weight. This is why diesels are so good as inboards as they have gobs of torque across the whole power range.

I keep telling everyone turbines are the way to go, but no one listens.

[Matt]

Another.

[turboomc]

Originally Posted by Matt

Supercharging.
Here's some eye candy for supercharged outboards.
Built by monty racing (OMC guru in the US), supercharged V8.
The advantage of a supercharger over turbo is you can do away with the reed assemblies. Some people have tried to turbo charge outboards, but as far as I have found, not with much success.

this was built by rick gilmen of lake havasu city az with help from mad efi

[psycho]

Holy thread resurrection...........!!

11 1/2 years.

[Nightfisher]

Think Mercury has been increasingly concerned about market share. Yamaha is steadily eating away at Mercury sales, particularly outboards -- all classes. Though I'm a merc-guy, friends with new and old Yamaha outboards say they would not go back to merc. Dependability being the biggest reason, followed by lesser cost.