Small outboards..

[SaltyC]

My Honda 2.3 four stroke has had light use. It's now nearly five years old, and has only burned about one gallon each year. It was working fine in April, but when setting off a fortnight ago, it misbehaved. On pulling the starter, it jammed, and then there was no compression. Fortunately there's a place not far away that sorted it. Apparently, as I suspected, the timing had gone, meaning that there was a valve open all the time. Is this something that is liable to happen with these engines, or was I just unlucky?

Unlucky? My 2.3 is 18 years old, 2 + years in garage and started first time. OK, a couple of slow pulls to prime but first serious pull chug chug.

 

[Sea Change]

About 8 or 10 years ago I decided that it was pretty useless to carry an outboard for a singlehander. I dumped the 3.5 Tohatsu in the shed complete with fuel and no further attention.

Last Thursday I decided I needed it and hoisted it out from underneath a pile of gardening stuff.

It started and ran second pull. Is this a record?

.

My 1996 Tohatsu 3.5 was last used in ~2011 and then went in to storage for several years. I didn't prepare it in any way, just put it in the shed at the end of the season. I later dismantled it, splitting the head from the leg, so that it would fit in a bag and go as hold baggage on easyJet to Portugal. It then went, disassembled, in to a locker for another two years.
Finally in 2023 I decided the dig it out, bolt it back together, and see if it worked. Started second pull.