According to the seller of my boat and the paperwork he gave me with it, my A4 was put in the boat in 1983, and it appears it was a brand new engine at that time.
I have no idea how many hours are on the engine, because the hours meter doesn't work and apparently hasn't worked for a long time.
Right now it's got a head gasket leak. I just order the head gasket set and will do that job in a few weeks when I winterize.
I'm wondering at what point does one decide to overhaul an engine, if the engine is running fine (which mine is)?
I kinda feel like there is something like a "preventative maintenance" overhaul or "preemptive" overhaul. At a certain number of hours of use, is it time to just go ahead and pull it apart, even though it's not shown any signs of problems?
I don't want to wait until it blows up or whatever, but by the same token, I don't want to have to yank it out and rebuild it unless I have to (although I am tempted to do it just for the experience and the comfort of knowing I now have a freshly overhauled engine...).
One thing is that it's kinda dirty and oily (not terrible; I've seen way, way worse, but it could be cleaner) and has a little rust here and there. I kinda would like to take it apart, clean it all up, repaint everything and replace all gaskets, if nothing else. But I also kinda don't want to do all that, because it's just yet one more project!
Thanks for any thoughts or ideas.
I have no idea how many hours are on the engine, because the hours meter doesn't work and apparently hasn't worked for a long time.
Right now it's got a head gasket leak. I just order the head gasket set and will do that job in a few weeks when I winterize.
I'm wondering at what point does one decide to overhaul an engine, if the engine is running fine (which mine is)?
I kinda feel like there is something like a "preventative maintenance" overhaul or "preemptive" overhaul. At a certain number of hours of use, is it time to just go ahead and pull it apart, even though it's not shown any signs of problems?
I don't want to wait until it blows up or whatever, but by the same token, I don't want to have to yank it out and rebuild it unless I have to (although I am tempted to do it just for the experience and the comfort of knowing I now have a freshly overhauled engine...).
One thing is that it's kinda dirty and oily (not terrible; I've seen way, way worse, but it could be cleaner) and has a little rust here and there. I kinda would like to take it apart, clean it all up, repaint everything and replace all gaskets, if nothing else. But I also kinda don't want to do all that, because it's just yet one more project!
Thanks for any thoughts or ideas.
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