On Sat, 29 Mar 2014 10:44:31 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

On Saturday, March 29, 2014 10:19:51 AM UTC-7,

What's a "carb kit"?


a 'carb kit' is one of those things full of gaskets, springs and a lot of stuff you don't need. But the gaskets are helpful on reassembly, after taking the carburator apart to clean it all out,becausse after letting it sit for a couple years and corrode the insides.

Of course you knew that... ?;^ )





I haven't had anything bigger than a lawn mower with a carb in 15

years. These days those tune up parts are not really that important.

They can be as of reason previously stated.

I know EFI is a great thing which made carburation obsolete, but unless you already have a late model boat that the engine is factory equipped with the EFI, a change over is quite expensive. A 'carb kit' is a whole lot cheaper...



On a 4 stroke outboard the maintenance is mostly oil changes.

You still have thermostats, impellers and anodes in your stern drive.

Those are the other common maintenance parts.

If you are running in salt water you will need fresh water cooling so

you will be adding the heat exchanger parts to your maintenance

schedule, along with all of those rubber parts that keep your boat

from sinking.

I think the advent of EFI 4 strokes pushed outboards past the I/O and

you can get 350HP in an outboard. I hear rumors a 400 is in the works

from the majors.

Oh that's true Greg. No argument from me, But here I/O's are plentiful and easy to work on and are still extremely popular. Especially since both my brothers have Alpha drives it's great to have a line of spare parts.

Over the past few years, I've bought 4 scrap boats and stripped them down for parts. The engines were junk (poor winterizing, but the Alpha outdrives were good. Got a couple stainless props and one had a new Gimbal bearing previously installed the year before. Trailers too.

Got all for about the price of a reman lower end. So I'm gonna be in the I/O business for quire a while.


I'm jealous 'cause you've got a place to store all that stuff you've picked up!