I have a Merc XR6 150 hp engine that came on the Nitro NX 882 I purchased new in 2004. I was considering replacing it with a new Merc 150 until I recently read some comments indicating that age is not the only determining factor of service life and that hours of operation are possibly more important. When I think back on my years of enjoyment with my rig I am reminded that when fishing at many of the small lakes that I frequent I will, often launch the boat, deploy the trolling motor and fish all day. Usually, at the end of the day, I will fire up the big motor and take a couple spirited laps around the lake to keep her in shape.

Having said that, I would like to have some shop hook me up to a diagnostic computer and pull my hours but I am getting mixed messages online and from local shops as to whether or not my 20+year old motor contains the technology to produce that output. Some say "no problem" and others say it is not possible and all say they are too busy with winterizing to take the time.

,I would simply like to know, with some certainty, if I could expect to learn how many hours my engine has on or not. I can accept that my Merc may be too old to be hooked up to a computer but my searching has produced as many "yays" as "nays" leaving me hopeful but confused. God bless the internet.

Any actual "real life" experience out there retrieving hours of operation from a 20+ year old motor.

Thanks in advance.

While knowing the 'hours' can be helpful,

Compression, I believe, will be a better indicator of the health of the motor.

And that can most certainly be determined.

Good Luck

A-Jay

My bro not sure if this helps or not but I grew up fishing out of old b bottom aluminum boats and old Evinrude’s some I’m sure older then me at the time and I was a scrappy 16 year old with a mullet cut lol

but they ran good my bro   

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

While knowing the 'hours' can be helpful,

Compression, I believe, will be a better indicator of the health of the motor.

And that can most certainly be determined.

Good Luck

A-Jay

Hi A-Jay.

The compression is good and consistent across all 6 cylinders and it runs like a Swiss watch. Once I read the suggestion that hours really were a good indicator of engine health, I became curious. Actually, if you ask on-line about expected engine life you will get a response that it is 3000 to 4000 hours depending on etc., etc., etc.

Just think it would be interesting, and helpful, to know.

Thanks for the response.

24 minutes ago, Nitro 882 said:

Hi A-Jay.

The compression is good and consistent across all 6 cylinders and it runs like a Swiss watch. Once I read the suggestion that hours really were a good indicator of engine health, I became curious. Actually, if you ask on-line about expected engine life you will get a response that it is 3000 to 4000 hours depending on etc., etc., etc.

Just think it would be interesting, and helpful, to know.

Thanks for the response.

I hear ya ~ 

So in order for your motor to have 3,500 hours on it on 21 years of service . . . . 

If you made 100 trips a year (averaging 8 a month) you would have to run the motor for just over

90 minutes per trip.

If you made 50 trips per year, you'd need to run it for just over 3 hours per trip.

Might be fewer hours on it than you think . . . 

A-Jay

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I hear ya ~ 

So in order for your motor to have 3,500 hours on it on 21 years of service . . . . 

If you made 100 trips a year (averaging 8 a month) you would have to run the motor for just over

90 minutes per trip.

If you made 50 trips per year, you'd need to run it for just over 3 hours per trip.

Might be fewer hours on it than you think . . . 

A-Jay

Yeah, that's my point and what I want to confirm, just out of curiosity more than anything.

The old carburetor type Merc 2 stroke V6 was 300 running hours before checking out the compression and rebuild carbs. Water pump impeller should be changed annually.

Tom

Your motor can have the hours pulled as long as its an efi motor and not carbed .  The efi’s have the readable ecm.  My 2005 Yamaha HPDI 250 has 490 hours. 

Might be a good idea to sent oil sample to Blackstone labs, and get analysis. Their reports are pretty detailed and can give you a good idea of engine health. 

First off, a two stroke has no oil in it to send off for testing.   As stated hours are not the only determining factor for what condition a motor is in.  Proper maintenance and running a good quality, name brand oil, good gas and proper maintenance are the critical factors.  I’ve seen motors that were used up in 500 hours running cheap oil and no decarbing them and I’ve seen motors still going strong with 1200 hours with good oil and proper maintenance.  Now I have heard claims of the Coast Guard running 2 stroke motors for 3,000 and 4,000 hours but I find those hard to believe.  I had a friend that ran a fleet of commercial boats with 200hp OMC’c and he was usually having to swap them out at 1,500 to 2,000 hours because of maintenence cost and brake downs.  If a proper leakdown test shows the compression is within 10% and especially within 5% the power head should easily be good for another couple of seasons.

Mercury XR6 is not capable of showing hours.