Sherwin,

I'm sure this will get a few people going, but I'm no fan of four
stroke outboards that will be laid up for periods of time without being
fogged. On an old two stroke, when you shut it down, their's a layer of
oil left on the bearings, rings and cylinder walls, not much to rust.
Now on a four stroke outboard their's no oil on the cylinder walls
(above the oil rings) and compression ring(s), so you can get rust. The
same holds true for four stroke gas inboards, but their not as exposed
to the weather (but they do have problems if you do not use then "now
and then"). It's one of the reasons inboards used frequently tend to
last a long time, and ones that are not used much don't last as long.

John