Inboard engine repair without the boatyard. Our certified inboard mechanic services gas and diesel motors right in the slip: tune-ups, cooling system work, fuel service, and mechanical repair for cruisers, trawlers, and sportfish boats across Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, and all of SWFL. Your boat stays in the water. We bring the shop.
Here is the problem with owning an inboard boat in Southwest Florida: when the engine needs work, most shops want the boat hauled. That means yard scheduling, haul-out fees, blocking fees, and a week or three on stands, all for work that a properly equipped mechanic can do in the engine compartment while the boat floats.
We built our inboard service around that reality. Engine rooms are tight, hot, and awkward, which is exactly why so many mobile mechanics stick to outboards. An outboard hangs conveniently on the transom; an inboard makes you earn it. We carry the compact tooling, lighting, and extraction equipment to work inside compartments, bilges, and under cockpit soles, so the jobs other mobile operations turn down are the ones we book every week.
Our inboard motor repair and service work covers:
oil and filter changes, fuel filters, impellers, belts, zincs, and fluid checks on factory intervals for gas and diesel inboards
raw water pumps, heat exchangers, exhaust risers and elbows, thermostats. Risers and elbows are the silent killers of Gulf Coast inboards. Salt scale chokes them shut from the inside while everything looks fine outside
filter and separator changes, injector service, and fuel quality assessment for tanks that have been sitting
starters, alternators, battery banks, and the corroded engine-room grounds that mimic bigger failures
head gaskets, manifolds, mounts, seawater pumps, and shaft packing or dripless seal service
computer scanning for electronically controlled inboards and diesels, with compression and leak-down testing on older engines
Most of the marine repair capacity in Lee County is built for outboards, because that is the easy volume. Inboard owners, the trawler crowd, the sportfish crowd, anyone running a gas sterndrive or straight-shaft cruiser, get told "we don't really do those" or get quoted a yard visit for an oil leak. Island Marine Repair exists partly because of those phone calls.
We are a mobile marine service company headquartered in Fort Myers, led by Cody, a certified technician with 15+ years across gas and diesel platforms. Our service units are set up specifically for engine-room work: low-profile fluid extractors, compartment lighting, and brand-specific diagnostic gear for electronically managed engines. Around here that experience matters. Gulf heat and salt-laden air work on an inboard's cooling and electrical systems year-round, and a mechanic who knows the local failure sequence catches the small problem before it becomes the engine-out problem. Get to know us better on our About Us page.
Inboard owners talk to each other: at the marina, at the fuel dock, on the trawler forums. Much of our inboard work arrives by word of mouth from exactly those conversations, and our Google reviews echo it. A mechanic who shows up when promised, works clean in your engine room, and explains what he found in plain English.
Riser replacements on canal cruisers, cooling overhauls on Charlotte Harbor trawlers, no-start diagnostics in Naples engine rooms. Browse documented inboard jobs below, photographed where they happened.
Boating in Southwest Florida is a year-round thing. No off-season, no winter layup, no real break. And that means our shop floor and our service…
Southwest Florida boating is incredible—but it also comes with challenges. Saltwater corrosion, shallow sandbars, unexpected mechanical failures, and the difficulty of getting boats to repair…
Some of the most satisfying work we do isn’t dramatic breakdown rescues — it’s the steady, careful maintenance and smart upgrades that keep good boats…
Sterndrive and gas inboard cruisers fill these canals, and their risers, impellers and outdrive-side engine work are weekly jobs for us at private docks across the Cape. Raw-water-cooled engines in brackish canals age on an accelerated schedule, and we service them accordingly.
River-side inboard service along the Caloosahatchee's north bank, from modern electronically managed diesels to carbureted old iron that predates the laptop entirely. Marinatown slips and Moody River lifts are standing stops on the route.
Engine room service for Naples' cruiser and sportfish fleet, including scheduled diesel maintenance programs for seasonal owners who want the boat proven and ready the day they land. Documentation travels with every visit.
Trawler country, and we treat it that way. Charlotte Harbor's diesel cruisers get scheduled service, cooling work and repair without leaving their slips at Fishermen's Village or the harbor-side communities, on intervals that respect how these boats are actually used.
In-slip inboard repair on the island, saving owners the long haul to a mainland yard for work that never needed one. Island engine rooms get the same tooling and the same standard as anywhere on our routes.
Full engine room service dispatched to outer-island docks with parts aboard, scheduled around the causeway instead of defeated by it. When an inboard needs attention on Captiva, the mountain comes to the boat.
From St. James City sailboats to Bokeelia trawlers, Pine Island's inboard fleet gets dockside service without a mainland trip. Auxiliary diesels, saildrives and straight-shaft cruisers all serviced where they float.
Inboard and sterndrive service for the Estero River and bay-access communities, scheduled around tides for the river's skinny stretches and around gate access for the communities behind them. One visit, engine room handled.
Cruisers along the Imperial River and Bonita's gulf-access canals get the same in-slip engine service we run everywhere in Lee County, with seasonal-owner scheduling that pairs naturally with layup and watch service.
Lemon Bay's inboard boats and ICW cruisers are covered too: mobile engine room service without the trailer ride to Fort Myers or Sarasota, on real routes with parts stocked for the trip north.
In-slip inboard engine repair across Fort Myers and SWFL: diagnostics, scheduled service, and honest answers about what your engine actually needs.
