4 Stroke Hours vs 2 strokes

[lamajama]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty familiar with hours on a 2 stroke but have no idea on the 4 strokes.

What can a 4 stroke machine typically handle for hours?

Less is best I know but can a 4 stroke machine go well into 300 hours? In a 2 stroke
that's borrowed time for sure.

 

[KK40384]

All depends on maintanace really. If you take care of it, they'll last hundreds of hrs. Ive seem them as high as 600 on the sc/ic motors and i've also seen them seized at 45hrs. All depends on how you take care of it.

 

[lamajama]

I know it's always a bit of a crapshoot. I'm thinking of getting a 4 stroke and just trying to figure out usage. Obviously less
is best but I was trying to do a "conversion" in my head. As an example in the 2 strokes IMO, a 951 usually needs a top
end at the 200 hour mark. A 787 is maybe ok until 250-300 hrs. Never had a 717.

So, pending compression check and the other tell tale signs and checks, when do the warning bells go off in terms of hours
for a 4 stroke?

 

[KK40384]

Again hard to say. If compression is good, oil pressure is good, and it doesn't overheat or hasn't been overheated then you're good.

Also, on the supercharged models the supercharger needs to be rebuilt every 100hrs. If it fails, you get a whole mess of things that go in your motor and block the oil pickup resulting in loss of oil pressure which almost always causes catastrophic engine failure.

Another thing to keep in mind is cost of rebuilding one. About 2 to 2.5 times the cost of a 2 stroke assuming you're not doing the work yourself.

With all that said I'd take a 4 stroke any day over a 2 stroke.

 

[KK40384]

Oh and if buying used TEST DRIVE it or don't buy it. If the owner won't let you try it out there's a reason for it most likely.