Hey guys been shopping for a used surface drive recently and have began to wonder where the point of no return is on the hour meter, kinda like hitting 100k on your odometer. Been looking at drives with any where from 60-1100 hours so quite a wide span! obviously this fluxates some due to different driving styles and conditions, just wondered if anyone with more expirience than me has noticed a pattern.

It's really hard to say with these engines. They are not built with that much quality in mind since they were designed for lawn equipment. Some brand new engines with hardly any hrs have the same issues as one with many hrs. It also depends on regular oil changes and how hard the owner was on it. I personally probably wouldn't buy one with say over 2-300hrs. Only because I don't work on my own stuff. If I did my own mechanic work I'd consider getting an older motor based on price and just rebuilding it when the time comes.

-this is exactly the reason I bought new.

I looked at about the same range of motors hour-wise and you may look at one with 350 that looks damn near new and one with 40 that looks like it's been to hell and back. These things were built with borderline abuse in mind. After I thought about being 15-20mi back in the middle of nowhere and relying on this thing to get me, friends, family home. I couldn't take that chance.

Now, saying that. All things mechanical can and will eventually fail. Some do it sooner than others it's just the way it is. My main point was to get something new so I knew what it had been thru and how it had been maintained. No matter what someone else tells you when you buy a used motor, you never truly know.

There are plenty of comm fisherman that have well over 2k on the same motor

i've got close to 3000k on the current briggs engine on my pd.

the lower unit is only a couple years old or so.

the tower housing says #22.

winch trim.


if i would clean it up and use a tiny tack with about 300hrs on it, i could probly pass it off to someone who didn't know better.


i don't like to buy used, but i will if i think it was just lightly used. i like to look at the boat too and see how ragged-out it is.

Kinda what I figured, guess the best ways to determine wear will be the hull condition and tooling wear like stripped bolts etc. got 607hrs on my 35 briggs in my commercial 60" zero turn mower before I had an issue.

Hours are relative to the driver. I you have a motor who has never seen 4000 rpms but has 500 hours on it, then the engine hasn't really been under a lot of stress. Then again, you may have one with 50 hours on it that has the gov bypassed and running 5000+ and the internals are on borrowed time. So don't just go off hours. If your somewhat mechanically inclined, buy used and make the repairs yourself.

I recently bought a used '10 GT with only 133 hours on the tach. It's been under repairs almost since the day I bought it. Blown LU and carb issues. Lots of unanswered questions now and the only one who can answer them wont answer the phone....lol! It's Louisiana...let the buyer beware!

Tachs are easy to change out and the hrs start at 0 on a new one. Sounds like that may not be the original Tach.

Who you bought it from? Chances are someone on here knows him. Sounds like he may have screwed you. You can probably find out the truth about that motor and what type of person he is.

I'll not call him by name, but he posts here on occasion. Young guy, just bought a new motor. It's been an interestin experience to say the least. I've found a couple of his threads but they arent much help.

That's fair but it's your loss not ours. Something is shady there if you're having that many problems with a motor with that many hrs and he doesn't answer the phone.

Ok then, rstigler is the guy. After getting the motor home, we realized the model plate was missing. So I got ahold of him to find out why. He said he took it off to paint the motor and never put it back on. He gave me a model number and date code over the phone and said he would mail the plate to me (never happened). The motor was advertised as a 2007, but the data he provided is for a 2010. Some of his posts say its a 35 as well. I know its the same guy cuz he lists his phone number on a post and its the number I have in my phone. The frame numbers are missing or have been painted over as well.

Update.....I just found one of his posts on here where he was trying to sell it. Pictures posted....it's my motor.

So he told you it was a 2010 model but it's actually a 2007. Is that right?

No.... he advertised it and I thought I was buying an'07. The data he gave me , according to the date code is for a '10.

Here's what he gave me over the phone...
model = 543477-0110-e1
date code =10103212

What is the frame #?

Dont know...its been painted over. Trying to take paint off will most likely ruin the tag as well.

Hey NTXbighorn......sorry about highjacking your thread. Surely hope your search for a motor is more productive and successful than mine has been. Hopefully my input here solidifies the fact that hours mean very little when it comes to buying used. I normally don't, especially when it comes to boats/motors. Due to finances, my last two purchases have been used and both were less than satisfactory purchases. Now my finances are improving, ill get this one right and use it but in the future my money goes on new.

No worries cheniermudder that's what the forum is here for discussion! Luckily got my motor and so far I'm pretty happy with it, will be alot happier after I get my hands on a hull!

I finally got mine running pretty good. Working on trying to reduce some of the torque now. Did some tweaking on the skeg but still have some pressure against me. I've moved as much stuff around as I can without rewiring all my connections on the cranking battery. Guess the next move is to shift the motor over. I'm going to have to make a one time "shot in the dark" adjustment. One of the transom bolts is seazed up in the bracket and the head is broken off. There isn't enough meat to get a pipe wrench on it to try to get it out nor clearance between the bracket and transom. Anyway, the motor has thru transom bolts in it and the other good clamp bolt.

From what I've read on here, most adjustments of this nature vary from 1" - 1 1/2". I'm going to shoot for 1 1/4" and hope for the best.