Toni Marine: Rebuilding Powerheads as Good as New
For this episode of the Rottler Featured Series we went to Middletown, Rhode Island to visit Toni Marine where they’ve been rebuilding Yamaha / Mercury outboard engines since 1958.
We met with owner Will Correia who told us how they came to exclusively remanufacture Yamaha outboard engines, getting into the engine overhaul business back in the 1990s. They can take an old engine, “basically junk,” in Will’s words, and make it like new again, fully warrantied and ready to run. Will explained to us that most people just want to sell an outboard boat owner a new engine, which can cost $30,000 or more. Remanufacturing an old engine and brining it back to new condition is a great costs savings for his customers.
One of the big reasons for Toni Marine’s success is that they only use the best tooling and equipment, which includes half a dozen Rottler engine rebuilding machines. In Will’s words, “if you’re going to buy something, buy the best,” and that means Rottler.
The newest piece of Rottler equipment on the shop floor is an H8A automatic hone, which Will refers to as a “robot employee” because it runs itself and delivers a better finish than any human can. He told us he was worried at first about these machines being too complicated to run, but he’s had no issues. “Anyone can learn to run one in 20 minutes,” he said. “I’m 70 years old, and I can run [a Rottler] machine while I’m on the phone. It’s not an exaggeration, it’s that good,” he added.
We love to hear words like that from our customers, because it motivates our team to keep innovating and building the best engine-focused CNC machines in the industry.
Check out Toni Marine’s story in the video, and, if you’re in the market for the best-rebuilt outboard motor money can buy, give their website a visit!