91 intruder reeds a "maintenance" item

I have been reading these forums and have seen some good information go around. I have owned a few boats and have had a reed chip on me before on a force outboard and I replaced them (it did not damage the powerhead). I have had a bass boat with an evinrude intruder 150 spitfire series outboard. The motor is a 91 and runs great and has all preventative stuff done (water pump, plugs, electrical system that was acting up ect.). This motor is fast and I am happy with it and wanna keep it alive as long as I can. Im not sure how many hours it has but it has been owned by hardcore bassers and Im sure has many hours 1500+. My question is are reeds a maintenance item? I feel comfortable working on outboards but am wondering if they need inspections or replaced at any interval being as another motor chipped them on me. Perhaps I am thinking to much about this.... I just want to keep this motor going as powerhead rebuilds/replacements are expensive and it runs great and is super fast as is. Thanks for any inputs all opinions are welcome, especially from owners of v6 outboards as this is my first one.

Re: 91 intruder reeds a "maintenance" item

Reeds are not something that needs periodic replacement. You stand a bigger chance of buggering up something in the process of replacing them than just leaving them alone. Read these forums for any of the outboard models and you will find very few instances of reed failure. If you are really paranoid about this you might consider Boyesen Reeds. If they break the engine just eats them and spits them out as they are non-metalic.

Re: 91 intruder reeds a "maintenance" item

Thanks for the feed back. I think Ill leave them alone as it runs well now and like you said taking things apart that arnt broke could cause problems.
Thanks