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Our Atomic 4 is 41 years old and is still quietly clunking along. It has had the electronic ignition upgrade and starts very reliably. Our boat has not caught fire or blown up in 41 years of service to at least 3 different owners. The worst problem we have with ours is that our plugs got dirty recently and we had to replace them at a cost of 12 - 18$. The engine likes new plugs and I need to tune the carb lean/rich screw so the plugs last longer.
I am a smoker as well so that means extinguishing all open flames when re-fueling, period.
Forget about the outboard mount unless you want a whole new set of problems to deal with. The Atomic 4 is a tractor engine while most outboards are engineered to a pinnacle that if one tiny thing goes wrong you are sitting in the water. An A4 can take some abuse that most outboards would require a major overhaul to fix.
Your mileage may vary.
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"The cure for anything is salt water~ sweat, tears, or the sea." ~Isak Denesen
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