Suzuki builds a great motor, but the 90-140 have had ALOT of internal corrosion issues.
catastrophic failures. mid section rotting out and letting exhaust gas in the cowling, even melting wiring harnesses
corrosion between the head and block on the bottom cylinder, letting water in the oil, etc…
also the 140 has an oil cooler, that corrodes out and allows the engine to pump all of its oil into the exhaust, and no more engine oil.
these are not issues I have only seen once, seen each of those issues many times.
search them on the hull truth.
Chris, from what you have seen can I take comfort in the fact that I use mine in fresh water 90% of the time?
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
100% of the 90%, but its the 100% of the remaining 10% I’d worry about. He’s the resident engine guru, I’d take his word over the rest regardless of their experiences.
Mark
Pioneer 222 Sportfish Yamaha F300
Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.
“Life’s tough…It’s even tougher if you’re stupid” John Wayne
Chris, I would like to ask you what I should be doing to properly flush my motor. I have a 140 and run it in saltwater a good bit, probably 60% of the time. I normally flush it out as soon as I get back for 15-20 minutes on the hose. Sometimes I use the flush port on the side of the motor and sometimes I crank it up on the ears and let it run. If I have time I’ll take it to the lake the next day and run it for a little while while I ride around a little.
I don’t want to replace it any time soon, so what do I need to look for to make sure I’m not about to have the problems you described earlier?
flushing with freshwater with the flush port is better than nothing, and running on the ear muffs is much better.
it warms the engine and opens the t-stats.
the best thing you can do, is get a tub large enough to run the engine in, and fill with water, and saltaway, and crank it up and run it for 5-10 minutes.
Re: the DF corrosion issues- the corrosion was mostly caused by a steel plug in the aluminum engine holder bracket. The dissimilar metals caused internal corrosion, which unchecked would rot out the engine holder bracket. This steel plug was done away with starting with the 08’ models, so the engine in question should be exempt from the catastrophic corrosion affecting a few of the earlier year models.
Oh, and I have a DF140 on my boat, bought it new in 2008. Problem free, less a recall for a water pump housing that was replaced free of charge at Butler Marine (local Suzuki dealer).
. I would have tried the Suzuki, but it wasn’t meant to be.