Df 250 life

[Happysalmon]

I am looking at purchasing a boat with a 2011 df 250. The motor has 1200 hours. They are mostly fresh water hours with a lot of trolling. I plan to use the boat in fresh water 100-150 hrs a year. My questions are what is the life expectancy of this motor if well cared for and all maintenance is done? Also up coming service costs?

[ChrigelKarrer]

This engine should be able to make between 3000 and 4000 hours,
so it's not a lot of hours on this engine
There are some factors influencing life time of a outboard
- serviced and winterized correctly
- number of gear shifts
- number of high rmp hours
- sunk, flooded

You should have a mechanic with the Suzuki Engine Diagnostic System to pull the engine data and you will see error codes, hours, shifts, rpm load and another stuff.
Have the mechanic to do a cylinder leak down test to check the compression to look for worn rings or leaking valves.

After a purchase i would:
switch to full synthetic engine and LU oil
change belt(s), plugs, impeller
grease all grease fittings/zerk/nipples
check and adjust valve clearance

You probably will encounter sooner or later:
- leaking trim ram seals (a easy repair)
- the dog of the lower unit worn (after really a lot of shifts) (not too complicated repair)
- new propeller as the hub will spin-out (a easy fix)

Somewhere around 3000 hours you probably have to overhaul or change the lower unit.

Chris

[Happysalmon]

Thank you very much for the information. Boosted my confidence on the possibility of purchasing this boat.

[Moonlighter]

I agree with Chris.

Except, there are no belts to change on these Suzuki's!

One important thing to check is that the engine has not been over-propped all its life. The SDS report printout will show you the time the engine has spent running in each 1000rpm rev range, so you want to see some hrs running between 5000-6000rpms and that will tell you part of the story - at least the engine has been able to get somewhere near the correct range.

Do a test run or have a surveyor do one, run her up to WOT and check what max revs can be achieved. You will want to see a result close to 6000rpm's.

There is almost nothing worse you can do to any engine than overprop it so it lugs. Nothing is surer to reduce engine life than that.

For the Suzuki's this means they should ideally be able to get up around 5800-6100rpm at WOT. If it will only get to 5000 -5300 I would not be happy at all and would probably walk away.