Engine Emergency: DOA! Part 1
Marine engines used to break down all the time, but today’s motors—gas, diesel, and outboard—are very reliable. Maintain them according to the manufacturer’s schedule; don’t run them throttles-on-the-stops all the time; keep them from overheating; and feed them clean fuel. Do that and today’s engines will most likely run for hundreds, maybe even thousands of troublefree hours. But everything mechanical, including your engine, has an Achilles’ heel, and someday you might discover what it is. When you do, you’ll need to know the three Rs of engine rehabilitation.
WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
They say good things come in threes—the wise men; the Stooges; “All Gaul is divided into three parts”; the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, etc. And there are three ways to deal with an engine that’s seriously under the weather: repair, rebuild, or remanufacture. (OK, there’s a fourth R, too: repower. We’ll address that in
