Hour meters and synthetic oil
It is easy enough to add an hour meter, also called a Hobbes Meter by us aircraft pilot-types. There are stand-alone meters as well as those built into a tachometer.
Generally I will change the oil in the engine every 100 hours, assuming that I'm using it regularly (a few times a week), or more often if my boat is sitting idle most of the time (rarely!) or spending a lot of time motoring along at low speeds.
Fortunately for me, Volvo Penta thinks that synthetics are just fine for both my engine and stern drive. My 4.3L V6 has been run with synthetics for 13 years, still has great compression on all cylinders and the stern drive is still in great shape. About the only non-scheduled service I'm going to have to do at the end of the boating season is to rebuild the water pump...again. It's about the only part of the power train I've had any problems with.
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