Some of the early Verado L6s had issues for sure, but as a rule, if they were gonna blow up, they'd blow up pretty quick.
By 2009 Mercury had most of the kinks worked out, and if it's got 350 hrs on it, that's almost kinda the sweet spot. It's got enough hrs on it that it's proven itself reliable, and at the same time, it's got TONS of life left in it. It's lived a pretty easy life so far at 25-30 hrs a year. The L6 Verados are good for 2500-3000 hrs in the saltwater environment, so 350 is just barely broken in by that standard.
I've had several L6s over the years, all have treated me very well. Up until the V8 came out a couple years ago, pretty much everyone I know was running an L6, and I can think of very few guys that had issues, and definitely fewer issues than a couple other brands, one of which is no longer making outboards... The L6 performance was really good, and it was a very reliable outboard, it just wasn't EPA certifiable, and I'm guessing, it was expensive to manufacture compared to the new V8s.
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