12. Zincs

There have never been any zinc locations identified by the factory for the Atomic 4. All of the water-jacketed castings were made using a corrosion-resistant alloy that has worked rather well, and which explains why so many of these engines are still around. We have rebuilt engines that have been sea water cooled for over thirty years which had little or no corrosive damage.

I don't want to overstate this position, but we find somewhat more corrosion on the very latest engines, which may indicate that the quality control of the alloy may have slipped a bit in the later years. Whenever we do see a lot of corrosion on an engine, we believe that it has a lot to do with whether or not the boat itself was in what is sometimes refered to as a “hot marina”. In general, the same kinds of things that cause thru-hulls, prop shafts, prop struts, etc. to corrode can affect the engine as well. - Updated: November 4, 2003