Complete Guide To Outboard Engines [Paperback]

John Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2000

After many years in the boating industry and writing countless articles for your favorite boating magazines, John Fleming has put his wealth of knowledge into his new book, The Complete Guide To Outboard Engines.

This book starts with the difference in design and power between the two-cycle outboard and its new bother, the four-cycle outboard.

As with John's, Complete Guide To Gasoline Marine Engines, these pages take the reader deep inside the engine by discussing the design, function and results of the entire engine system and drive unit. The book's design allows the reader to start with the basics and progress through each skill level until a thorough understanding of engines is achieved.

This book also delves deeply into the technical aspects of outboard engines, but the information remains extremely easy to understand and follow throughout each step.

You will not find another book that will explain outboard engines as completely or easily as this book.

One fact remains; when you have read, The Complete Guide To Outboard Engines, you will be the most popular person on the dock every Saturday morning.

Illustrated

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The outboard engine gets its name from the fact that it is mounted "Outboard" on the transom of the boat. On some vessels there may be extended "brackets" for mounting the engine. Certain ones of these extended brackets may be able to raise or lower the elevation of the engine. They are called "jacking plates." The outboard engine can be anything from mild to wild. It can troll at one mile per hour and five hundred RPM. It can run over 150 miles per hour and on occasion, I have seen them turn in excess of 15,000 RPM. The choice of type and purpose for which the engine is used are strictly up to you. The fisherman can travel in a silence that permits deep meditation and the racer can run at speeds that raise the hairs on your neck, all with a two-stroke engine. A six cylinder, two stroke engine, turning 9,500 RPM, produces 57,000 explosions per minute! The sound is like all the little hounds from hell, turned a loose at once. The speed of a hydroplane is intoxicating like a fine wine, but it is dangerous, and it is expensive. In this book we will tell you about all of them, the fast and the not so fast. Of course, the outboard mounted engine may have a two-stroke or a four-stroke power head. In fact, the lower units or gear cases are essentially the same for either engine. The mounting brackets and tilt/trim units are, for the most part, identical. The midsection and the power heads for the two-strokes are different. It is an understanding of the two-stroke cycle mystique which prompts this book, however, and to that end we will pursue two-stroke technology. The two-stroke power head is in a state of flux. Some say it is on the way out, but do not write it off just yet. At a recent test site where we were testing pontoon and deck boats an engineer from Mercury Marine suggested that a "possible alternative" to the four-stroke engine was suggested by the new clean burn outboards using Opti-Max technology. His point, and one well taken, was that it is easier to pursue one type of power head and one technology than to try to develop engines in two separate styles. It is also cheaper. This approach seems sound and practical if the EPA requirements can be met. Mercury engineers have a way of making the difficult seem entirely plausible. Pollution laws certainly do not favor the two-stroke as it has been configured in the past, for it has been an inherently dirty engine. Direct Fuel Injection (DFI) may well clean up and extend the life of the two-stroke engine. Other technologies, only hinted at by the manufacturers, may give it life anew. The lack of any practical four-stroke power heads in the upper horsepower classes, engines of 150 horsepower and above, makes that two-stroke a necessary commodity. High cost and excessive weight on existing engines has further conspired to delay the invasion of the four-stroke outboard. Before they totally displace the two-stroke engine they have much to prove. Regardless of what may be contained in the final chapter of the two-stroke story, I for one, shall never forget the engine. It is almost as much a part of me as an arm or leg and it has provided me with memories that I will take to the grave. It was on the Tensaw River of Alabama that I first ran a 5 horsepower, 4 cylinder, opposed piston, Evinrude outboard engine that belonged to my father. There were so many fish then that no one can describe the situation. You would just have to be there. I spent many quiet hours on that river and then one day I climbed into my first hydroplane. It was a Fillinger "D" boat. I took one look at that rooster tail and I was forever hooked. I still love the sound of a high-winding engine when it is running right at the edge of the possible. Stay with us and we will tell you all about two-strokes, how they run, why they run, and why sometimes they do not run! One chapter and a few references to four-stroke outboards will be made in this book but they will only be for comparison purposes. For a good reference to four-stroke theory and operation, see COMPLETE GUIDE TO GASOLINE MARINE ENGINES which is available from BRISTOL FASHION PUBLICATIONS at P. O. Box 20, Enola Pennsylvania, 17025-0020

About the Author

John Fleming has conducted a 60 year love affair with engines and never met one he did not like. There have been a few that were so exciting he remembers them like an old flame but they all serve a purpose and they are all a part of my memories. The first engine he built was a 1948 model, 4.2 horsepower, Champion outboard engine. He was 9 years old which made it monumental task. To see and hold the parts his father had described was fascinating. He held a United States Coast Guard, 500 ton masters ticket and has a total of more than 3,000 days at sea. John has run boats of many types and varieties in 44 States and 3 countries: crossed the Okefenokee in an airboat and canoe, ran the Everglades from Flamingo Park to Chokloskee Island and from Whitewater Bay to the head of the Little Shark River. For eight years he held a State of Florida Teachers Certificate to teach engine repair in the State. John and his wife have run delivery charters across the Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, Texas to Key West, Florida and up the Atlantic Seaboard as far as Barnegat Bay. They have owned vessels which they have operated for dive charters, fishing charters and towing services. He has written more than 3,500 articles for magazines and newspapers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Bristol Fashion Publications, Inc.; 1st edition (February 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892216310
• ISBN-13: 978-1892216311
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but needs more diagrams, January 21, 2002

By 

"boater432" (Atlanta, ga United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Guide To Outboard Engines (Paperback)

This book provides a good overview over HOW an outboard works. However, if you don't have a good grasp of technical terms and an engine manual, much of the learning in this book is hard to use. Detailed diagrams and a longer list of defined terms would make this book a 5-star effort.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent discussion of the theory and operation of two cycle engines, November 10, 2006

By 

Christopher C. Hodgdon "Toys R Me" (Rock Hill, SC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Guide To Outboard Engines (Paperback)

This is a very readable book and would be usefull to anyone that owns a two stroke engine of any kind. Theory and "how these things actually work" are both explained in a very easy to understand fasion. I enjoyed this book very much and will add it to my reference library. I was already familiar with four stroke engines and learned a lot from this book. I purchased this book because I bought two stroke outboard for my boat. I then purchased the Mercury Marine technical manual for my motor. Fleming's book was the perfect prerequisite to the Mercury manual because it provides the theoretical background that makes the Mercury manual meaningful.

5.0 out of 5 stars Saved me money, September 16, 2011

By 

clower - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Guide To Outboard Engines (Paperback)

this book saved me an expensive trip to the marina. thought i had a big problem on my hands, but it turns out it was some old gas and a clogged fuel line.