Inboard outboard

[badfish88]

who here runs and inboard outboard in salt water. do you leave it at a mooring or trailor? and have you had any major problems with it. looking for a cuddy cabin and am worried about maint. costs from corrosion issues

[Treebeard63]

I run a Cummins/Mercuiser diesel I/O.. I keep it slipped all season in the salt.. Before and shortly after buying my first I/O many years ago, I had heard countless warnings about the horrors of them..well.. when I sold that first one, 15 years later I had yet to experience 1 issue with that drive. So i did not hesitate to buy another.. Now granted, that other drive was mostly used in the fresh, so the corrosion issue was not as big a concern.. But in the 4 years I have kept this one in the brine, I have been religious about keeping the anti-fouling paint/ zincs fresh.. and the boat also has the Mercathode galvanic isolator system .. but the drive has held up just fine and still looks great.. I love the ride characteristics , and better fishability around the transom (especially important in a walkaround) that the I/O offers..

[Gerry Zagorski]

I had 2 I/O boats that I kept in a slip in the salt. The first was an OMC and that was the worst I/O ever built. Spent more time in the repair shop than on the water.

I now have a Volvo Penta Duo Prop. They are arguably one of the better drives out there but still have issues. As mentioned above they do require some maintainence like any other drive. Changing the zincs is important as is changing the bellows and anti fouling paint every year.
After 11 years, my drive blew last year and it was around 9K to get a new one . You will also need to stay on top of the engine risers. They should be changed every 5 -7 years to avoid salt water ingestion issues.

Not sure what drive the boat has that you are looking at but the early Mercury Bravo 3s had some serious galvanic corrosion issues to the extent that they had to come up with a special galvanic corrosion isolation system that Treebeard mentioned above.


Having said all this, if I were shopping for a boat now, I'd be looking for straight inboards or 4 stroke outboards.